Certain users can't log in on iPad

MichaelTyson

Hello,

We're seeing the weirdest thing on our 2.1.11-powered forum, forum.audiob.us: two users have reported that they're unable to sign in on their iPads, but can sign in just fine on their desktop machines. They tell us that after they've put in their login details, they are redirected to the front page of the forum again, but are still not logged in (they just see the "Welcome, Stranger" message again).

We can't reproduce the issue at all, and no one else has reported problems.

Getting the users to clear their cache seems to have no effect.

I've taken a look at the server logs during one users' login transaction, and it just looks normal: a GET to /entry/signin, a POST to /entry/signin (200 response), a GET to /discussions (200 response). But then, I'm seeing him going back to the signin screen.

We're using BotStop, Akismet, Tapatalk, Stop Forum Spam...nothing else of particular relevance, as far as I know.

Any ideas about where I can start looking for a solution?

Many thanks,
Michael

whu606

@MichaelTyson

I get this occasionally with some users on our forum. It isn't device specific for us, but seems to be an issue with the users' settings on their devices.

Couple of things:

• Get them to try simply refreshing the page when they get redirected to the 'guest' home page

• Make sure they have deleted cookies as well as cache.

I've had users report that clearing cookies did no good, but then it turned out they didn't actually clear the cookies.

MichaelTyson

Thanks @whu606! Interesting to hear that you've seen this a bit too.

I got him to try refreshing the page - he says no joy, it's just the same (still passively-aggressively welcoming him, stranger ;-)). I made sure he definitely reset all content, showed him Apple's KB instructions.

Any other possibilities?

whu606

@MichaelTyson

I get my users to try to log on with a different browser if possible. Also, I've reset the user's password and got them to log in with that.

If either of those work, then you can be pretty sure it is an issue their end.

peregrine

As an aside, I wouldn't use botstop in 2.1.11 I would use addregistration question. botstop has old views.

MichaelTyson

Thanks @whu606,

Well, he said he tried Chrome, and got the same thing. All I can think of now is a total iOS restore!

Cheers for the heads-up, @peregrine - I'll swap it out.

Bleistivt

If switching browsers has no effect, it is likely a network issue.

MichaelTyson

That's what I thought too, although it works on his desktop machine, on the same local network. So, demons, methinks.

MichaelTyson

Ah: He didn't, in fact, try Chrome. He just did, and it works fine

MichaelTyson

We've just had another user (the third that's contacted us, now) with the same problem - works in Chrome, not in Safari.

Is this something that can be addressed on the Vanilla side? I don't really know how to begin debugging without the device in front of me but is there something being done about it otherwise?

Cheers!
Michael

peregrine

you might want to check if the users are allowing cookies in safari.

you might also want to google safari and cookie problems maybe something will pop up.

are you doing any 302 redirects or oauth

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=139683

you might have them tell you what their cookie settings are as well.

as an aside you say you are using tapatalk plugin, I believe. I thought this add-on was removed because of security issues or something like that.

MichaelTyson

Oh lovely, thanks for the info! Will look into that. I am indeed doing http to https redirects (using CloudFlare CDN), but I turned them all off as the first thing I tried, so I assume it's at least not only that.

I wasn't aware of Tapatalk security problems! I admit it was a bit set-and-forget. A bit of googling does show some talk about it; I'll look into it further. Cheers for the heads-up.