Lost Everything I Wrote!

[DownUnderNZer]

30 minutes of dedicated typing totally wasted and I will not do it again I can tell you!

Went to push PREVIEW of the write up and not too far from PUBLISHING it and it WENT OUT to the LOG IN section to ask me for MY ID and PASSWORD yet again.

Yes, yet again and it is not the first time that has happened. Maybe alter it so it does not do it to people in the middle of writing something and to those that actually do not log in so often.

Maybe that is another reason why some are not posting because they get put out to LOG IN. Who has the patience to LOG back IN to type a second or third time. I know I do not.

And the PASSWORD is not the one I wanted at all either as it kept REJECTING my CHOSEN ONE from the start, so much to my annoyance I had to go in to my EMAIL, which I did not want to do, to find the dang thing that was given in place just to get back in. And that is harder and harder to locate as well and not an easy password to remember offhand unlike my one.

I could understand it if someone had not logged in for days, but not someone in the middle of writing something and logged in for the passed few days.

Totally annoying and frustrating to say the least. Cannot believe that happened in the middle of doing something in a thread.

Seriously.


DND

[Joan Marie]

That's horrible.

I'm so sorry that happened.

One thing that very often works is to just click your browser's "back" button. But still, it shouldn't have to work that way.

You can also save drafts as you go which is advisable when you are making a longer post. But again, this still should not have happened.

We will look into why this happens. You are correct, the random logging out is not right at all.

Regarding your email password, send me the one you would like to use in a PM and I will see if I can fix it for you.

Again, I am so sorry this happened. I know it was frustrating for you and a loss for everyone that we won't see your post.
We'll do everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen again.

-Joan Marie

[Joan Marie]

I have been looking into this and learned there are basically 2 things that cause this problem.

1. A setting within the forum. I checked, and our forum already had the correct setting.

2. The user's browser cache is too full. The remedy, clear your cache.

I can say, that I have also experienced the random log-out, but I clear my cache now and then, and I now realize that since the last time I did it I have, coincidentally, not been randomly logged out. So, I'm thinking this could be the problem.

I will put this info in the Quick tips forum. I wish there were a more elegant solution, but for now, that seems to me to be the problem.

The take-away here, for everyone, is when making a lengthy or complex post, please occasionally save a draft. This will safeguard your work against these random logouts as well as other outages and ISP fails that can wreak so much havoc on our nerves and rob us all of member's thoughtful posts.

[DownUnderNZer]

I did try the back button when it happened and it still took me to LOG IN and then finally when I got back in it took me to where I was ONLY it was all clear. So, no heading or the write up.

if you to right click it or in other words use you right button to click on it. It gives a list of the pages where just on and pick the one that you where on. if you click on it with the left finger then it won't work.

[Joan Marie]

Thanks for the feedback DND. I will continue to try to find out the source of this issue.

But for now, "save drafts" is a good safety net.
Cheers,
Joan

[Barleywine]

This used to happen to me a lot on AT and I often wasn't able to recover. Grrrr! Here, fortunately, I find that the tab with the text entry screen is still open in Firefox, so as long as I don't panic and start hitting buttons, I can just close the window on the screen and re-open that one. What usually happens is I'm typing a "Z" or an "X" and hit the Windows key by mistake. I haven't been kicked out to LOGIN yet, though. If I'm typing a long post, I try to remember to copy-and-paste the work-in-progress out to Notepad, which has saved me a few times.

[Joan Marie]

so as long as I don't panic and start hitting buttons,

That is the hard part, isn't it? Controlling the panic when you think your work is about to disappear forever.

Thanks Barleywine, great advice.
Using the Notepad for safety is something I often do also.

[CharlotteK]

I found this in the generic forum FAQ (the stuff that comes as standard with the Board):

"Why do I get logged off automatically?
If you do not check the Remember me box when you login, the board will only keep you logged in for a preset time. This prevents misuse of your account by anyone else. To stay logged in, check the Remember me box during login. This is not recommended if you access the board from a shared computer, e.g. library, internet cafe, university computer lab, etc. If you do not see this checkbox, it means a board administrator has disabled this feature."

So this suggests it will automatically boot you off after a specific period of time has elapsed (not clear what this is) unless you tick this box.

There could be other reasons for getting logged out of course but it's worth eliminating this one.

[DownUnderNZer]

I tend to check/tick always and that has been a habit since AT, so I think that is not it because I did do that back in September when I could not log in and a new password was allocated by Admin.

However, it is great advice for any others that may have issues that are similar and could be because of that for sure, so it is definitely something to consider as one possibility.

I noticed two days after that, it happened to my MOBILE PHONE as well, which I had just sorted out a week or so before with the same password only it was in a cafe and scribbled down on a piece of paper. Everything checked or ticked off then as well. It SAVED to my phone, but not to MY PC which I find really strange.

But...

I did do a huge overhaul or clean up the weekend before it happened so it may have set all passwords to blank, however, I am not sure why it did what it did HALF WAY through writing in a thread.

I think I need to retrieve that password and keep it safe somewhere as it was not easy finding it this time even with doing an "Ecletic" search in EMAIL. In fact, it did not come up at all that way.

Anyways, thanks for your valid input.

DND

[DownUnderNZer]

Happened again tonight, but at least this time I was not in the middle of anything.
Now I am waiting to see what happens with my phone.

Wish it would do it once a year like a birthday rather than regularly.

I never had this issue with AT and on the other websites I am on currently - no issue either. Still signed in and since July with two of those ones.