Desktop PC, Windows 7, Chrome and Firefox
Laptop PC, Windows XP, Chrome and Firefox
Set to save history and cookies as you suggested (already set this way). Staying logged in has be sporadic lately. Sometimes it lasts a day, sometimes it does not.
It's not as bad as it was the last few months, but it's different than it was the last few years. Prior to this issue I would stay logged in for many months at a time. When this issue is present I can log in, close the window, open a new one, and I'm logged back out. Instantly and repeatably. Happens across both computers and both browsers. It does not appear to be related to what machine or browser I am using.
What percentage of SmugMug users does this affect? It appears to be a lot of them. Could it be something to do with specific accounts or website setups? It seems possible, but now that the issue is coming and going it doesn't seem like it's directly tied to an issue with how my site is set up.
My log in issues come and go. I had stayed logged in for the past 3 or 4 days, but today I had to login again.
I use Windows 7, IE 9.0. I haven't reported it because though it IS a nuisance, it doesn't 'really' bother me that much. It is annoying, but honestly I'm so used to having to login to almost every other web site I use every time I use it that I just shrug it off and keep going. If SM makes me login, I log in. If it doesn't, then I just smile go about my business.
I haven't had a problem with logging in since the last bout of this issue a few years back...and then today, I'm experiencing everything in this thread on all of my computers, OSs, and Internet connections. I basically can't upload anymore because of the constant re-login requests. I'm looking forward to the fix.
It just seems completely random now, at least there was a sort of pattern to it before and I could always anticipate whether I would be logged in or not. Now it is different every day.
I haven't had a problem with logging in since the last bout of this issue a few years back...and then today, I'm experiencing everything in this thread on all of my computers, OSs, and Internet connections. I basically can't upload anymore because of the constant re-login requests. I'm looking forward to the fix.
What browser versions are you using? Looking at some of your account details, it shows a very old Firefox 1.5 recently used to log in. That would be a way outdated browser and we don't support it. If you really still use such an old version, I strongly recommend that you update it to a recent version or to use a different (supported) browser for SmugMug.
It looks like you do use the Simple uploader as well and for that we recommend the latest java version. It might be that you're on an older java version may not be supported anymore. You can get the latest for your Windows system from www.java.com using the 'free java download' button.
I hate to say this but this issue is making SM almost unusable. Pay more. Get less.
I hate to say it to, but it honestly feels the same way to me. SmugMug's response is not helping.
Did something change within SmugMug? It appears that something must have. This issue is obviously affecting many people. It seems highly unlikely that it would coincidentally go from working to non-working over so many platforms and so many people. Constantly suggesting that it is an issue with the user's system or methods is getting very frustrating.
I haven't had a problem with logging in since the last bout of this issue a few years back...and then today, I'm experiencing everything in this thread on all of my computers, OSs, and Internet connections. I basically can't upload anymore because of the constant re-login requests. I'm looking forward to the fix.
I'm still investigating your issues, but a big part of it looks like your use of an 'Unknown Application using phpSmug/2.0.2' which uses ancient API endpoints that have been deprecated for many years. API v1.2.0 hasn't been supported in a long time. That API version is literally 6 years old and hasn't been supported for more than 4.
Since I'm seeing plenty of login failures from you using this old piece of software, certainly some our internal systems would detect the high rate of failed logins and, as a safety precaution, invalidate some of your other sessions and credentials.
There may be more issues pending as well - I'm seeing some login token failures with an old Java uploader. I'm still investigating, but is there some reason you're not using the much more performant modern uploading techniques like the HTML5 and Flash uploaders?
Desktop PC, Windows 7, Chrome and Firefox
Laptop PC, Windows XP, Chrome and Firefox
Set to save history and cookies as you suggested (already set this way). Staying logged in has be sporadic lately. Sometimes it lasts a day, sometimes it does not.
It's not as bad as it was the last few months, but it's different than it was the last few years. Prior to this issue I would stay logged in for many months at a time. When this issue is present I can log in, close the window, open a new one, and I'm logged back out. Instantly and repeatably. Happens across both computers and both browsers. It does not appear to be related to what machine or browser I am using.
What percentage of SmugMug users does this affect? It appears to be a lot of them. Could it be something to do with specific accounts or website setups? It seems possible, but now that the issue is coming and going it doesn't seem like it's directly tied to an issue with how my site is set up.
Thanks for the information. I just checked through our logs, and I do see some cases where your systems are re-using invalid login tokens. As a security measure, when an invalid token is re-used, we invalidate all of your remaining tokens that you may have on your other browsers and computers. This is fairly standard practice for modern web services, and protects our customers in the event that tokens are sniffed (over open WiFi networks, for example) so they can't be re-used.
That being said, I'm worried that there may be some interaction with your browsers and our tokens that doesn't appropriately cause them to get invalidated in your browser, despite being invalidated in our system, which might cause the types of problems you're seeing.
I just added additional logging information on your account, and accounts like it that may be experiencing this potential problem, and would appreciate an update from you as you continue to browse so I can check your results against our logs.
To be clear: I haven't "fixed" anything, yet, because I'm still trying to track down the problem. I've simply added additional information gathering so I can hopefully track it down.
Finally, the problems you're describing affect a tiny percentage of our customers (way, way under 1%) which is why it's been so difficult for us to track down. None of SmugMug's employees have been able to reproduce this, despite the whole company participating in internal testing to specifically track this down. We track login/logout stats pretty carefully, watching for changes that would indicate problems, and this certainly isn't widespread.
But we will, of course, get to the bottom of it with your help. Thanks for your patience and for working with us.
Thanks for the information. I just checked through our logs, and I do see some cases where your systems are re-using invalid login tokens. As a security measure, when an invalid token is re-used, we invalidate all of your remaining tokens that you may have on your other browsers and computers. This is fairly standard practice for modern web services, and protects our customers in the event that tokens are sniffed (over open WiFi networks, for example) so they can't be re-used.
That being said, I'm worried that there may be some interaction with your browsers and our tokens that doesn't appropriately cause them to get invalidated in your browser, despite being invalidated in our system, which might cause the types of problems you're seeing.
I just added additional logging information on your account, and accounts like it that may be experiencing this potential problem, and would appreciate an update from you as you continue to browse so I can check your results against our logs.
To be clear: I haven't "fixed" anything, yet, because I'm still trying to track down the problem. I've simply added additional information gathering so I can hopefully track it down.
Finally, the problems you're describing affect a tiny percentage of our customers (way, way under 1%) which is why it's been so difficult for us to track down. None of SmugMug's employees have been able to reproduce this, despite the whole company participating in internal testing to specifically track this down. We track login/logout stats pretty carefully, watching for changes that would indicate problems, and this certainly isn't widespread.
But we will, of course, get to the bottom of it with your help. Thanks for your patience and for working with us.
Great! Thank you. It sounds like we're actually getting somewhere now. I do not know anything about log in tokens or how one could be invalid. Is this something that is in my control? Is it related to the browser? I do not use WiFi for any of my logins.
I just logged in with my laptop and Firefox. Then I closed the window and reopened a new one and I was still logged in. That's a good sign for me. When it's having problems I am unable to do this. Let me know if there is anything else you specifically want me to try.
Also, maybe totally unrelated, but I have the SmugMug mobile app on my phone and it has never logged me out.
Still here
I have the problem of being randomly logged out of SM for some weeks now. Irritating.
In the beginning I tolerated it with the idea that it would be solved. But it keeps happening. It is not clear why and when it happens. I work with Firefox and keep it updated at the latest version.
Hoping you guys can fix this soon.
Greetings, Jan http://kooreman.smugmug.com
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After a few weeks of no log out issues, the problem has suddenly resurfaced. Not nearly
as often as before. Twice the past few days and once when I turned on the computer this morning.
I have noticed that I stay logged in now EXCEPT when I check my SM from another computer. Then, I have to log in again (on both the second computer AND the original/main computer). Once logged in, I remain logged in for the session. I was having uploading problems when all this first started but I am no longer experiencing the upload issues. I just thought it was a security issue that we could be logged on to only one computer at a time. I am using IE9 and Windows 7. At work, we have Vista and IE, but I don't know which version of IE.
I don't mind having to log in when I change computers. I didn't have to do this before, but it isn't a huge issue to me now.
More info if it helps
Not sure if you guys are making any changes as you try to resolve this issue, but here is some more info anyway.
If I keep Safari open, even if I close the Smugmug window/tab, when I go back to my page I am logged in and my owner menus are there.
If I close Safari, re-open Safari and go to my Smugmug page I am presented with the visitor screen and it looks like I am logged out. If I click on "Home" in my menu then all the owner menus appear without having to login.
Must be hard to track down as there does not seem to be any consistent behavior - although it is much better than it was a few weeks ago.
What browser versions are you using? Looking at some of your account details, it shows a very old Firefox 1.5 recently used to log in. That would be a way outdated browser and we don't support it. If you really still use such an old version, I strongly recommend that you update it to a recent version or to use a different (supported) browser for SmugMug.
It looks like you do use the Simple uploader as well and for that we recommend the latest java version. It might be that you're on an older java version may not be supported anymore. You can get the latest for your Windows system from www.java.com using the 'free java download' button.
And while this setup may be old, it's worked day-in, day-out for years now. I tried updating Java once and it rendered uploading completely useless.
I'm betting this isn't my setup, but something on SM's side. I'm just going to stop uploading until it's fixed. I'm overseas for two months so I can't upload anyways. Hopefully this will be fixed by the time I get back. I'll have a lot of media to upload then.
I'm still investigating your issues, but a big part of it looks like your use of an 'Unknown Application using phpSmug/2.0.2' which uses ancient API endpoints that have been deprecated for many years. API v1.2.0 hasn't been supported in a long time. That API version is literally 6 years old and hasn't been supported for more than 4.
Since I'm seeing plenty of login failures from you using this old piece of software, certainly some our internal systems would detect the high rate of failed logins and, as a safety precaution, invalidate some of your other sessions and credentials.
There may be more issues pending as well - I'm seeing some login token failures with an old Java uploader. I'm still investigating, but is there some reason you're not using the much more performant modern uploading techniques like the HTML5 and Flash uploaders?
I'm not worried about the API as I haven't seen much support for that in the last few years. There was an undocumented revision to LoginwithHash and I changed one of my servers' code and not the other. The other server attempts to use this invalid method every 4 hours. My primary server uses the API fine. If this is related to my upload session failures, this should have kicked in about a year ago, not just now.
The login token failures on the old java uploader sounds like what I'm seeing. In my experience the html5 and flash uploaders are more buggy, inconsistent, and unreliable. Simple has done the job for years and I plan to stick with it if possible. I've been meaning to change over to smugftp for this very reason--upload reliability. If a photo can't be uploaded, it can't be sold.
Mine is still off and on. Sometimes it will stay logged in for a few days now.
I agree that it seems like something within SmugMug changed. Mine has worked properly for years, and with no changes (that I know of) on my end, it suddenly started having issues, at the same time dozens of other people reported issus.
I'm not worried about the API as I haven't seen much support for that in the last few years. There was an undocumented revision to LoginwithHash and I changed one of my servers' code and not the other. The other server attempts to use this invalid method every 4 hours. My primary server uses the API fine. If this is related to my upload session failures, this should have kicked in about a year ago, not just now.
The login token failures on the old java uploader sounds like what I'm seeing. In my experience the html5 and flash uploaders are more buggy, inconsistent, and unreliable. Simple has done the job for years and I plan to stick with it if possible. I've been meaning to change over to smugftp for this very reason--upload reliability. If a photo can't be uploaded, it can't be sold.
I want to quickly address a few points brought up here and your post above it. First off, we recommend using modern browsers because we don't support browsers that old and outdated. While it may have worked for years, there is no reason to assume it will continue to work. In fact, it is quite the opposite. I would assume they will not continue to work. We are constantly updating features in big and little releases, and we do not test against ancient browsers. Anything is liable to break at any time when you get too far behind the curve. The most recent stable build of 1.5.x from Firefox is 5.5 years old. We really can't do much with that. We would love for it to just work, but we honestly have no idea what does or doesn't work on it.
Out of personal and technological curiosity, is there a reason you are still sticking with FF 1.5.x?
As for your assertion that the Flash and HTML5 uploaders are less reliable and more buggy than other methods, that simply isn't accurate. We track millions of uploads every day, and monitor error rates very closely (it can be a good indicator of an OPS problem, so it is a metric that is constantly monitored). We also answer customer issues all day long of course. We push people towards the Flash and HTML5 uploaders on our uploading page and through responses for one very simple reason: they work better. They are more reliable, and have fewer issues.
We will continue to do our best to help you out, but if you refuse to use the newest and most reliable versions of our software and 3rd party software, there is a limit to what we can do. There is a reason such old stuff is labeled "unsupported".
I want to quickly address a few points brought up here and your post above it. First off, we recommend using modern browsers because we don't support browsers that old and outdated. While it may have worked for years, there is no reason to assume it will continue to work. In fact, it is quite the opposite. I would assume they will not continue to work. We are constantly updating features in big and little releases, and we do not test against ancient browsers. Anything is liable to break at any time when you get too far behind the curve. The most recent stable build of 1.5.x from Firefox is 5.5 years old. We really can't do much with that. We would love for it to just work, but we honestly have no idea what does or doesn't work on it.
Out of personal and technological curiosity, is there a reason you are still sticking with FF 1.5.x?
As for your assertion that the Flash and HTML5 uploaders are less reliable and more buggy than other methods, that simply isn't accurate. We track millions of uploads every day, and monitor error rates very closely (it can be a good indicator of an OPS problem, so it is a metric that is constantly monitored). We also answer customer issues all day long of course. We push people towards the Flash and HTML5 uploaders on our uploading page and through responses for one very simple reason: they work better. They are more reliable, and have fewer issues.
We will continue to do our best to help you out, but if you refuse to use the newest and most reliable versions of our software and 3rd party software, there is a limit to what we can do. There is a reason such old stuff is labeled "unsupported".
I would accept your rant about modern software and keeping up with the jones's if other users were not having issues. If my problems were unique or different in nature than those in this thread, I could see where versions would be the culprit.
Upgrading everything every three years costs a lot of money. Money I don't have. Its amazing how much usability you get out of things when you can't afford something new. I know this flies in the face of smugmugs sometimes very snobby attitude towards those less fortunate, so I understand why I'm one of just a few if any that still use your service this way. I also accept the consequences of such configurations and handle all my own support--you don't hear from me unless something is broken on your end. And judging by this thread, something is definitely broken on your end.
Let me correct my statement on flash and html5 uploaders--they are more buggy and unreliable for me. I've been with sm over half a decade now, and have found nothing to be as reliable as simple.
I agree that it seems like something within SmugMug changed. Mine has worked properly for years, and with no changes (that I know of) on my end, it suddenly started having issues, at the same time dozens of other people reported issus.
Exactly. I've never understood how sm has the data accquision know-how to rattle off how things are working great for millions of users, and yet completely miss a problem like this that affects a significant number of users.
Upgrading everything every three years costs a lot of money. Money I don't have.
I totally get that upgrading every few years is a ridiculous chase that costs a lot of money. That isn't what I am talking about. I am talking about updating FREE software more frequently than every 6 years. With rare exceptions, we don't target hardware so we don't make your computer hardware obsolete any faster than other online companies. In fact, we use YUI extensively so we have very similar technology targets to Yahoo (which in turn are very similar to Google, Facebook, etc).
Windows XP SP2 came out 8.5 years ago. SP2 was also free, so that last paid version of software you would require came out 11.5 years ago. The Pentium 4 came out 12 years ago. So you could basically have an 11 or 12 year old computer that would work fine with SmugMug as long as you applied free software updates semi-regularly. I don't think that is unreasonable.
As to whether this is widespread, I disagree there as well. it definitely WAS widespread. We have applied several fixes that seem to have solved most cases. We still take the issues very seriously, and have added extra logging to try and track them down. We are watching this thread closely as well in hopes of getting more information to track down any possible remaining problems. Logging in and staying logged in is a tough target to nail down, as there are a lot of factors involved including local software and settings.
Since our fixes were rolled out, there hasn't been a lot of activity in this thread. People are still having problems, so we are still concerned. But this doesn't seem to be a huge widespread problem any more.
If there are other people lurking who are still having the problem, please pipe up and give us more details so we can help out! We would love to hear from more customers if people are still having this problem. Without information, we can't solve any potential problems.
I totally get that upgrading every few years is a ridiculous chase that costs a lot of money. That isn't what I am talking about. I am talking about updating FREE software more frequently than every 6 years. With rare exceptions, we don't target hardware so we don't make your computer hardware obsolete any faster than other online companies. In fact, we use YUI extensively som we have very similar technology targets to Yahoo (which in turn are very similar to Google, Facebook, etc).
Windows XP SP2 came out 8.5 years ago. SP2 was also free, so that last paid version of software you would require came out 11.5 years ago. The Pentium 4 came out 12 years ago. So you could basically have an 11 or 12 year old computer that would work fine with SmugMug as long as you applied free software updates semi-regularly. I don't think that is unreasonable.
Have you ever tried putting new software on older hardware? It may work, but it works too slow to actually use. That's why you have to upgrade the hardware--because of the software.
I have several xp sp2 systems. None of them work decently on modern browsers. Opera 11 is one of the only browsers that actually runs at todays speeds on older hardware. Chrome is real hog and will crash. Newer FFs html5 implementation uses up so much memory that the uploader crashes, especially on video uploads. I could go on and on, but there's no need to since no one care to do r&d on all this. I sure don't want to, so I stick to what works unless I have to change.
you've right that this thread has quieted down, and I'm hoping that when I next attempt to upload in feb 2013, everything will work just like it used to.
Comments
Just for the record, I have not had any Login issues now for maybe a week.
Thanks for the fix, much appreciated
Regards, Harald
My focus is on digitizing memories
Desktop PC, Windows 7, Chrome and Firefox
Laptop PC, Windows XP, Chrome and Firefox
Set to save history and cookies as you suggested (already set this way). Staying logged in has be sporadic lately. Sometimes it lasts a day, sometimes it does not.
It's not as bad as it was the last few months, but it's different than it was the last few years. Prior to this issue I would stay logged in for many months at a time. When this issue is present I can log in, close the window, open a new one, and I'm logged back out. Instantly and repeatably. Happens across both computers and both browsers. It does not appear to be related to what machine or browser I am using.
What percentage of SmugMug users does this affect? It appears to be a lot of them. Could it be something to do with specific accounts or website setups? It seems possible, but now that the issue is coming and going it doesn't seem like it's directly tied to an issue with how my site is set up.
I use Windows 7, IE 9.0. I haven't reported it because though it IS a nuisance, it doesn't 'really' bother me that much. It is annoying, but honestly I'm so used to having to login to almost every other web site I use every time I use it that I just shrug it off and keep going. If SM makes me login, I log in. If it doesn't, then I just smile go about my business.
Sherry
http://danielplumer.com/
Facebook Fan Page
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I Reject Your Reality And Substitute My Own - Adam Savage
It looks like you do use the Simple uploader as well and for that we recommend the latest java version. It might be that you're on an older java version may not be supported anymore. You can get the latest for your Windows system from www.java.com using the 'free java download' button.
SmugMug Support Hero
Did something change within SmugMug? It appears that something must have. This issue is obviously affecting many people. It seems highly unlikely that it would coincidentally go from working to non-working over so many platforms and so many people. Constantly suggesting that it is an issue with the user's system or methods is getting very frustrating.
I'm still investigating your issues, but a big part of it looks like your use of an 'Unknown Application using phpSmug/2.0.2' which uses ancient API endpoints that have been deprecated for many years. API v1.2.0 hasn't been supported in a long time. That API version is literally 6 years old and hasn't been supported for more than 4.
Since I'm seeing plenty of login failures from you using this old piece of software, certainly some our internal systems would detect the high rate of failed logins and, as a safety precaution, invalidate some of your other sessions and credentials.
There may be more issues pending as well - I'm seeing some login token failures with an old Java uploader. I'm still investigating, but is there some reason you're not using the much more performant modern uploading techniques like the HTML5 and Flash uploaders?
Thanks for the information. I just checked through our logs, and I do see some cases where your systems are re-using invalid login tokens. As a security measure, when an invalid token is re-used, we invalidate all of your remaining tokens that you may have on your other browsers and computers. This is fairly standard practice for modern web services, and protects our customers in the event that tokens are sniffed (over open WiFi networks, for example) so they can't be re-used.
That being said, I'm worried that there may be some interaction with your browsers and our tokens that doesn't appropriately cause them to get invalidated in your browser, despite being invalidated in our system, which might cause the types of problems you're seeing.
I just added additional logging information on your account, and accounts like it that may be experiencing this potential problem, and would appreciate an update from you as you continue to browse so I can check your results against our logs.
To be clear: I haven't "fixed" anything, yet, because I'm still trying to track down the problem. I've simply added additional information gathering so I can hopefully track it down.
Finally, the problems you're describing affect a tiny percentage of our customers (way, way under 1%) which is why it's been so difficult for us to track down. None of SmugMug's employees have been able to reproduce this, despite the whole company participating in internal testing to specifically track this down. We track login/logout stats pretty carefully, watching for changes that would indicate problems, and this certainly isn't widespread.
But we will, of course, get to the bottom of it with your help. Thanks for your patience and for working with us.
I just logged in with my laptop and Firefox. Then I closed the window and reopened a new one and I was still logged in. That's a good sign for me. When it's having problems I am unable to do this. Let me know if there is anything else you specifically want me to try.
Also, maybe totally unrelated, but I have the SmugMug mobile app on my phone and it has never logged me out.
I have the problem of being randomly logged out of SM for some weeks now. Irritating.
In the beginning I tolerated it with the idea that it would be solved. But it keeps happening. It is not clear why and when it happens. I work with Firefox and keep it updated at the latest version.
Hoping you guys can fix this soon.
http://kooreman.smugmug.com
Save 5$ on your subscription fee when you subscribe to Smugmug;
Use this referral code ( n6vdfbmkCEeXU ) in the 'Referred by' field on the signup form.
as often as before. Twice the past few days and once when I turned on the computer this morning.
MAC OS X 10.7.5
Safari Version 6.0.2 (7536.26.17)
I have not noticed any pattern to it.
Thanks for trying to resolve this issue.
--Dave
I don't mind having to log in when I change computers. I didn't have to do this before, but it isn't a huge issue to me now.
Sherry
Not sure if you guys are making any changes as you try to resolve this issue, but here is some more info anyway.
If I keep Safari open, even if I close the Smugmug window/tab, when I go back to my page I am logged in and my owner menus are there.
If I close Safari, re-open Safari and go to my Smugmug page I am presented with the visitor screen and it looks like I am logged out. If I click on "Home" in my menu then all the owner menus appear without having to login.
Must be hard to track down as there does not seem to be any consistent behavior - although it is much better than it was a few weeks ago.
Thanks,
--Dave
After just posting my previous message, I closed Safrai, reopened, went to my page and was forced to login.
Talk about a moving target.
I'm betting this isn't my setup, but something on SM's side. I'm just going to stop uploading until it's fixed. I'm overseas for two months so I can't upload anyways. Hopefully this will be fixed by the time I get back. I'll have a lot of media to upload then.
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The login token failures on the old java uploader sounds like what I'm seeing. In my experience the html5 and flash uploaders are more buggy, inconsistent, and unreliable. Simple has done the job for years and I plan to stick with it if possible. I've been meaning to change over to smugftp for this very reason--upload reliability. If a photo can't be uploaded, it can't be sold.
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
I agree that it seems like something within SmugMug changed. Mine has worked properly for years, and with no changes (that I know of) on my end, it suddenly started having issues, at the same time dozens of other people reported issus.
I want to quickly address a few points brought up here and your post above it. First off, we recommend using modern browsers because we don't support browsers that old and outdated. While it may have worked for years, there is no reason to assume it will continue to work. In fact, it is quite the opposite. I would assume they will not continue to work. We are constantly updating features in big and little releases, and we do not test against ancient browsers. Anything is liable to break at any time when you get too far behind the curve. The most recent stable build of 1.5.x from Firefox is 5.5 years old. We really can't do much with that. We would love for it to just work, but we honestly have no idea what does or doesn't work on it.
Out of personal and technological curiosity, is there a reason you are still sticking with FF 1.5.x?
As for your assertion that the Flash and HTML5 uploaders are less reliable and more buggy than other methods, that simply isn't accurate. We track millions of uploads every day, and monitor error rates very closely (it can be a good indicator of an OPS problem, so it is a metric that is constantly monitored). We also answer customer issues all day long of course. We push people towards the Flash and HTML5 uploaders on our uploading page and through responses for one very simple reason: they work better. They are more reliable, and have fewer issues.
We will continue to do our best to help you out, but if you refuse to use the newest and most reliable versions of our software and 3rd party software, there is a limit to what we can do. There is a reason such old stuff is labeled "unsupported".
Upgrading everything every three years costs a lot of money. Money I don't have. Its amazing how much usability you get out of things when you can't afford something new. I know this flies in the face of smugmugs sometimes very snobby attitude towards those less fortunate, so I understand why I'm one of just a few if any that still use your service this way. I also accept the consequences of such configurations and handle all my own support--you don't hear from me unless something is broken on your end. And judging by this thread, something is definitely broken on your end.
Let me correct my statement on flash and html5 uploaders--they are more buggy and unreliable for me. I've been with sm over half a decade now, and have found nothing to be as reliable as simple.
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
I totally get that upgrading every few years is a ridiculous chase that costs a lot of money. That isn't what I am talking about. I am talking about updating FREE software more frequently than every 6 years. With rare exceptions, we don't target hardware so we don't make your computer hardware obsolete any faster than other online companies. In fact, we use YUI extensively so we have very similar technology targets to Yahoo (which in turn are very similar to Google, Facebook, etc).
As mentioned, Firefox is free to update. It also has very very generous support for older machines and software.
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/system-requirements.html
Windows XP SP2 came out 8.5 years ago. SP2 was also free, so that last paid version of software you would require came out 11.5 years ago. The Pentium 4 came out 12 years ago. So you could basically have an 11 or 12 year old computer that would work fine with SmugMug as long as you applied free software updates semi-regularly. I don't think that is unreasonable.
As to whether this is widespread, I disagree there as well. it definitely WAS widespread. We have applied several fixes that seem to have solved most cases. We still take the issues very seriously, and have added extra logging to try and track them down. We are watching this thread closely as well in hopes of getting more information to track down any possible remaining problems. Logging in and staying logged in is a tough target to nail down, as there are a lot of factors involved including local software and settings.
Since our fixes were rolled out, there hasn't been a lot of activity in this thread. People are still having problems, so we are still concerned. But this doesn't seem to be a huge widespread problem any more.
If there are other people lurking who are still having the problem, please pipe up and give us more details so we can help out! We would love to hear from more customers if people are still having this problem. Without information, we can't solve any potential problems.
I have several xp sp2 systems. None of them work decently on modern browsers. Opera 11 is one of the only browsers that actually runs at todays speeds on older hardware. Chrome is real hog and will crash. Newer FFs html5 implementation uses up so much memory that the uploader crashes, especially on video uploads. I could go on and on, but there's no need to since no one care to do r&d on all this. I sure don't want to, so I stick to what works unless I have to change.
you've right that this thread has quieted down, and I'm hoping that when I next attempt to upload in feb 2013, everything will work just like it used to.
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!