I often get the following error when trying to login after a session timeout - “Unexpected Error, pls try again”.
If I try again, I get the same error. However, if I wait long enough (1 hour?), then the problem goes away.
Can you get me screen cap of the error. Include in it the url, also.
Will do, but I don’t know how to reproduce the error at will, so it might be a while before I encounter it again.
That’s fine. I have noticed myself that Lithium has started doing session time outs. I only experience it when I’m in the Admin Console, though. So, I’ve never really been bothered by it.
It happened again. I tried to reply to this thread but was redirected to the login page:
“redirectreason=notregistered” seems a bit odd. I would think that something like “redirectreason=not_logged_in” would be more appropriate.
After completing my login details, I get “Unexpected Error, pls try again”.
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/temp/Unexpected_Error.jpg
The URL in the address bar is …
After the “Unexpected” error I tried going to the “sign out” URL:
The web page responded in a similar way to a regular sign-off. I then signed in again and all was well. I’m not sure if this was pure coincidence, but I’ll try it again the next time it happens. To me it seems as if there are two pieces of software running concurrently. One thinks I’m still logged in, while the other is unaware that I’m logged in (or maybe it thinks I’ve logged out?). It could be that going through the sign-off process makes the first piece of software happy, or maybe it resets a timer. Maybe there are two session timers which are not in sync, or not aware of each other??? Or could it be related to session cookies???
Frank,
I’m starting to get the same stuff just messing with thread. Can you do me a favor, and list all the browsers with their version numbers, that you are using? I’ll need that information for Lithium to look into this. Oh, and what OS are you running?
It appears that I spoke too soon. Going to the sign-out page doesn’t always fix things. If I sign out and then sign in again, after filling in my details it looks as if everything is proceeding OK, but then the sign-in page reappears (with a new Captcha challenge). After re-entering my details, I get the “Unexpected” error again. I’m certain that I have entered everything correctly (despite the occasionally ambiguous Captcha characters).
I have yet to try ticking the “keep me signed in” checkbox, so that will be my next approach.
In the meantime, I read the posts, formulate all my replies in a text editor, and then upload them all at once before the session has a chance to expire.
As for my OS and browser, that’s an embarrassing question. It’s Win98SE and Opera 9.64. I’ll try Firefox next time.
I would definitely check the “Keep me signed in” box. Otherwise, you will continue to have to sign back in if/when a session expires. That happens to me all the time when I’m using another browser that I don’t care to stay signed-in in (?). Also, you might want to update your browsers. I have noticed some issues with older browsers not being supported. The latest Opera version is 12.01. I may actually try it out.
[edit]
Hopefully, it will be compatible with 98se. Man, you are sure telling your age. I used to love 98se. Also, if this keeps up after clicking to stay signed in. let me know here and I’ll file it as an issue.
I expected that Win98SE would go with me to my grave. Unfortunately Lithium’s forum software will probably accelerate my demise. 
I still remember the good old days when I could exchange two paragraphs of plain text on a tech support BBS via a 2400bps dialup modem, using a 286 DOS PC running some simple terminal emulator (eg CrossTalk or Kermit). These days, in order to do exactly the same thing, I need a 200Mbps broadband connection, an octuple-core CPU, and the latest version of Internet Exploder. Is that progress?
As for my browser, I have used Opera since its very early days. I even paid for it. It is immensely customisable, and I cannot ever envisage dumping it for something else. I have added my own options to the r-click context menu, one of which (perhaps ironically) allows me to r-click a URL and launch it in a different browser. Another menu option allows me to see Google’s cached text-only version of the page (to mitigate the annoyances of those sites which are infested with Flash, ads, banners, Javascript, redirections, popups, etc).
That said, Opera’s developers have stated that they do not test Opera on the Win98SE platform. All they do is to confirm that it launches and runs. However, my understanding is that the latest version won’t install, unless I hack my OS with KernelEx extensions. KernelEx allows WinXP applications to run in a Win98SE environment. BTW, you can even get Win98SE SATA drivers for certain SATA controllers, and there are IDE drivers that will accommodate high capacity HDDs (> 137GB). So there’s some life in the old dog yet.
Anyway, assuming I can’t continue with Win98SE, my next move will be either Linux or the grave.
Until then I’ll keep myself signed in and see how it goes. Thanks for your interest.
If I keep myself logged in, everything seems to be fine, as expected.
That said, I forgot to tick the checkbox the very next time I logged in. However, this time I was able to recover from the “Unexpected” error by deleting all the Lithium cookies. I’ll try this once more to confirm that it wasn’t a coincidence. I’ll also try selectively deleting cookies until I narrow down the culprit.
Clearing the cache is Lithium’s first answer to everything, usually. By the way, I still have all my old Dos 6.0 disks. As well as all the Windows disks (except ME - that was a nightmare).
My first pc was a Packard Bell 286. I was able to upgrade it to a 486, then I went to the Pentium 1 processors. I started with Dos, but Windows 3.1 showed up really soon, and I started using it. Graphical interface saved my hide. I hated typing, perfectly. Now it’s just second nature. I do like the idea of Linux, myself.
I’ve confirmed that it’s a cookie issue.
After my session timed out, I tried to login twice in succession, but was faced with the same “Unexpected” error. I then deleted my entire cache, but the error persisted. My next step was to delete all the Lithium cookies, after which I was able to login as usual.
When it happens again, I’ll try to determine which cookie/s is/are responsible.
Does your browser have an option to refresh cookies, or maybe even pages, when you revisit a site? That might help, also.
Yes, Opera can refresh pages (F5), but I wasn’t aware that it was possible to refresh cookies. In fact I don’t see anything in any of my menus or preference settings that would allow this. Anyway, I would think that clearing the cache would ensure that any page was refreshed on the next visit.
Yeah, that’s for sure. I was just thinking if there was a way to do it automatically when you open your browser. I have mine set to clear the cache when it closes. I was thinking that it may clear the cookies as well.
I’ve just confirmed that it is the “sid” cookie from westerndigital.secure.force.com that is causing all the problems.
If I delete this cookie, then I am able to login again.
Next time it happens, I might try to edit the “Last visited” date and time field.
Franc,
I’m going to look into this our side also. This is not a lithium issue, per se, but I will check into what might be happening.
I just had the same problem. I couldn’t login, and I fixed it by clearing cookies (I’m using Chrome.) After logging in, I was forced to reset my password, which is pretty annoying.
I got this error as well. Clearing the cache did work but this forum is a real PIA in it 's own right. You have to enter a CAPTCHA to log in. Like, please. A strong password should be enough. Captcha is overkill and only frustrates people and now they have this ridiculous error.
