I'm a Windows user, and always use either Firefox (currently v133.0.3, 64 bit) or Google Chrome (currently v 131.0.6778.265 , 64 bit). (I avoid Microsoft browsers). So if I log in with Chrome, then go to the Community to interact with the forums, there is no problem. With Firefox however, after successfully logging in and going to the Community, the upper right (where my login ICON usually appears) once again says "Sign In", and I can't! Attempting to sign in there puts up a message saying my "login has either expired, or I switched browsers, Please try again". So it wants me to log in, but won't allow it. Hitting the "Back button" to back out of the "Community" area restores my ICON, and I am once again considered "logged in". But no amount of logging out and back in will clear the problem, and I have no choice but to try again with Chrome (where there are no such difficulties).
This is not a major "complaint", as I'm used to my two chose browsers performing better or worse with different sites. But I just thought I'd report it in in case the developers are interested. Perhaps the way cookies are handled needs adjusting. I had a problem with one of my own websites when I realized people visiting in with "www.mysite " had different cookies than people visiting without the "www", and I had to adjust my .htaccess file to redirect the "www" visitors to ensure consistency. Just thinking out loud. :-0
thanks and yes, it is surely is a problem involving cookies, but it is a problem best corrected by the web developer. I have no issue logging in with Chrome instead, but as a web developer myself I always appreciate hearing reports of problems like this, so I figured THEY would too. Anything I do to manipulate or remove the site cookies would just be a temporary fix, and would only work until my next login or browser change. The fact that the error message mentioned "changing browsers" as a possible reason tells me they have some awareness of the issue, so hopefully it is just that they haven't fixed it yet.
Yeah,, and now I see there is a thread about Firefox issues with the forum going back to 2020! I hadn't seen it before posting. So it seems my thoughts that the developers watch for issues like this and address them were unfounded. But hey... I did my share
I've used mozilla products for a long time. In fact they were once called "Netscape" and were the only real competition to Internet Explorer near 3 decades ago! But the browser still does have issues, as do most websites. So even with all the standards these days I don't think there will ever come a time where having at least two well known browsers is not a necessity.
Do you know, that logins to the main Arduino site and to the Forum - are two independent logins? You can have a login to the forum without be registered on the main Arduino site.
So your problem that you go to the Arduino while you need login to the forum. Bookmark the forum itself and access it directly, without login to Arduino site.
Well "https://forum.arduino.cc/" is just a subdomain of https://arduino.cc/". So they should share common code for credentials and session objects. And wat you advise would make sense, except that attempting to log in to the community forum results in the error message I described. So at least with Firefox, there is no way in. And as I said, this is a non problem with chrome. Log into one, it manages to pass your credentials to the other. Its a web site flaw. It is mishandling cookies, and for whatever reason it is more a problem with Firefox. But that said, yes... if I bookmark the community, delete all my cookies for arduino.com, I probably could log directly into the forum (I'll give it a try).
But... after posting, I realized there were other similar complaints going back to 2020, that were specific to the firefox browser. So I think the developers need to do some work here.
2020 does not count In April 2021 the forum was completely revamped and is now using Discourse instead of SMF.
I think it is "session expired ...." but not sure; I just experienced that myself. I usually don't log out from the forum but I did that now for testing your problem. And it indeed exists.
Following your steps (going back after the error message) a further observation is that the first time I tried after clearing the cookies the avatar in the right top was not the lion avatar but my initials. After logging out again, clearing the cookies and logging in it was right.
I've also seen the below which would indicate that I'm logged in (dark theme)
With persistence you can get in but that is not how it is supposed to be. I did some more fiddling today and had a very hard time to login after clearing cookies.
In my first attempt, I disabled the NoScript extension. It looked promising but failed on the 3rd repeat of the test.
In my second attempt I used Discourse's safe-mode (Arduino Forum) with the default settings. This consistently allowed me to login without problems; tested 6 times.
Once logged in, you can go to the normal page (https://forum.arduino.cc/). But every time that you need to login, you need to go through this; as said, I usually do not log out.
Thanks. Perhaps this will help the developers (someone named "Pert" did you say?) narrow down the issue. For me, in this case, I have a few too many balls in the air, so to speak, to try to coax firefox further with this problem, especially since Chrome seems to compensate for whatever is missing in the site coding. As someone already mentioned, the forum subdomain is handled differently from the usual site root page, but when someone already logged in to the root selects the community forum, the credentials should be passed seamlessly.
As annoying this is for this site, it gets worse! This problem is very common to new medical sites, where a patient logs in and then selects their "patient portal" to send messages to their doctor, and find they are no longer logged in! Because such issues related to medical services can incur significant liabilities, those situations are usually fixed VERY SOON after being reported. Our situation doesn't carry as much weight, so it will probably take longer to get attention. But that said, it is helpful that others like yourself report the problem!
Yesterday I was logged-in to FORUM on my Linux Mint LTD running Firefox (as well as my Android Chrome, for added data to the cause), saw I had an O.S. update notice for Firefox, launched the update, rebooted, and now I am locked out of the Forum using Linux/Firefox with the pink banner; "Authorization timed out..." As you can tell, I am in the Forum with Android/Chrome, writing this.
In April 2021 the forum was completely revamped and is now using Discourse instead of SMF.
