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"Cookies disabled" error on login page when cookies are enabled
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Description

Author: manishsmail

Description:
When logging in, multiple times, I (and others) get shown the "You have cookies disabled, please enable to login" while logging in, even when we have them enabled. I only manage to login after trying a few times. This has started happening after 1.17 was deployed.

(discussion here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)#Stop_using_cookies_to_log_in_to_Wikipedia)

Thanks,
ManishEarth


URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)#Stop_using_cookies_to_log_in_to_Wikipedia

See also:

Details

Reference
bz28201

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Low.Nov 21 2014, 11:30 PM
bzimport set Reference to bz28201.
bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

manishsmail wrote:

Google Chrome, it seemingly works fine with Safari (not sure).

Brion reported this while we were testing, but there was trouble reproducing the situation. I'll ask him to chime in.

All I know is that I confirmed a report that some of the prototype wikis couldn't be logged into several weeks ago, at a time when they were in some borked state. Not sure that helps.

A few offhand notes for diagnosis:

  • if it could be particular to how the browser is dealing with cookies, it will help to know what the browser is
    • and does it happen in other browsers too?
    • are there any browser add-ons or plugins that could affect behavior?
  • does clearing cookies on the browser first help?
  • if it could be session related, it may be that some memcached servers are on the fritz and only particular peoples' sessions are getting eaten
  • take a quick look over the code of the cookie check to confirm how that's done for add'l sneaky stuff

manishsmail wrote:

For me, it still happens after clearing the cookies. I don't gave any cookie hungry extensions on chrome, and I haven't encountered the problem on iPad safari.

Hope that helps.

After writing the bit below I was able to reproduce the problem if I navigated to the login page and cleared my cookies before clicking "Log in". This is the only way I could reproduce it. Of course, clicking "Log in" again got me logged in.

Just in case that is not what is happening, here are many more details of how this works for me:

This is bugging me. I haven't (yet) been able to reproduce this on Chrome running on Windows 7 (10.0.648.151 (Official Build 78498)). The plugins I have installed are (from About:plugins):

Shockwave Flash 10.2 r154
Java 6 (2 files) - Version: 6.0.240.7
Adobe Acrobat - Version: 9.4.3.231 (Disabled)
Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape "9.4.3"
Silverlight - Version: 4.0.60129.0
Chrome PDF Viewer
Google Gears 0.5.33.0 - Version: 0.5.33.0
Skype Toolbars - Version: 5.0.0.6906
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Google Update - Version: 1.2.183.39
Default Plug-in - Version: 1

Extensions, from chrome://extensions:

Skype Extension - Version: 5.0.0.6907

Cleared the cookies by going to chrome://settings/advanced, clicking "Clear browsing data..." and making sure that "Delete cookies and other site data" and "the beginning of time" are selected before clicking the "Clear browsing data" button on the popup,

Navigated to [[Main Page]], Entered information, and clicked "Log in" with "Log me in globally" checked and "Remember me" not checked.

Verified that the top showed I was logged in (username, "My talk", etc displayed).

Went back to [[Main Page]], verified enwiki showed I was still logged in.

Went to [[Wikipedia:Sandbox]], still logged in.

Clicked the "Edit" tab. Still logged in.

Editted page, hit "Save page". Still logged in.

Check page history, showed my user as having recently edited the sandbox.

Just had the same issue in a Firefox Aurora build, 6.a2, but can't reproduce it myself, even. I just wonder if the error message should be changed to incorporate a level of doubt as an interim measure.

(In reply to comment #8)

I just wonder if the error message should be changed to
incorporate a level of doubt as an interim measure.

That is something that wiki admins could do, even without shell access. If you want the message changed, it is probably better to ask on-wiki.

manishsmail wrote:

I just had the problem again while using Chrome beta (12), on incognito mode. A second try got me in. The thing is, incognito mode handles cookies the exact same way that normal mode does, except that they are separate and inaccessible from the normal mode (basically it's like using a different browser), and they get deleted when the window is closed.

Maybe the message can be changed to: An error occurred while logging in. Please try again. If the error persists, please check that you have cookies enabled etc etc.

I have edited the en.wp message to be a little more vague.

Nonetheless, the bug remains open even for en.wp, I guess.

I've seen the error appear when you are already logged in and you attempt to log in again. Bug 30167

Krinkle renamed this task from Wiki saying "You have cookies disabled, please enable" during login when cookies are enabled to "Cookies disabled" error on login page when cookies are enabled.May 31 2015, 3:37 PM
Krinkle updated the task description. (Show Details)
Krinkle set Security to None.
Krinkle removed a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

I'm seeing this problem again today: "Login error Wikidata uses cookies to log in users. You have cookies disabled. Please enable them and try again". It usually works when I try again. Perhaps the session is expired? I mostly notice this in Firefox.

Typically, I'm logged in to Wikipedia but trying to get logged into everything else again. (I had once hoped that SUL meant that logging into Wikipedia would also log me into mediawiki.org and Wikivoyage, but this does not appear to be the case in practice.)

My wild guess is that one of the servers is having problems storing session information, so you get the error until you hit another server that doesn't have the problem

I can't reproduce this, so maybe this issue no longer exists?

I can't reproduce this

That's likely with bugs. If everyone could reproduce on every browser (not mentioned here) on every website (not mentioned here), this might have gotten fixed already.

This issue was nine / five years ago, and given the changes in MediaWiki's authentication stack plus in web browsers I'm going to boldly decline this task.

If there is an issue nowadays, then please file a new task and follow https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:How_to_debug/Login_problems - thanks!

That's likely with bugs.

My repro, or the original report?