# ThePhotoForum.com Outage and Update/Lost Data



## ekool (May 15, 2021)

As some of you may have noticed the site has been upgraded to the latest software and we are also running on newer (faster) hardware. The biggest thing you may have noticed is that the past couple weeks of forum posts/threads/media has disappeared. 

An old administrator account that was no longer active was used to deface the site and to delete content. We do daily backups but unfortunately a silent error was preventing the backups from being run over the last couple of weeks. This cascade of failures unfortunately left us only with an older copy of the database than we would prefer. We are very sorry for this loss of data and do apologize to our community.

We are still ironing out some of the wrinkles of the newer software so if you see anything else broken please let us know and post in here. Thank you for your support and your patience.


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## ntz (May 15, 2021)

hmm, this is bad dream ... also photos from albums are lost .. I think that this is end for a lot of users here ..


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## Space Face (May 15, 2021)

What a mess.


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## dascrow (May 15, 2021)

ntz said:


> hmm, this is bad dream ... also photos from albums are lost .. I think that this is end for a lot of users here ..


We are working on restoring the photo albums.


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## ekool (May 15, 2021)

ntz said:


> hmm, this is bad dream ... also photos from albums are lost .. I think that this is end for a lot of users here ..


Your album is there. Is something missing?


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## ntz (May 15, 2021)

Hello


ekool said:


> Your album is there. Is something missing?


Hello,

yes, all photos from last weeks ... probably same period within other content is missing ...

regards, ~d


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## Photo Lady (May 15, 2021)

ntz said:


> Hello
> 
> Hello,
> 
> ...


i agree ...seems all the past few weeks are missing


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## 480sparky (May 15, 2021)

ekool said:


> An old administrator account that was no longer active was used to deface the site and to delete content.



I will never, as long as I draw breath on this plane of existence, understand why there are those who not only think it's their *right* to do *@&# like that, but their _*duty*_ to.


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## Peeb (May 15, 2021)

ntz said:


> hmm, this is bad dream ... also photos from albums are lost .. I think that this is end for a lot of users here ..


Sorry, but I'm not going anywhere!  Love this community, and this momentary glitch will pass soon enough.


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## ekool (May 15, 2021)

ntz said:


> Hello
> 
> Hello,
> 
> ...





Photo Lady said:


> i agree ...seems all the past few weeks are missing



Unfortunately the missing content from the past couple of weeks is the thing we cannot restore as we had to use an older backup. We are really upset about this as I'm sure you are as well.


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## dascrow (May 15, 2021)

One of the benefits from the new software is a complete new message editor.  It's much more mobile friendly (tablets/phones) and supports Emojis. 🍻


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## nokk (May 15, 2021)

i'm sure this is not how the forum staff wanted to spend their weekend.  thanks for all of the hard work.  losing a few weeks of data sucks, but it's not the end of the world.


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## Space Face (May 15, 2021)

nokk said:


> ....................................... but it's not the end of the world.


 No, but that is coming🤣🤣😎


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## terri (May 15, 2021)

dascrow said:


> One of the benefits from the new software is a complete new message editor.  It's much more mobile friendly (tablets/phones) and supports Emojis. 🍻


Heck, we've been playing with uploading photos over in the Off Topic forum, and I'm here to tell you - it's a BREEZE!    Faster than the old version, and @limr said it even let her re-size one before she posted it.   Great feature!

Of course, no one likes a hack or a hacker, but the outcome is a faster, upgraded version of the site we all love - so let's just play with the new features and have fun with it.    

Poor Charlie - he has to re-do the Photo of the Month winner, and all the images for May's contest, too.    *sniffle*     Let's be patient with each other for a few days.


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## nokk (May 15, 2021)

Space Face said:


> No, but that is coming🤣🤣😎


i know, but i always sorta imagined i'd be involved with the end of the world rather than just laughing at being redirected to pornhub.  😈


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## Space Face (May 15, 2021)

nokk said:


> i know, but i always sorta imagined i'd be involved with the end of the world rather than just laughing at being redirected to pornhub.  😈


What's a Pornhub?🤔


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## Jeff15 (May 15, 2021)

I have been trying to log on all day and I have noticed that I have about 24 million posts to my name


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## nokk (May 15, 2021)

Space Face said:


> What's a Pornhub?🤔


google it!  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣


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## Space Face (May 15, 2021)

nokk said:


> google it!  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣


No thanks.  I have a heart condition.😎


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## otherprof (May 15, 2021)

ekool said:


> As some of you may have noticed the site has been upgraded to the latest software and we are also running on newer (faster) hardware. The biggest thing you may have noticed is that the past couple weeks of forum posts/threads/media has disappeared.
> 
> An old administrator account that was no longer active was used to deface the site and to delete content. We do daily backups but unfortunately a silent error was preventing the backups from being run over the last couple of weeks. This cascade of failures unfortunately left us only with an older copy of the database than we would prefer. We are very sorry for this loss of data and do apologize to our community.
> 
> We are still ironing out some of the wrinkles of the newer software so if you see anything else broken please let us know and post in here. Thank you for your support and your patience.


To quote Odysseus, " Be brave, my heart. We have seen worse than this."  Thanks to the staff for all the great work they do.  A glitch during a major software upgrade - who would have thought that could happen?


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## cgw (May 15, 2021)

No spike in positivity, no hospitalizations/ICU admissions as a result. Annoying but we're all good. Still my favorite community.


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## ekool (May 15, 2021)

terri said:


> Heck, we've been playing with uploading photos over in the Off Topic forum, and I'm here to tell you - it's a BREEZE!    Faster than the old version, and @limr said it even let her re-size one before she posted it.   Great feature!
> 
> Of course, no one likes a hack or a hacker, but the outcome is a faster, upgraded version of the site we all love - so let's just play with the new features and have fun with it.
> 
> Poor Charlie - he has to re-do the Photo of the Month winner, and all the images for May's contest, too.    *sniffle*     Let's be patient with each other for a few days.


Yes the new software has some pretty slick features, and we can add some more stuff to it. We also just enabled emoji support, so give that a try!


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## snowbear (May 15, 2021)

Nowhere near any kind of priority, but I hope you can reinstall the Red skin.

The April winner announcement page has been rebuilt; luckily I was able to find the original post.  As far as the May nominations - I don't know what photos were nominated.

*Anyone having nominated a photo for May 2021 POTM, please try to re-nominate the photo.*


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## ntz (May 15, 2021)

otherprof said:


> To quote Odysseus, " Be brave, my heart. We have seen worse than this."  Thanks to the staff for all the great work they do.  A glitch during a major software upgrade - who would have thought that could happen?


this is not just a "glitch" .. this is bummer and utter failure .. I am IT guy and I am and I was involved in several forums as an administrator so I am just now speaking of my experience in the real world. It has nothing to do with fact, that I love this forum and community. Truth is, that this is not a minor fault but dealbreaking bummer caused by probably lack of competence and it's damaging the confidence and raises more questions. Let's move on .. what else can we do ? the bitter taste will remain and hopefully fade away over the time ..


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## Space Face (May 15, 2021)




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## Rickbb (May 15, 2021)

Welcome to the new world order where hacking and counter hacking of everything will be the new normal.


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## otherprof (May 15, 2021)

Jeff15 said:


> I have been trying to log on all day and I have noticed that I have about 24 million posts to my name


I think I read them 🤣


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## jeffashman (May 15, 2021)

Here to stay. I work with databases on a daily basis, and perfectly understand how things can go sideways. I've recovered from the shock of being redirected to PH; those are not the photos I want to see. The update looks great! Now to try out the new software.


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## jeffashman (May 15, 2021)

ntz said:


> this is not just a "glitch" .. this is bummer and utter failure .. I am IT guy and I am and I was involved in several forums as an administrator so I am just now speaking of my experience in the real world. It has nothing to do with fact, that I love this forum and community. Truth is, that this is not a minor fault but dealbreaking bummer caused by probably lack of competence and it's damaging the confidence and raises more questions. Let's move on .. what else can we do ? the bitter taste will remain and hopefully fade away over the time ..


If this were business critical, I would agree, however, this is a site being run by volunteers, and very few people outside of business have things like DR in the forefront of their mind. This isn't Colonial, which really did have an impact on people's lives, and none of us, as far as I know, lost any of our pics, because we have them on our computers, and probably online at one of the photo sites. Some grace needs to be extended.


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## VidThreeNorth (May 15, 2021)

You completely lost a "topic" that I posted to the "DSLR Video" zone.  I think it was called "State of Cropped Sensor Mirror-less Camera Video, May 2021".  I might have notes enough to rebuild parts of it.


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## dascrow (May 15, 2021)

VidThreeNorth said:


> You completely lost a "topic" that I posted to the "DSLR Video" zone.  I think it was called "State of Cropped Sensor Mirror-less Camera Video, May 2021".  I might have notes enough to rebuild parts of it.



We might be able to recover some of that thread.  Let me check!


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## Dean_Gretsch (May 16, 2021)

I just wanted to thank all the staff for their work. I didn’t know there was a hack until I discovered a thread was missing and pm’ed @terri. I now know she must have been swamped, but she took the time to give me a lengthy and detailed explanation even though she was extremely busy I am sure now. Thanks! The site looks good!


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## acparsons (May 16, 2021)

Thank you admin for all of you hard-work. We truly appreciate it!


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## Overread (May 16, 2021)

Many thanks to the admin for swift sorting of this!


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## Fujidave (May 16, 2021)

Sadly in life we do get the odd little Blip, that is what seems to have gone one here.  I do like how it is now though


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## PJM (May 16, 2021)

Add my thanks and appreciation to all those who work behind the scenes to keep this forum going.  I enjoy it and will continue to participate.


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## Original katomi (May 16, 2021)

Thanks for all the hard work


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## jcdeboever (May 17, 2021)

Thanks TPF for all that you do. I don't care about any of my crap being deleted, it is marginal at best. Besides I have all the negatives or files to remind me of how much I need to grow. I don't take this glitch or any others in my life to seriously. I am breathing another day, have food in the pantry, and can send out my rolls to be developed if I don't feel like doing them myself. Keep up the great work.


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## ntz (May 17, 2021)

jeffashman said:


> Here to stay. I work with databases on a daily basis, and perfectly understand how things can go sideways. I've recovered from the shock of being redirected to PH; those are not the photos I want to see. The update looks great! Now to try out the new software.


I agree that guys could deserve a mercy  ... on the other hand, as an IT guy, well ... I'd just better stick with that I love this community and let's move on ... for myself ofc


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## ekool (May 17, 2021)

VidThreeNorth said:


> You completely lost a "topic" that I posted to the "DSLR Video" zone.  I think it was called "State of Cropped Sensor Mirror-less Camera Video, May 2021".  I might have notes enough to rebuild parts of it.


Yes, I sent you a PM. I am able to access that post. Please PM me your email and I'll send you the threads post/code.


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## 407370 (May 18, 2021)

just to say that stuff happens.

I will not be changing forums.


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## davholla (May 18, 2021)

ekool said:


> As some of you may have noticed the site has been upgraded to the latest software and we are also running on newer (faster) hardware. The biggest thing you may have noticed is that the past couple weeks of forum posts/threads/media has disappeared.
> 
> An old administrator account that was no longer active was used to deface the site and to delete content. We do daily backups but unfortunately a silent error was preventing the backups from being run over the last couple of weeks. This cascade of failures unfortunately left us only with an older copy of the database than we would prefer. We are very sorry for this loss of data and do apologize to our community.
> 
> We are still ironing out some of the wrinkles of the newer software so if you see anything else broken please let us know and post in here. Thank you for your support and your patience.


Thank  you very much and sorry that some idiot did this to you.


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## vintagesnaps (May 18, 2021)

As long as I can still find the Coffee House I'm good. If the coffee runs out then it will be time to panic!


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## TATTRAT (May 19, 2021)

Oooofff, sounds like you all had a long weekend on the back end, and not in a fun way. Thanks for getting things sorted.


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## petrochemist (May 20, 2021)

That seems to explain the sudden drop in the number of alerts I get. (Nothing for a week!)
Thanks for all the hard work on restoring things as much as possible.


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## ekool (May 20, 2021)

petrochemist said:


> That seems to explain the sudden drop in the number of alerts I get. (Nothing for a week!)
> Thanks for all the hard work on restoring things as much as possible.



If you are set to receive mail notifications of alerts/subscribed threads and such you should be receiving them. I started a private conversation with you and verified that our server did send out the email to sendgrid which is our relay, and they should relay it to you -- unless you have it blocked or going to the spam folder. 

Please let me know.


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## RichieS (May 20, 2021)

I don't think I've posted enough to worry about losing data, but I do like the new design


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## petrochemist (May 20, 2021)

ekool said:


> If you are set to receive mail notifications of alerts/subscribed threads and such you should be receiving them. I started a private conversation with you and verified that our server did send out the email to sendgrid which is our relay, and they should relay it to you -- unless you have it blocked or going to the spam folder.
> 
> Please let me know.


Yes I got the email, but I don't usually subscribe to e-mail notifications - I typically check in several times a day & look at the notification bell. Up until a week or two ago there's usually been something flagged at least once a day, then a week or more with nothing. Restoring to an older archive could easily have that effect. Things have often been too hectic to look through recent posts properly - doing that will eventually get me involved in a new set of threads.
For the record I did get a notification of this thread being updated as well as the e-mail, so it looks to be working properly.


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## xfshooter (May 21, 2021)

I work with cloud technology every day. I’m more than glad to assist and advise if you want a bulletproof disaster recovery setup. Not looking for money, just to help out.


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## ekool (May 21, 2021)

xfshooter said:


> I work with cloud technology every day. I’m more than glad to assist and advise if you want a bulletproof disaster recovery setup. Not looking for money, just to help out.



Thank you for the offer! I've been doing the hardware and hosting for hundreds of forums over the years (since 2001) and this is the first time anything like this has happened. /shrug  --- just one of those flukes where 3 catastrophe's all hit at once.


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## The Barbarian (May 23, 2021)

Peeb said:


> Sorry, but I'm not going anywhere! Love this community, and this momentary glitch will pass soon enough.


Absolutely.   This is my favorite photo site, and I'll deal with any problems.    I don't store things online without backing up the images I really care about.   No online site is perfectly reliable.

Thanks to the administrators for their efforts to make this a great place for photographers to meet and discuss our craft.


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## paigew (May 24, 2021)

Not sure if this has been asked, but is the mobile app working?


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## RichieS (May 24, 2021)

paigew said:


> Not sure if this has been asked, but is the mobile app working?


Mobile app when the forum works well with the browser on a mobile device already?


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## dascrow (May 24, 2021)

paigew said:


> Not sure if this has been asked, but is the mobile app working?



We no longer support tapatalk, but the new site should work very well under Safari or Chrome on a mobile phone/tablet.


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## BasilFawlty (May 25, 2021)

ntz said:


> hmm, this is bad dream ... also photos from albums are lost .. I think that this is end for a lot of users here ..


Not me.  I've been running a "FREE" discussion forum (car related) for 20 years and know all too well that things like this can happen.  Perhaps you can get a refund?


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## johngpt (May 25, 2021)

Been a little while since I had time to visit TPF. Figured I'd post a message to see if I get the auto notification when someone posts after mine.


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## snowbear (May 25, 2021)

johngpt said:


> Been a little while since I had time to visit TPF. Figured I'd post a message to see if I get the auto notification when someone posts after mine.


Did it work?


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## limr (May 25, 2021)

johngpt said:


> Been a little while since I had time to visit TPF. Figured I'd post a message to see if I get the auto notification when someone posts after mine.



Hey John! I figured I would also help you test whether or not you still get notifications if someone quotes you


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## snowbear (May 25, 2021)

johngpt said:


> Been a little while since I had time to visit TPF. Figured I'd post a message to see if I get the auto notification when someone posts after mine.





limr said:


> Hey John! I figured I would also help you test whether or not you still get notifications if someone quotes you


Me, too.


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## SuzukiGS750EZ (May 27, 2021)

Is the forum no longer available on Tapatalk?


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## Space Face (May 27, 2021)

SuzukiGS750EZ said:


> Is the forum no longer available on Tapatalk?


Post #54


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## terri (May 27, 2021)

SuzukiGS750EZ said:


> Is the forum no longer available on Tapatalk?





dascrow said:


> We no longer support tapatalk, but the new site should work very well under Safari or Chrome on a mobile phone/tablet.


There's the answer.


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## ntz (May 30, 2021)

Hello,

one more thing .. since the forum upgrade there seems that that the notifications don't work reliably and correctly ... For example I don't receive some notifications from threads where I've contributed and whose seem that I am watching them (there is unwatch button) but I do not get a notification on new posts to those threads ..

is this known issue please ?

regards, dan


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## Strodav (May 30, 2021)

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see a warning the site was going to be "updated" and am trying to get use to it.  I find myself logging in less and have lost the desire to respond to posts.  One of my issues is the smaller fonts used in some situations, which are very hard on older eyes.  Has "active topics" been replaced by "what's new"?  In any case, I don't see the changes as positive.


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## BasilFawlty (May 30, 2021)

Strodav said:


> Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see a warning the site was going to be "updated" and am trying to get use to it. I find myself logging in less and have lost the desire to respond to posts. One of my issues is the smaller fonts used in some situations, which are very hard on older eyes. Has "active topics" been replaced by "what's new"? In any case, I don't see the changes as positive.


Change is sometimes difficult to adjust to, but for what its worth, I use this same software on a automobile-related forum I've been running for 20 years.  At first, my members balked at the change, but once they got used to it, they really love it.  Xenforo is a relatively new forum software, but it's capabilities, in my opinion, are phenomenal.  As for the font size - the admin could install additional "Styles" with bigger fonts that the users could choose.  In the mean time, on most browsers you can manually make fonts bigger, usually very easily.  Not sure what browser or operating system you use, but  I use Safari on an iMac and each time I press Command-"+" the fond gets larger.  If I have trouble reading something because it's too small, I press that key combo a few times and viola!  You might try that.

To the admin:  I am not getting notifications by email either.  Are you sure you have your "email transport" settings correct in Email Options?


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## johngpt (May 30, 2021)

snowbear said:


> Did it work?


Sho' nuff!


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## johngpt (May 30, 2021)

It seems the most recent notifications come from ThePhotoForum even when I haven't been to threads that previous notifications had been coming from xenforo@mxs.


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## vintagesnaps (Jun 4, 2021)

Alerts changed... 
... unbelieveable number of alerts you could get, yowza! Got mine reset (to none! lol).


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## wobe (Jun 21, 2021)

Apologies if this has already been mentioned (but cannot search for it to see haha!) But is search not working? At the moment if I try to use Search for anything I get the following :


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## Space Face (Jun 21, 2021)

wobe said:


> Apologies if this has already been mentioned (but cannot search for it to see haha!) But is search not working? At the moment if I try to use Search for anything I get the following :
> 
> View attachment 245408


I reported it a week ago. Apparently the Techs are aware so presumably something will get done at some point.


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## dascrow (Jun 21, 2021)

wobe said:


> Apologies if this has already been mentioned (but cannot search for it to see haha!) But is search not working? At the moment if I try to use Search for anything I get the following :
> 
> View attachment 245408



Looking into it now.


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## wobe (Jun 21, 2021)

All working


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## Space Face (Jun 22, 2021)

Yup, all good now.  Cheers!!!!


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