File picker upload button never loads

File picker upload button never loads

by Brandon Blackmoor -
Number of replies: 26

We are running Moodle 2.1.3+ (Build: 20111223). The file upload button (for example, the "Choose a file..." button on the "Edit profile" page) takes minutes to load if it loads at all. For many users, the spinning "Loading..." graphic just spins forever and the "Choose a file..." button never appears at all. This is not a browser issue: users on Firefox 9.01 and Chrome 16.0.912.63 m, and on Windows 7 and on a Mac.

If the "Choose a file..." button ever appears, then the file picker works normally. However, this does not happen often enough to rely on it.

1) Is there a simpler, less troublesome file upload applet? Just a plain old HTML file upload button would be wonderful.

2) Is there a known fix for this unreliable, forever-to-load file picker?

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In reply to Brandon Blackmoor

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Brandon Blackmoor -

Looking at the console in Chrome, I see that yui-min.js is generating this error:

cannot call method init of undefined

Googing for this error does not result in helpful information. Does anyone have any idea what's broken, and how to fix it?

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In reply to Brandon Blackmoor

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Brandon Blackmoor -

Purging the cache several times apears to have resolved our issue.

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In reply to Brandon Blackmoor

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Brandon Blackmoor -

I spoke too soon. This problem persists. For many users, the file upload buttons never load: they just get the spinning "loading" graphic.

This is not on a NFS mount: it's on the local filesystem.

The local filesystem is owned by the user the web server runs as.

This is a MAJOR problem. Does anyone have a fix for this? Is it possible to replace this buggy file upload widget with a plain HTML file upload control that just works?

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In reply to Brandon Blackmoor

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Brandon Blackmoor -

This is a major issue for us. Is there any other information I can provide that will help someone find a resolution?

The perfect solution, I think, would be to eliminate the fragile file upload tool entirely, and just use a plain HTML file upload widget. But we are open to anything which would resolve this issue.

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In reply to Brandon Blackmoor

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Truth in response: not seen the issue, so these are suggestions (food for thought?).

Not mentioned specifics other than version of Moodle - remotely hosted? where? etc.

If you can, upgrade to 2.1.4+.  The fix might be in there.

Alternative, and somewhat risky ... download to local computer the latest version (2.1.4).  Unzip.  Find the file the problem.  Rename the problem file on the server to whatever.old (in case this doesn't work).  Upload the fresh copy to the same location on the server.  Make sure permissions are same as the .old file.  Then TIA ... try it again!

If it blows up ... remove the uploaded file and rename the whatever.old back to whatever it was named before.  Seek another solution. :\

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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In reply to Ken Task

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Virgil Ashruf -

I have just updated an installation to 2.1.4 (20120109) and since the upgrade the upload button does not load under specific circumstances. It is a school with a network in which students log in to their network account. They will then log in to Moodle using a specific account. So no SSO installed here.

When they try to upload a file, the upload button will either not load (IE) or the file picker will not load the upload page. Clicking it will just not have any effect.

When a person logs in using an administrator account on the network, and then logs in with a student account in the LMS the upload function works. Based on this you would say that the network account is faulty. But in a different clean install the upload does work on a student network account.

If the student logs in from their home computer the upload works just fine.

 

Where can I look for more solutions?

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In reply to Virgil Ashruf

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Carlos Foscolo -

I'm having the same problem with my recent installation of version 2.2.1.  At first the upload was alright.  Then, as I progressed with adding or changing things the upload buttun just disappeared and never loaded again! Ever since I've been seriously thinking of going back to my old 1.9.14 version.  I'd appreciate if anyone has any solution. Thanks

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In reply to Carlos Foscolo

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Carlos Foscolo -

After a few hours I had posted the message I found an easy and practical solution:  An upgrade to version 2.2.2 and it's working fine now.

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In reply to Brandon Blackmoor

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Augusto Ellacuriaga -

Same problem here. The first time it didn't work except for private files and uploading users' pics. I decided to do a fresh install tonight but didn't work either. We're running the latest 2.2.2+ version in a dedicated reliable LAMP server where Drupal sites are also running. The site has been tested with the latest versions of IE, FF and Chrome, in different PCs, as an admin, student and teacher, and didn't work in any case. Pretty much I had to create a repo and I am uploading the files via FTP, adding the max file size and inserting them in the courses... Hopefully a prompt solution to this problem can be found. Thanks,

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In reply to Brandon Blackmoor

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Steven Machonis -

I had a similar issue when loading a new Moodle 2.2.2+ (Build: 20120419) server with Windows Server 2008 R2, IIS 7.5, and MySQL.  In IE9, I would get the spinning icon and the button wouldn't load.  With Chrome, I got the button, but clicking it did nothing.  I put it in developer debugging mode and they both worked!  Now I knew I couldn't keep on that for a production server, so I kept digging.  I looked in IIS and saw that static file compresssion was turned on by default.  I looked in the folder and the YUI javascript files were there.  I turned off compression, restarted IIS, cleared the caches in moodle, turned debugging mode back to none and it worked in both IE9 and Chrome.

Hope this is helpful.

- Steven 

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In reply to Steven Machonis

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by John White -

Hi all,

I never suffered this problem on 2.2.1 or before, but now I have a test instance of 2.3dev I get the loading_small.gif which never resolves.

This is true in both the old Assignment module and the new ASSIGN mod, whether the student wants to upload their work OR the teacher wants to upload a feedback file. 

This does resolve correctly when using the file picker to insert a file as a Resource, so it appears to be a bug in the Assignment module implementation for 2.3dev.

Any comments please. And perhaps I should open a Tracker for this??

Regards,

John

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In reply to John White

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by John White -

Okay... I've been stupid (again). Mine was an installation fault, no doubt generated by cloning my local moodledata folder and then upgrading from 2.2 to 2.3dev so as to keep an instance of the previous install on this same server.

I suspect I generated a permissions/password salt error in doing so.

I've got it fixed by doing a separate install rather than an upgrade.

Regards, John

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In reply to Brandon Blackmoor

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by James Snell -

Here's a repost of what I put up here.

I recently encountered this issue while upgrading from Moodle 2.4.x to 2.5.x. I've incrementally upgraded my Moodle base very regularly since 2.0.x. My theme was built by forking an existing theme and customizing it vastly. I noticed with my browser's Developer Tools mode, under the JS Console, a message complaining about something in ~/theme/yui_combo.php though debugging that looked like a fair project.

The "solution" I'm going with for now is I've just switched themes to one included with Moodle. I'll probably fork a theme again and customize it again. I've told my stakeholders the issue was something in a recent Moodle upgrade made our custom theme obsolete. Maybe I'm wrong about the root cause, but whatever. The action I've taken has resolved the issue for us. I was about ready to spruce things up anyway.

Hope this helps someone a bit..

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In reply to James Snell

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Richard Bakos -

You may find your solution here, near the bottom: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=232182

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In reply to Richard Bakos

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Leonard Houx -

We're getting the same problem and we're on 2.4. Strangely, it was working a month ago.

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In reply to Leonard Houx

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Jez H -

Yes so are we, with Moodle 2.3 we turned javascript caching and YUI Combo off and that helped (I replied with this info a moment ago as the OP mentioned Moodle 2.1).

With 2.4 it has not been as clear cut, the way caching worked with load balancers changed, we also had some jquery loading in our theme.

Initially I turned the js caching and YUI Combo settings back on (which is the default) but we have since turned them off again in Moodle 2.4.

I would suggest you experiment with those two settings and see if that helps at all.

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In reply to Leonard Houx

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Pedro Crispim -

We are using Moodle 2.5.1+ (Build: 20130815) in one of our sites and Moodle 2.5.2+ (Build: 20130927) on three other sites.

In Moodle 2.5.1+ (Build: 20130815) and in one of the  Moodle 2.5.2+ (Build: 20130927) instances, this problem appears... on the other two instances of Moodle 2.5.2+ (Build: 20130927) it does not appear.

This is strange... speccially because it started two days ago only.

Upgraded Moodle 2.5.1+ (Build: 20130815) to Moodle 2.5.2+ (Build: 20130927) and the problem remains.

More strange is the fact that I deleted and reinstalled the Essential theme in the Moodle 2.5.2+ (Build: 20130927) that was not working and it started working. Tried the same in the Moodle that was upgraded and the problem remains...

Other situation is the fact that although reinstaling the Essential theme fixed the problem in one of the Moodles - the Moodle 2.5.2+ (Build: 20130927), another problem remains: the menu bar is acting strange... I have to click severall times until a menu opens. All other Moodle 2.5.2+ (Build: 20130927), not the one that I upgraded, also have this menu bars and they are working just fine.

On the three original Moodle 2.5.2+ (Build: 20130927) I had the Essential Theme... based on Bootstrap, that appears to still have some problems. But two were working perfectly and the third was not.

On the other Moodle (the one upgraded) we use Form Factor, a standard Moodle theme.

Nevertheless, it must be a Theme related subject, because in all Moodles, if I change to the "Clean" theme, it all starts working just fine... menus, filepicker, and so on.

Have you tried changing your themes?

 

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In reply to Pedro Crispim

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by J P -

I am on 2.5.1 (Build: 20130708) and have this issue only on my school network.  If I log in from home, I can create new assignments and upload documents within.  If I log in from school, the loading icon keeps spinning forever.  This is really frustrating because I can no longer create new assignments while at school.  I'm using Anomaly for my theme.

 

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In reply to J P

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by J P -

I still have my older environment (2.0.10 - Build: 20120706) up and running.  I just logged into it while on my school network and it's completely fine.

Any thoughts on what's changed?

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In reply to J P

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Alex 09 -

I just want to add that as of today I am having exactly the same problem. We're using Moodle 2.5.2 and have been since early September. Up until today the file picker and drag and drop have been working fine. I remember definitely using the file picker last week as I was showing a member of staff how to upload a file using IE9 (drag and drop not supported).

Currently I am unable to upload any files to Moodle as both the file picker and drag and drop appear to have stopped working. I am racking my brains for any changes that I might have made but I have only added some CSS, which I tried removing but it didn't solve the problem. I am using a modified version of the Fadeback theme.

It does seem that pupils are allowed to upload files to assignments though, it is only when I am logged in as a 'Teacher' or admin. We are on a hosted server, is there anything that the hosts could have done to cause this?

Many thanks
Alex

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In reply to Alex 09

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Alex 09 -

I have just turned off YUI combo loading (as suggested below) in Site Admin --> Appearance --> AJAX and JavaScript, and everything seems to be working again now. I have left javascript caching on though.

Does turning off YUI combo loading impact of site performance much at all?

Many thanks
Alex

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In reply to Alex 09

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by J P -

I just did the same thing and it seems to come up now.  I won't know how it affects students or performance until we're back in school on Tuesday.

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In reply to Brandon Blackmoor

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Jez H -

We had this issue in older versions of Moodle, two things helped:

  1. We turned javascript caching off
  2. We turned the combined YUI combo loading off

If you have not done so you may want to test that and see if it helps.

Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Jez H

Re: File picker upload never loads

by Cori Murphy -

Hello,

We are having the identical problem, using the Essential theme and a brand new 2.6.4 install. We have two Moodles here and annoyingly, one of them is fine with Essential, the other is not, and we get the endless spinning wheel instead of the file picker in all browsers when in the theme settings (e.g. general settings - setting logo). The file picker does work within courses.  We have turned off Ajax and changed YUI settings to no avail. Does anyone have any ideas how to resolve? We'd love to use Essential theme for both Moodles.

Thank you,

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In reply to Brandon Blackmoor

Re: File picker upload button never loads

by Renate Mittelmann -

I fixed the issue by changing the HTML editor from "Atto HTML Editor" to "TinyMCE HTML editor".

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