Moodle in English: Moodle file picker not working

Hello all,

I have a new moodle site hosted in blue host (shared hosting). Initially I was able to add files (pictures, pdf) to the front page and to courses. Some weeks later though, I couldn't. When I click the 'Add an activity or resource' link and select a file to upload, for example, the file picker keeps loading infinitely as shown in the figure below.

I have searched several forum posts for a solution but not successful so far. The host says 'this is a moodle issue'. I am stuck here. Your help is most appreciated

Regards,

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Taj Des - mandag den 3. april 2017, 16:58

If someone has come across with such an issue (posted above) or if you think you have a solution for it, then please help me. I'm still waiting for some enlightenment...

Thanks,

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Emma Richardson - mandag den 3. april 2017, 20:00

Try clearing your caches...

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Rob Clark - torsdag den 4. maj 2017, 03:33

Hi,

I'm experiencing the same problem. File picker in the forums are not loading correctly into the page, but it is not consistent. The problem does not happen on some browsers, but is happening on other browsers and operating systems. It is also not consistent across the entire Moodle site. The file picker loads properly in assignment submission, but not on forum postings.

I'm running Moodle 2.7.

Firefox 53.0 for Mac - loads properly
Safari 10.0.2 for Mac - does not load the picker
Chrome 57.0.298 for Mac - does not load the picker
Firefox 52.0.2 for Windows - loads properly
Firefox 53 for Windows - does not load the picker
Chrome 58.0.3 for Windows - does not load the picker
Internet Explorer 10 for Windows - does not load the picker
Microsoft Edge for Windows - does not load the picker

I have tried clearing cache, doing a hard refresh, using different browsers and operating systems, etc. to identify the source of the problem, but to no avail. I have several hundred students in courses right now who are not able to submit files because of this problem.

Any help anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Emma Richardson - torsdag den 4. maj 2017, 04:12

Try turning off the Javascript caching found under Appearance/Javascript and Ajax - I had to do that on one of my sites.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Rob Clark - torsdag den 4. maj 2017, 04:57

Hi Emma,

Thanks for your prompt response. I just tried your suggestion with hard resets and cleared caches all around, but it didn't work. Anything else come to mind?

It only just started happening yesterday, and one of my staff just had her browser update when she re-opened it and the problem started for her with the new update. The only thing that I can see as a common major update across all browsers is that they have all stopped supporting Java NPAPI with the latest release. Do you know if the Moodle File Picker is run as NPAPI? I can't find anything in the documentation.

Cheers,

Rob

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Rob Clark - torsdag den 4. maj 2017, 04:49

Is it because the File Picker in Moodle 2.7 runs as NPAPI, which is no longer supported by browsers?

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Rob Clark - torsdag den 4. maj 2017, 13:38

Found the problem. The mathjax shutdown on April 30th was the source. I simply loaded mathjax on my local server and redirected it in Site Administration > Plugins > Filters > MathJax from cdn.mathjax.org to mymoodleserver.com.

Problem solved. Thanks a lot for your help, Emma.

Rob

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Ron Vitug - onsdag den 21. juni 2017, 23:11

We have same issue file picker is just keep spinning/loading. Then it will hang the moodle site I need to restart apache to able to access again. Moodle 3.1.6 is our version screenshot

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Ken Task - torsdag den 22. juni 2017, 01:03

Did you recently upgrade from 3.0.highest to 3.1.highest?

Actually, that might not matter but would help me verify what I found doing an upgrade as above.

Beginning version 2.9.x Moodle 'transitioning' away from the YUI library. YUI library might be used in filepicker.

https://docs.moodle.org/dev/YUI

Is your site set to combo load YUI libraries?

Try this in config.php of site:

$CFG->useexternalyui='0';
$CFG->yuicomboloading='0';

Check your DB - mdl_config table to see any settings for YUI external or combo loading.

Purge server caches ... might have to do that manually to assure
caches have been eradicated.

IF the above works, suggest making sure that YUI settings stay '0'
by editing the mdl_config table and setting the above variables to '0'.

You could then remove the config lines.

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Ron Vitug - fredag den 23. juni 2017, 16:49

Tried and still no luck. I am thinking if it's a repository matter since we upgrade it to the new server?

We're running PHP on Apache with mod_php

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Ken Task - tirsdag den 27. juni 2017, 19:24

Describe 'upgrade it to the new server', please.

What makes one think it's a repository matter?

"Faculty Documents" looks to be a file system repo.

So in moodledata/repository/ ... what does 'Faculty Documents' label actually point to?

And does what it points to has correct ownership/permissions?

If version 3.3 you have a new CLI script in moodlecode/admin/cli/

Run from moodlecode/admin/cli/

what does the following show?

php cfg.php |grep repository

and

php cfg.php |grep yui

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved John Joubert - lørdag den 19. august 2017, 10:55

Ken,

I'm running moodle 3.1.3 - and YUI combo loading is turned off. However, it's default is to be on. I'm dealing with performance issues since my recent upgrade from moodle 2.7 to 3.1.3. Is this safe/good to turn on? Or, should I be avoiding this since, like you, I've read that it's going to be depracated at some point...

Any advice, direction, pointers, etc. appreciated very much.

John

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Ken Task - søndag den 20. august 2017, 02:14

Not sure that YUI alone would be the single factor in a hyperjump between long term support versions 2.7.x to 3.1.x in performance issues. Like all previous versions of Moodle every version upwards does more ... and seems to require more resources of server.

Did you do the environment check and update that component before upgrading? Did you have to 'fix' anything while at 2.7? Run it again, now at 3.1.x and see if there are not some recommendations.

As far as performance issues ... think you'll have to share a complete description of your system(s).

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Matt Donnelly - torsdag den 9. august 2018, 00:12

Thanks Ken!

File Picker was consistently hanging only in Chrome for 30sec (checked Network Tab in Inspector) on Moodle 3.5 before allowing me to select files.

Adding those two lines to config.php fixed the problem immediately.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved John Byrne - lørdag den 11. maj 2019, 08:48

What were the lines? It sounds like that was the problem.

I'm having the same issue. Please help.

Thank you,

John Byrne

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Ri: Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved MARCO BONFIENI - torsdag den 2. januar 2020, 23:30

Hello there,
if I can share my experience, took a lot of time also for me to figure it out!
I also know it has been 6 months since that post: the problem was in my case the SSL certbot from Let's Encrypt

You can find the solution also in another locked post, it really did the trick!

Fin your ssl.conf file, usually located under /etc/httpd/conf.d

Find the line
Header always set X-Frame-Options

Should be set "DENY" by default... replace "DENY" with "SAMEORIGIN", then restart your httpd service.

Boom!

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Re: Ri: Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Landy DeField - tirsdag den 14. december 2021, 17:31

This worked for me!

Hey documentation @Moderator this really should be added to https://docs.moodle.org/311/en/Transitioning_to_HTTPS page.

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Re: Ri: Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Andrew Lyons - tirsdag den 14. december 2021, 18:29

Hi Landy,

Thankfully that page is a wiki and can be amended using your moodle.org login credentials. You would be in a good plac eto update this documentation as you have experienced this issue and understand the changes.

I'm not quite sure why this is ncessary - I don't believe that it should be for normal usage, and this is very much a configuration issue - it will depend on your Apache installation and configuration and you should understand such changes before making them.

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Re: Ri: Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Landy DeField - tirsdag den 14. december 2021, 21:18

I did not see the edit link for that page, I will look harder. ;)

Reasons it should be included on the page.

It is 100% related to transitioning from HTTP - HTTPS.
If you transition from HTTP - HTTPS and do not edit the Apache config file, the popup ajaxified file dialog window just sits and spins...
It is not easy to diagnose as no error generated in apache2 error log.
Save people making the move to HTTPS on Apache some time and stress. :D

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Re: Ri: Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Andrew Lyons - onsdag den 15. december 2021, 08:17

It is 100% related to Apache configuration. You are including a default configuration for SSL from your linux distribution which includes the DENY line. Not all stock configurations will include this line, or with this default setting.

Your previous configuration did not include this line, but it could easily have done so - it is an http response header and can exist on both HTTP and HTTPS connections.

You should ensure that you understand the purpose of this lin before making these changes.

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Re: Ri: Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Landy DeField - torsdag den 16. december 2021, 03:20

Not really seeing where your coming from as https://docs.moodle.org/311/en/Transitioning_to_HTTPS has 100% Apache configurations listed, the edits should be done to the .htaccess file which is distribution agnostic, and the link I included goes into depth about the purpose of the Header always set X-Frame-Options as well as WAMP configurations.
When all is said and done, I took the time to submit an edit, as you pointed out I could. Either it's accepted or not, either way I did due diligence.
Peace Out! :D

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Re: Ri: Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Landy DeField - tirsdag den 14. december 2021, 22:01

I submitted the following edit to the end of the page.

"
=== File upload dialog configuration for Apache2 ===
If you are using Apache2 on a Linux server after transitioning to HTTPS, the file upload dialog may not work properly and hang after clicking the upload button. In order to correct this, you will need to edit the /moodle/.htaccess file.
You will need to add the following:

Header always set X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN

Save the file then reload/restart the Apache2 server.

* [https://apache.tutorials24x7.com/blog/how-to-secure-apache-from-clickjack-attack-using-x-frame-options Tutorial Explaining X-FRAME Options With LAMP & WAMP How To]
"

It is now in the hands of the wiki gods ;)

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Rodrigo Ribeiro - søndag den 4. marts 2018, 22:10

Hello

Having the same inssue! My server is a DigitalOcean VPS ans everything is ok with VPS.

Centos7++Apache2+PHP7 (no fpm)+Moodle 3.4+

Alredy tried to set yui to "0" in mdl_config....not solved.

When send any file the circle still running forever...

What i have to do?

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Daniel Thies - torsdag den 22. juni 2017, 09:12

Hi Ron,

Are you running PHP on Apache with mod_php or with php-fpm? I had a similar problem switching from Apache to Nginx.

Daniel

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Francisco Nieto - fredag den 14. juli 2017, 01:42

Did you find a solution to your issue? I have moved to ngixn and php7.0-fpm, and I am experiencing the same issue. When I try to upload a file with the file picker, it keeps spinning and it seems like it never upload the file; however, when I drag and drop the file, I do not have any issue.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Daniel Thies - fredag den 14. juli 2017, 06:02

Yes, there is a setting that needed to be changed in the http block of my nginx.conf. The parameter client_max_body_size has a default value of 1M. This limits any file upload to the server even though php settings are higher. It is not detectable by the browser so nothing is reported.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Francisco Nieto - fredag den 14. juli 2017, 08:09

Thanks so much for answering me back, but my issue was not the parameter client_max_body_size, it was the parameter below, I had the parameter set up as "DENY" instead of "SAMEORIGIN"

add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;

Thanks again for you prompt answer.

Francisco

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Harry McLaren - lørdag den 13. januar 2018, 19:54

Just an FYI for others, our site had this issue and after MUCH troubleshooting, it was the Cloudflare 'Rocket Loader' which was breaking it.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved David Le Blanc - lørdag den 28. april 2018, 01:42

Thank you for this post Harry. How did you resolve the issue with Cloudflare 'Rocket Loader'? I have started to experience difficulties with the File picker and even uploading images with the dialog box that appears after clicking the images button in our atto editor.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Liana Shpani - mandag den 10. september 2018, 21:50

Hello!

I am having this issue too, but the suggestions in this (and many other file picker not working forums) didn't fix it. I recently updated the test instance of Moodle to 3.5.1 and this issue appeared (not on the clean install, so it is definitely something in our code). It is not from the additional css as I tried removing it and the problem persisted. Then I updated the code to 3.5.2 and the issue persists, that just confirms that it's being caused by our code, but it wasn't there in the previous versions (3.3.2).

A detail on the problem: the file pickers that didn't work were the ones that you see as an admin or teacher - as a student when you upload something to the assignment it works fine.

Any ideas on what to try or what to be looking for that might have caused this? Thank you!!

Best,

Liana

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Liana Shpani - mandag den 10. september 2018, 23:20

Something that I found while looking around: This error shows up in the console in the sites where the filepicker doesn't load...

Bilag Screen Shot 2018-09-10 at 10.30.05 AM.png

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved John Byrne - lørdag den 11. maj 2019, 08:51

Is that the Javascript console on the client? Or the /var/syslog? Can you tell us more details about where you found that?

Thank you,

John Byrne

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Benoît Rousseau - tirsdag den 11. september 2018, 03:32

Hi, did you find a solution ? hi have the same problem ...

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Liana Shpani - torsdag den 13. september 2018, 02:41

It was being caused by my wiris plugin.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Edwin Yeong - onsdag den 23. oktober 2019, 13:10

Hi all,

I also faced this problem. The File Picker window just hang there. I check the log it says:
20900#0: *12738856 open() "/Media/Default/Images2019/SidebarsRefers/HDC-2019-Button.jpg" failed (2: No such file or directory)
Hope someone can help please.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved i an - onsdag den 12. februar 2020, 00:15

In my case it was clamd causing the issue, re-installing it sorted the problem (could test by temporarily disabling clamd on Moodle if you are running it)

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved elearning fmipaunmul - torsdag den 2. april 2020, 20:27

Hi, i have a problem with file picker. I m using moodle 3.7.2 (stable version) with klass theme. This problem only on firefox but only other moodle is have a problem. My other moodle site in other server, didnt have this problem. satu

my second site has loading file picker

but my other site doesnt have this problem.

i opened in same browser "firefox". both have same moodle version and theme.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Tim Hunt - fredag den 3. april 2020, 19:07

Are there any errors in the Console in the developer tools of your browser?

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved elearning fmipaunmul - fredag den 10. april 2020, 10:57

Error about yui.js and i tried on my phone and tab...there is no issue about this.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved elearning fmipaunmul - fredag den 10. april 2020, 12:46

here in dev tools

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Efraim Bayarri - tirsdag den 14. april 2020, 16:53

Same loader problem. The javascript console gives this problem

Bilag Captura de pantalla -2020-04-14 10-51-25.png

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Diego - CMI FG - lørdag den 25. april 2020, 07:48

hello everybody,

I have unset the "Cache Javascript" parameter in "Site administration -> Appearance -> AJAX and Javascript" and the file picker gone back to work well. But, according the parameter description, this is not recommended for live environments.

I Hope it can help.

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Labinot Morina - mandag den 5. oktober 2020, 06:08

I have the same issue this is my error in my console

This error page has no error code in its security info aboutNetError.js:585:13

Uncaught DOMException: Permission denied to access property "document" on cross-origin object

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved Patrick Felipe - torsdag den 25. marts 2021, 04:37

Hey how is everything?

I'm having the exact same problem, did you happen to find the solution?

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Re: Moodle file picker not working

ved André Luiz França Batista - mandag den 10. august 2020, 06:20

Hello.

Sorry to ressurect this post but I found myself facing this same issue.

Just for contribution. It turns out (in my case) the Adblock Google Chrome extension was blocking the file picker. Just whitelist your Moodle URL in the Adblock and it works for me.

Regards.

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