Mac users losing their work when submitting

Mac users losing their work when submitting

by Kristinn Ingi Pétursson -
Number of replies: 9

Good day.

I have the following issue that I'm stuck with.

Students that have macs, report that they they submit in moodle, the page somehow refreshes and all their work is lost.

But only users with mac, not windows users.

My biggest problem is, I have not seen this happen in person, and I don't have information about what browsers they are using, safari, chrome or firefox.

The only information I have, is that this has been happening for few weeks, and recently a whole classroom submitted something in a course, all the windows users were fine, but mac users had to submit their work the second time for it to show up as submitted.

I just wanted to ask if someone else here had similar story?

I will research what OS version and browser they are using, and try to make them reproduce this situation in front of me. I'm not good with reading logs but I guess I have to get into in now smile

  • Moodle 3.9.3+ (Build: 20201217)
  • PHP 7.4.13
  • mariadb (5.5.5-10.5.8-MariaDB-1:10.5.8+maria~bionic)
  • Linux moodle 4.15.0-129-generic #132-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 10 14:02:26 UTC 2020 x86_64
  • Apache/2.4.46 (Ubuntu)
  • Theme: Classic (teachers can select themes for courses)

Status Check Summary Action

  • OK Environment Your server environment meets all minimum requirements. Environment
  • OK Upgrade No upgrade needed for the installed version 3.9.3+ (Build: 20201217) (2020061503.06). Thanks for coming anyway! Notifications
  • OK Cron running Cron is running frequently
  • OK Tasks max fail delay There are no tasks failing
  • OK Ad hoc task queue Ad hoc task queue is empty



Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kristinn Ingi Pétursson

Re: Mac users losing their work when submitting

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
My Moodle is similar to yours. I interact with Moodle 99% of the time behind my Mac, using Safari. I have never experienced any problem like you describe.

I would do a few things.

1) Check Moodle's logs. See if the logs show that the student "submitted." Compare the logs of a Mac user against those of a PC user.
2) Ask a Mac student, one who you trust, to sit in front of you and show you how they submit. Many Mac users have laptops, so have several sit in front of you. In other words, can the problem be consistently repeated?

You might also check some of your php.ini settings.  Maybe Safari, because of its added security, takes slightly longer to upload.  I show my favorite settings below.

upload_max_filesize  = 128M
post_max_size  = 128M
memory_limit = 384M
max_input_time = 600 
max_execution_time = 900
Add max_input_vars = 5000


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Mac users losing their work when submitting

by Kristinn Ingi Pétursson -
Hi Rick and thank for your reply.
My php.ini settings are similar, I actually had 256M limit on the file and post size and the rest similar.
But I had no setting for max input vars so I added it like you do. But I don't know what for but it sounds good :D

To consistently repeat the problem, I will gave to work with the teachers and students to be at the site when they submit something next time, and I'll be monitoring logs at the same time and in visual contact with their computers.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kristinn Ingi Pétursson

Re: Mac users losing their work when submitting

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Maybe the problem only occurs during "real" assignments. It wouldn't hurt, however, to ask a good student who claimed to have this problem to show you what they are doing. You could always mock up a course and assignment. Maybe buy the student a coffee, or something like that.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Mac users losing their work when submitting

by Kristinn Ingi Pétursson -

Thank you for your input.

The second last time this happened few days ago, it was a full classroom, the teacher confirmed seeing it happen at 4 mac users, and all the other users were pc users and it didn't happen there. Late today, another student, not related to the other group, came to me and described the exactly same issue, she has also mac. It can be a coincidence, but I'll know more next week smile 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kristinn Ingi Pétursson

Re: Mac users losing their work when submitting

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
What exactly do you mean by "submitting"? Submitting to what?

Like Rick, I use a Mac nearly all the time and have never had any problems.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Mac users losing their work when submitting

by Kristinn Ingi Pétursson -
Thank you Howard, and sorry, english is not my native language.
The info I was given from students and teachers were exactly like this, and this my translation from Icelandic to english.
"When the mac users finished typing the text and checking checkboxes and submitted, it disappears and is nowhere to be found again. It does not happen with the windows users".
This has been happening few last weeks, and maybe it started when I went from 3.9.1 to 3.9.3, or maybe I changed a setting or added a plugin also.
I have no mac vs pc feelings, that is not the matter here, just a problem I'm trying to solve from very limited information.
Next for me is to dive into logs and to try to get more logic information and facts from the staff and students smile
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kristinn Ingi Pétursson

Re: Mac users losing their work when submitting

by Kristinn Ingi Pétursson -
I kust upðgraded from 3.9.3 to 3.9.4 and will use next week to see what happens smile Thank you for your support, I will continue my investigation smile
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kristinn Ingi Pétursson

Re: Mac users losing their work when submitting

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
You say "When the mac users finished typing the text and checking checkboxes and submitted, it disappears and is nowhere to be found again. It does not happen with the windows users".

A screenshot could be useful. I am not sure what the student is doing by your description.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Mac users losing their work when submitting

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Ditto - I still have no idea what your users are doing.
Average of ratings: -