For a day now, every time I go to MathOverflow, it says "This site is currently in read-only mode. We’ll return with full functionality soon." But I also see what appear to be new posts from other users, e.g., the new question, Conjecture about primes of a special form posted just a few minutes ago. What is going on here?
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- 3$\begingroup$ Could it be the same problem as meta.stackexchange.com/questions/399904/… ? $\endgroup$Emil Jeřábek– Emil Jeřábek2024-07-04 09:37:05 +00:00Commented Jul 4, 2024 at 9:37
- $\begingroup$ That helped – I was able to login using a different browser, so it's some kind of cache problem on the browser I usually use. But if I clear the cache, don't I lose all kinds of useful stuff? $\endgroup$Gerry Myerson– Gerry Myerson2024-07-04 10:46:30 +00:00Commented Jul 4, 2024 at 10:46
- 1$\begingroup$ In theory, you shouldn’t. Cache is supposed to store transient data that the browser needs repeatedly to improve speed, but such that it can be redownloaded any time. Clearing cookies can have more visible effects, such as logging you out. $\endgroup$Emil Jeřábek– Emil Jeřábek2024-07-04 11:37:57 +00:00Commented Jul 4, 2024 at 11:37
- $\begingroup$ Huh, it didn't say that for me. $\endgroup$David Roberts– David Roberts Mod2024-07-04 20:55:05 +00:00Commented Jul 4, 2024 at 20:55
- 1$\begingroup$ @Emil, if you post an answer, I'll be happy to accept it. $\endgroup$Gerry Myerson– Gerry Myerson2024-07-04 22:07:34 +00:00Commented Jul 4, 2024 at 22:07
- 1$\begingroup$ For me, the thing that cured the problem was deleting the mathoverflow.net cookie and then logging in. $\endgroup$Dave Benson– Dave Benson2024-07-25 08:47:45 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2024 at 8:47
- $\begingroup$ Same experience here. The problem was happening in the kiwi browser but no others. Clearing cache solved it. $\endgroup$Steven Landsburg– Steven Landsburg2024-07-25 16:41:28 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2024 at 16:41
- $\begingroup$ It has been happening to me for the last several hours. Firefox 128.0.2. Deleting the MO cookies solved the problem. $\endgroup$Alex M.– Alex M.2024-07-25 16:57:32 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2024 at 16:57
- $\begingroup$ As @AlexM. said. It happened to me in Safari. Deleting mathoverflow cookie and then login fixed it. $\endgroup$Gerald Edgar– Gerald Edgar2024-07-25 17:05:38 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2024 at 17:05
- 2$\begingroup$ See staff comment (COMPLETED) Site maintenance - Tuesday, July 23rd 2024, 8 PM - Midnight ET (12 AM - 4 AM UTC, Wednesday July 24 2024). This seems to have been a new problem, and is now fixed. $\endgroup$jeq– jeq2024-07-25 18:01:06 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2024 at 18:01
- $\begingroup$ @jeq While it is possible that the site maintenance on July 23–24 caused some related issues, whatever the staff did did not fix the original problem. New reports of such incidents keep coming in on daily basis, e.g., meta.stackexchange.com/questions/402049/… . $\endgroup$Emil Jeřábek– Emil Jeřábek2024-08-09 13:11:04 +00:00Commented Aug 9, 2024 at 13:11
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1 Answer
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There have been several reports in the past few months that something similar happened to random users on various SE sites, see Stack Overflow in read-only mode for past 2 days.
A user suggests there as a workaround that clearing cache and cookies fixed the issue for them.
EDIT: And now the same thing happened to myself. I can confirm that clearing cookies and site data in Firefox for mathoverflow and stackexchange sites did correct the issue eventually, but only on the second try after about a half day later; it didn’t work when I first tried it immediately when the issue started. It’s also worth mentioning that I had to do it separately on every device that I use to access MO.
