Cookies must be enabled message is causing problems for some customers

I've recently upgraded to 1.3.9g and I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not, but after the upgrade, I am getting more and more people tell me they cannot order because of the cookies must be enabled message.

They have tried both FF and IE and say the same thing happens in both browsers. I cannot personally replicate it, but I have given them the address of another Zen Cart site that was not upgraded to version g, and they can add things to cart just fine without getting that message.

Here is my session settings under configuration.

Session Directory xyz/cache
Cookie Domain True Info
Force Cookie Use False Info
Check SSL Session ID False Info
Check User Agent False Info
Check IP Address False Info
Prevent Spider Sessions True Info
Recreate Session False Info
IP to Host Conversion Status true

Any ideas?

Thanks

Further details. A customer was unable to order using Fire Fox due to the cookie issue. Then they switched to Chrome and it allowed them to order.

I had the same customer go to another zen cart site hosted on the same server, but they are using 1.3.9f, and this same customer was able to add items to cart using Fire Fox.

I'm not sure of why my site is having this trouble with just a few customers, but another site using Zen Cart is not. I compared our configuration/sessions settings to make sure they matched, and they did (Same as I posted above).

Change: Recreate Session False

To: Recreate Session True

What happens then?

Thanks for the response. I've actually tried both methods, but I am getting more complaints (It seems) when it is set to False. I'll set it back to True since it "appears" that I get less complaints then. I'd still like to find this little bugger though and put it to sleep forever!

Website Rob:

Change: Recreate Session False

To: Recreate Session True

What happens then?

NOTE: You really want ...

Recreate Session: True

as it is more secure than setting that to false ...

Thanks. It is back to true now. I put it to False only to see if the cookie message would go away. Any idea on why a small number of customers get this message? But yet they have no problems on another site running Zen Cart 1.3.9f (Probably coincidence). And it is quite possible this has been happening all along, even before the upgrade. I'd like to fix it though as I'm probably losing customers.

Any advice on what I might try? Could there be a bad file somewhere? I just have no idea where to start.

Thanks!

Not sure off the top of my head ... they can always try removing the cookies for your site or try another link if they get the Cookie error page and see if it corrects itself ...

You might ask the next person with a problem what link they followed to your site to try to see if there is pattern ...

With people not having problems on other Zen Cart sites, are they logged in?

If they are then use the same Browser to visit the site with problems, there could be a "cookie conflict" going on, causing errors / problems.

I asked what link they were following and they said they just had it bookmarked to the main index page. Just www e c i g e x p re s s com
(Remove spaces)
Had the person try again, same issue with Fire Fox and IE. Chrome worked. Had them clear the cache, same issues.

Thanks

Ajeh:

Not sure off the top of my head ... they can always try removing the cookies for your site or try another link if they get the Cookie error page and see if it corrects itself ...

You might ask the next person with a problem what link they followed to your site to try to see if there is pattern ...

How do you fix a cookie conflict? I had them clear the cache in FF and it still gave them the cookie message.

I wonder if this is a really uncommon problem. I tried searching the forum and some seemed to have similar issues, and the only suggestion was to find files that may not have been transferred properly via ftp. Do you think this is a possibility? Even though this only happens with very few customers.

Website Rob:

With people not having problems on other Zen Cart sites, are they logged in?

If they are then use the same Browser to visit the site with problems, there could be a "cookie conflict" going on, causing errors / problems.

Cookies and cache are two different things ...

Some may not want to clear their cookies ...

The could clear just the cookies for your site in FireFox ... and then clear the cache ... for good measure close their browser and open it fresh and try it ...

I am going to post as a related problem here.

I have a newly installed 1.3.9g Zen Cart. My recreate session is true, and I also have two complaints so far in our seven days of being a live store.

One user reports being unable to get past cookies, stating that my store even directed him to check security settings. He was unable to order using both Mozilla and IE.

A second user wasn't as detailed yet, simply stating that they were "kicked out" of the store when attempting to order.

Again we have only been open for a week, but in that time I have had four successful orders. I have logged in myself and placed orders no problem using Mozilla on a mac, and a co-worker placed an order using IE on a PC.

I of course desire no orders to go unfulfilled, and I fear that the above two complaints might be just the two I am aware of.

Most of my settings aside from a template are stock. I have paypal express and USPS modules configured and operational. I welcome a test drive of the store if that would help:

r a g i n g s t o r m r e c o r d s . c o m

I've also recently begun receiving calls about this problem on my website, within the last 3 months. I've never been able to recreate this problem personally but the customers are using IE and Firefox. My site is patched to the most recent fix.

Whether or not you have "Force Cookie Use" set to true in Zen Cart the website will try to place the session id inside a cookie which is stored on the visitors PC.

The default setting for most browsers is to allow cookies but disallow 3rd party cookies. 3rd party cookies being tracking cookies which are nothing to do with the website itself but someone else (perhaps) advertising on that site. But some people think that they are being extremely clever by setting their browser not to accept any cookies - in which case it is little wonder that they cannot navigate eCommerce websites.

You then have people who use AOL as their ISP, and AOL could not follow a session trail to save its life. Nothing can be done about that.

Vger

Did you figure this one out? I am having the same problem. I am getting desperate! Here is a link to a thread that has more details:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=163007&page=2

Answered in that other thread.

Vger

lynnz - Have you figured out how to solve this? I just updated to 1.3.9g and my customers are having these problems.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Debbie

1. If you're upgrading, you should be upgrading to v1.3.9h.

2. After you've upgraded to 1.3.9h, you'll have another menu option in your admin to tweak your cookies settings to match whatever your server's unique requirements dictate.