Customer can not progress beyond sign up page!

Hello
my store have been worked fine for years.

But 2 days ago I got a problem. Customers can create account, but right after that, when they try to navigate in my site, they would be logged back out by the system ! They just can not stay logged in their account, of course they can not make purchase. If they sign back in, they will be signed out again immediately.

2 days ago, server end had "can not connect to database" error, now they fixed it, the website is online, but I don't know if this problem has anything to do with that accident.

Please advise me about how to fix this!

Thank you!

I didn't modify any settings on my end. Also, in the meantime, I can not connect to phpmyadmin.

If you can't connect to phpMyAdmin (a cPanel tool), you need to contact your webhost.

lat9:

If you can't connect to phpMyAdmin (a cPanel tool), you need to contact your webhost.

I finally connected to the phpmyadmin and didn't find anything wrong.
NOw I found further weird problem needs your advice:

I can log in and do shopping with the computer that I use daily to maintain the website. everything looks and works fine!
Is there anything to do with cache? I cleaned all cache, includes cookies on the computer, and do the test again, everything still
works fine.

But meanwhile,

I can NOT use any other computer to log in or do shopping, with correct login info , you can log in but once you click any link in the website you will be immediately logged out with no error message.

Why??

I just noticed that you'd posted your question regarding a ZC 1.3.8a installation. Perhaps your webhost updated your site to use a more recent PHP version than 5.2.17?

lat9:

I just noticed that you'd posted your question regarding a ZC 1.3.8a installation. Perhaps your webhost updated your site to use a more recent PHP version than 5.2.17?

I don't know if they updated my site or just fixed a broken database.
but the PHP version is 5.3.29. and host said there is no sign of corrupted database and website looks fine just not functioning.

I set the recreat session to faulse but it didn't solve the problem!

Please help!

Also, I can log in admin without problem. only customer can not log in their account no matter what.

The most weird thing is:

I can create account, log in, browsing, shopping with my own PC, the one I use to do daily maintenance, and the website looks fine. If I use other's computer, they can not log in without any error message? It took me three days and I still can not figure out the reason!

Help please!!!!!

Read here for compatible zencart and php versions.

https://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Installation_-_Requirements

Lruskauff

sjbglx1:

The most weird thing is:

I can create account, log in, browsing, shopping with my own PC, the one I use to do daily maintenance, and the website looks fine. If I use other's computer, they can not log in without any error message? It took me three days and I still can not figure out the reason!

Help please!!!!!

OK, yesterday I finally "Fixed the problem". If you , the people who run into the similar weird situation like me, you didn't modify anything but your server had a database outage problem and after recovery your customer can not progress beyond log in page, or they can create account but after they keep get kick out of system without any error message, and you can not reproduce the problem on your own working PC, and you run out of options, tried all settings in that admin session but still can not solve customer log in problem. You can try this:

1. go to admin-tools-template selection, select any other template, for example , the classic green.
2. then create a test account from any computer which you have trouble going beyond sign up page, to see if it works or not.
   In my case, everything works once the system is under other template. No matter my friends' pc, or my own pc, now all works.
3. Now you switch back to your old template. and try again with that test account. In my case, problem solved suddenly.
   everything come back. System under old template starts to work too, customer can create account, after that they can keep logged in and nevigate inside website and can do shopping...etc. Then test on other PC, or call your remote friends to test on
   their computer or iphone. everything go back to normal but I don't know why! :D :frusty:

I am a business man not a technical guy while I have to maintain website all by myself. I don't know the inside mechanism why this can fix the problem but it did fix it. I can not provide further details, hope my experience can help somebody.

As a business man, hopefully you recognize the value in investing to keep your website functional AND up-to-date. Very soon, if action is not initiated, the software of your site will not work with the version of PHP that will be provided. When that happens if your upgraded/updated site is not yet available, you will have to scramble to put it together in order to get back online. If, however, you begin now with the upgrade/update/replacement with new files, you can keep your current site running while the new version is put together, customized and verified to be as desired. When ready, simply switch over leaving the site down for a few minutes rather than the time to put it together in a hurry.

Zen Cart 1.3.8a is over 8 years old now. As a business man it really and truly boggles my mind how many store owners insist on using very old versions of their shopping cart software just for the sake of their add-on mods and/or template design. If you're making money, then spend the cash on a skilled PHP coder or freelancer to UPDATE those mods and template to be compatible with the latest shopping cart release and if a certain mod or template can't be updated then fork out the money to have the skilled PHP coder or freelancer to design a custom mod and/or template for the latest shopping cart version.

For the sake of being up-to-date, relatively bug-free, PHP compatible and above all else for security reasons ALWAYS use the most recent version of shopping cart software not to mention most recent versions of server applications & software. Anyone with sensibility, that actually cares about their business and customer safety should always be up-to-date.

The old saying of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" absolutely has no place in the ever changing world of ecommerce whatsoever.