Clearing the "Autosave-Restore" pop-up and clearing the Archive

Dear Scott,

It's a bit deep, but here's the skinny...

- The MRH forum has an "Autosave" function which keeps a running copy of whatever you're typing on a given thread.

- If you "click away" or exit the thread before posting,
the AutoSave function keeps the text, and knows which specific thread it relates to.

- Assuming you come back to the thread-in-question, the AutoSave system thinks
"...hey, you had/have some 'draft' text previously-written for this thread, but not posted,
Do you want to paste the saved-text into the Message box, so you can continue where you left off?"
(This is the pop-up you are seeing).

Now, _IF_/_How_ you are "clicking that pop-up away" may be a relevant variable here,
(If it is not dismissed "cleanly", it may interact with the "new" massage you type,
the "autosaving" of the new text,
and the posting of the later message contents?)

but the way to avoid the issue from the outset is:
- click "No" to the "Do you want to restore your previous message/content for this thread"
(This should close the pop-up cleanly)
- Click the "Broom" icon at Bottom Right of the Message box you are typing in

- And click "OK" accept the prompt on the pop-up which says "Are you sure you ant to remove the entire backup?"

I hope this helps...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

PS to clarify the diagnostics, what machine, OS, and browser are you using? (Be specific, version info helps)
How the browser handles pop-ups could be materially-relevant to your experience... 

thanks

Thanks Prof.

*ahem*

I so totally was getting ready to answer this, and you not only beat me to it... but used me as an example!

HA! Point to you, my dear Professor... point to you!

"Da Broom" is missing???

Dear Joe F, Jeff S, MRHers,

Um, just went to "sweep da broom" on my postings, and noticed that "the broom" buttons are missing from the bottom right of the "Post New Comment" box???

OS : Win7 Pro 64 bit
Browser : Chrome Version 81.0.4044.122 (Official Build) (64-bit) (current spec version)
Browser : IE11 11.0.9600.19596

Also confirmed "broom is missing" on Android 7.x,
running Chrome 81.0.4044.117 .

Did Drupal break the Broom?

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Autosave

had disappeared about 4 hours back - lost a partially completed post earlier this morning. And noticed no broom

Also running Chrome on Win7 via a Macbook (Don't ask..)

New version of the editor

It's a new version of the editor that's been installed by the contractors who keep our site patched so it has no security vulnerabilities.

We'll have to re-enable the autosave again. It will be a few days, so in the meantime, I recommend you compose long posts in a text editor first, then paste here.

We'll get to it, but with the staff layoffs and a new issue due out this week, it's not likely to be this week.

Understood...

Dear Joe,

Completely understood

Not a showstopper by any means, but I kinda grew to like the broom being there,
and I miss it now... :-(

Take care of the Big Things first,
and pls know that We (the collective rag-tag bunch onlist)
do absolutely appreciate everything you do to keep the lights-on...

Happy Modelling,
Aiming to appreciate what we've got,
Prof Klyzlr

Disable Autosave popup?

Funny as I type this it pops up a green box that says Auto Saved, which is right over top of the first line of text that I am typing, very annoying. Hopefully when they re-enable the broom the Auto Saved popup will go away.

It never gave me

the green auto save box before today...

Same, before today, no

Same, before today, no auto-save pop-up. 

Now I'm getting a green auto-save pop-up box frequently and it often hides what I am typing - it's bad!

Autosave works differently now

I asked the contractors who keep our site updated to see if they could install the autosave module and they did install it. However, autosave works differently now in this version. One configuration setting allows moving the green autosave notification to the bottom of the editing window, so I’ve asked them to do that since it will be much less annoying!

I'll also explain how autosave and restore works differently now with an example here later. Suffice it to say, it’s a lot more friendly ... it gives you a pop up automatically when you start a new post edit showing you the saved text and asking if you want to replace the current text with it.

  "autosave and restore

I saw a green box but it had an x to get rid of it so doesn't seem like a problem.....DaveB

Okay green box autosave fixed

Okay, the green box autosave has been moved to the bottom of the editing window so it’s much less “in your face” while you type.

The new-and-improved autosave

With the editor updated, the autosave feature has been made a lot friendlier.

Now when you start a new edit, you will get a message pop up ...

If you select Okay, you get this popup showing the text you’re about to insert into the editing box ...

If you like the content shown in this popup, then select Yes ... and you’re all set!

While you're typing, you can see auto-save in action by watching the bottom of the editor window. Every 25 seconds, Auto Saved will popup for a second or two (see the red circle in the screen grab below):

P.S. If you get a local storage is full error, just press F12, select Application (Chrome) or Storage (Firefox / MS Edge) from the menu in the sidebar, then look down the list to find local storage and then under that find the website you're on (model-railroad-hobbyist.com), then right click and select clear. That should clear your local storage!

Safari is a bit different ...

In the last few versions of Safari (version 13 as of this post) you can go to Preferences> Privacy> Manage Website Data… and then remove all data by domain (model-railroad-hobbyist.com is what you want).

So, no more "broom"? (and "Restore Trigger Conditions" check)

Dear Joe,

Having read the description of the New "AutoSave" system, I'm prompted to ask:

- so, no "Broom" button so the User can clear their Cache directly from the "Post Message" box UI?
(IE the only way to "clear the Cache" is to crak open Chrome's "Developer Tools" Menu?)

- No " --- " button so the User can select an earlier-Timestamped version of the post?
(IE if the "last saved version" isn't actually what's desired, but the "3rd last saved version", for example)

It certainly makes-sense from a "saved in near-realtime from a spontaneous log-out condition" situation
(IE the issue occured,
the user re-logs-in almost immediately,
meaning "the last saved version" very likely will be what they want right at that moment),

but it means a loss of other useful functionality which I must admit I'd grown-fond-of...
(being able to recall block-text from days-previous postings, etc)

Good to know the AutoSave function is back though, ThankYou!

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

PS I edited this post 3 times, 
(literally saved, 
read the post as it sat in the thread,
noticed an issue, 
and hit "Edit" to change the post)

and did not see a "You have an Auto-Saved version" pop-up...

...Then deliberately:
- hit Edit on the post
- typed some gibberish 
- waited until the "AutoSave" flashed at the bottom of the Message box
- then unceremoniously closed the Browser, 
without clicking "Submit" to politely complete the "Edit" process and post the edited message.

On launching a new instance of Chrome browser,
and reloading the thread,
_then_ the "You have an Autosaved Version" pop-up appeared...

...so, simply revisiting a thread that One has posted on previously does not seem to trigger the "Do you wish to restore the Autosaved version?" pop-up,
(and there appears no way to manually-provoke the "do you wish to restore a previous autosaved version?" dialog box")

Rather, the conditions are:
- there has to be an Autosaved version of the post-in-question
AND
- the last attempt at posting to the thread/editing had to "fail" or be "incomplete" in it's process.
(IE due to "unexpected log-out", "spontaneous browser exit/crash", or similar).

Testing this.....  Nope...

Testing this.....  Nope... still getting that annoying red box. I'm on a Mac, using Firefox. I tried to follw the instructions.... but there's no "..." in the bottom right and no menu in the sidebar. My sidebar can display Bookmarks, or History... that's it, Nothing anywhere says "storage".

However..

In Firefox Preferences   Privacy & Security

There's a heading "Cookies and Site Data", and three buttons to the right side of the window: "Clear Data", "Manage Data", and "Manage Permissions"

Eenie, meenie, Minie, Hey Mo!

Going to try the clear data, I think...

EtA... thought better of it and tried "Manage Data" first....  Deleted the "model-railroad-hobbiest.com" stuff... no joy, still getting the red box popup. Going to close firefox and try again...

Nope, that didn't work. Still cascading red boxes. OK, time to try the nuclear option.

OK, nuked it...still getting the red box. I give up for the night...

Screenshot from Chrome

Dear MRHers,

FWIW, here's a screenshot of the "Clear Cache" setting in the Google Chrome Browser
on a current Windows machine.

If you see the dreaded "Red Box"...

Step 1: Press "F12" on the keyboard, to launch the "Developer Tools" pane at Right
Step 2: Click on "Applications" (you may need to click the " " button to scroll RIGHT to find "Applications")
Step 3: In the LH pane, find the "Storage" category and "Local Storage" subcategory

Select each of the website URLs listed under "Local Storage",
and see which one displays a list of "AutoSave" entries in the RH pane.
(The example below shows the "model-railroad-hobbyist" URL, but check _ALL_ listed URLs).

Step 4: RIGHT-click on the URL with the AutoSaves, and click "Clear".

I hope this helps,

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

PS Barr-CEO, you may find that _older_ Autosaves from the "Previous Autosave Mechanism" are held by the "model-trains-universe" URL,
IIRC "model-trains-universe" was an early catch-all Domain underpinning the MRH we know and love?

dreaded 'Red Box'

@Prof Klyzir,

I am using Win 7 and Firefox, and i am still getting the multiple red boxes.

I just tried to complete this posting i started yesterday , and now getting red and blue boxes,...very confusing. I pressed F12, but not being a computer programer I could not understand all the gibbersh

Screenshot from Firefox

Dear Brian,

OK, let's run this one-time...
(Windows machine, FireFox browser,
Joe's basic procedure).

Assuming you're seeing the Red Boxes while attempting to create a new Post,

Step 1 - press/release the "F12" key on your keyboard

Step 2 - On the "Developer Tools" pane which appears,
look along the top menu,
and click the word "Storage"

Step 3 - In the LH column of the Developer Tool,
you should now an entry for "Local Storage".
Click on it so the Arrow Head at LEFT is facing DOWN.
This expands the "Local Storage" list, and should display a series of familiar website URL addresses, including:

* - https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com
/> * - https://model-railroad-universe.com
/> (and maybe others? Mine only showed the MRH addresses)

Step 4 - RIGHT-click each website address URL in turn,
and if you see an option pop-up that says "Delete All",
Click it...

In the example above, the "model-railroad-hobbyist" URL had a few "autosave" entries listed,
but in YOUR case, make sure to check BOTH the "hobbyist" and "universe" addresses shown,
and do the "Right-click --> Click 'Delete All' option" thing on ANY which show "autosave" results.

...and finally, to make the "Developer Pane" go away, press-and-release the "F12" key on your keyboard again...

I hope this helps,

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

...and they're all made out of ticky-tacky ...

... and they all look just the same...   (pauses to swat one out of the way)....

Well, when I went nuclear, I deleted everything there older than this January, so that's not it.

I tried the process you described immediately above - I don't get past the first step. Pressing F12 brings up my system preferences, with the "Sound" tab on top. None of the other function keys do anything useful, either. 

Aha! You mentioned "Tools".... I DO have a "Tools" heading in the main menu bar...   and in that pull down menu, "Web Developer" "Storage Manager"   Opening that gets me a pane with several options down the left side, including "Local Storage". Selecting that opens it, and there it is! 

Right click on the "model-4ailroader-hobbyist" domain pops up a menu with the only selection in it "Delete All", Done and done! No more red boxes! Wheeeee!

Nice catch...

Dear Barr,

Good to know you got it sorted, suspect the "F12 --> System Preferences" thing may be a MAC VS PC thing?
I created the screenshot sequence above on this machine (Win7 Pro 64-bit),

and also tested it on a pair of Win10 machines (Home and Pro),
and a just-rehabbed-this-afternoon old XP laptop,

and all tested Firefox and Chrome instances responded to "F12" as shown...
(I did recently pickup an old 2006-era MacPro 1,1 and got it rehabbed up onto "OSX Mountain Lion",
but it's now in isolated storage, so can't A/B compare at this time... :-(    ).

...now, back to the modelling bench...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Thanks Prof & Joe

I amazed myself, I actually experimented with that big box of stuff that popped up, and found that 'storage' heading. 

One of the strange things I discovered was that a few of those listed items indicated as saved under the MRH site contained a WHOLE LOT of what appeared to be Chinese symbols/writing??

It's ascii symbols

It's actually Ascii symbols for hexadecimal (encrypted) characters. In other words, it's meaningless gibberish to us because that's what encrypted does -- it encodes the text so you can't read it.  That's how many cookies get stored, as encrypted text.

These days in a modern browser, 128-bit encryption is common, and it will take you well over 1000 years or longer on a high powered computer to break 128-bit encryption, so it's pretty safe.

Here's what it looks like. It's not exactly "Chinese" ... just gibberish to us.

Opera/Win10

Running Opera on Win 10. Getting red box over and over, browser localstorage is full.

I can't find how to clear local storage for just one site. 

I can see how to clear all browsing history, or all cookies, or all cached images and files (that one sounds good), but its for all websites, not by domain. 

Any help appreciated.

PS: for opera, F12 doesn't do anything. Ctrl+F12 gets you into settings, which are also available under the 'O' menu or via Alt+P. Clear browsing data is under 'advanced', then 'privacy & security'. But I'm reluctant to clear for all web sites.