Thread

My client has alerted me they are receiving this message when trying to access the site

An Error Was Encountered
Site Error: Unable to Load Site Preferences; No Preferences Found

The site is v2.5.3 - Build Date: 20120911

They say they are now able to access the site however I am rather concerned they got this message at all.

This site was developed from scratch with v 2.5.3 so there have been no updates.

Any ideas what could be causing this error to only appear temporarily?

Hey Mediakitchen,

Please have them clear their browser cache and just to be safe, the cache in ExpressionEngine.

That should clear things up.

Cheers,

Hi Shane,

I don’t think this has anything to do with the browser cache.

I had the same problem (running EE 2.5.3 and MSM 2.1.4).

I found this on the bug reports: https://support.ellislab.com/bugs/detail/17971

But that’s for a previous version.

My sites are hosted on EngineHosting and the problem was fixed without me doing anything which is weird but I guess the same happened to Mediakitchen because he hasn’t posted back…

Anyway, would be nice to know if you guys think if could happen again or what.

Cheers,

Juan

Hey mediavilla,

Clearing cache is the first step in troubleshooting this issue. 90% of the time clearing the cache would clear this up. But usually after an update, which MediaKitchen says was not the case. So I started with the first step.

Did you clear your cache as a test? That it went away on it’s own seems to point to it being a cache issue. Unless you did clear your cache and the ExpressionEngine cache and there was no difference.

If this does happen again, please let us know and we can login right away and take a look.

Thank you,

Hi, thanks for the quick response.

I did clear the browser’s cache and that didn’t solve the issue (tried with different browsers).

I couldn’t clear EE’s cache because the control panel wasn’t available (same error).

That’s what I’m afraid of, that it might happen again…

Hey mediavilla,

I hear you.

Let me talk with an Engineer tomorrow morning when everyone is back. Though I am on the West Coast, we operate on CST. Let me see if I can get some more info for you. I do not want you feeling the way you do about what may happen.

Hang tight amigo.

Cheers,

Great, thanks a lot.

Hey mediavilla,

I did check with my team. They confirmed for me.

The only other reason I have seen this error thrown is if site prefs were munged during upgrade or they were not encoded. Both of those would not just go away, they require some footwork to resolve.

I really think this was a cache issue. Clearing the cache in ExpressionEngine before upgrading is how you avoid this.

Is there anything else I can help with?

Cheers,

Thanks for your efforts. 

How can I clear the cache if I can’t open the control panel?

(I’m using EE 2.5.2, upgraded from version 1.4.1 last July by an Ellis Labs recommended tech, on an iMac, with OS X 10.6.8)

Yesterday I got the same message as others when I attempted to open my website, but was able to back into it by opening the link in an email notice of a new comment from a reader.

But yesterday and today, when I click on the link to open the control panel the URL bar changes from “log in” to “authenticate”, then back to “login.”

Thanks for your help.

Tom Brewton

Hi Tom,

Are you also mediavilla?

Clearing the cache in ExpressionEngine would be what you do before upgrading.

I would like to login and check things out. This makes no sense.

Can you confirm for me that you are also mediaville?

Thank you,

No, I’m not mediavilla.

Early this AM, however, the control panel suddenly responded to the login button, and it is working now as before.

There may be no connection whatever, but I was able to access the CP shortly after running a new app called PrivacyScan, which is supposed to remove files allowing other websites to track my usage of the internet.

In any case, thanks for your willingness to help.

Tom Brewton

Tom,

Are you hosting with EngineHosting? They are having some issues now. My sites are down <grumpy face>.
Here’s status info: http://updates.enginehosting.com/

Lisa

Hi Tom,

Glad to hear it!

Let us know if there is anything else we can help with.

Cheers,

Lisa, yes I’m on Engine Hosting.  My website and the CP would not boot until this PM.

All seems well now.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Tom Brewton

Hey Tom,

Awesome. Sounds like a lot of users were effected by this outage.

If anyone needs anything else, please just let us know by opening a new thread.

Cheers,