RSS feeds stopped working

[ScottiG]

Well, I have been seeing quite a few others post with this same exact issue, but so far I have not been able to find a fix that works for me. A few months back the RSS feeds on my site stopped working, a few stopped one day, a couple more a day or two later, then the rest a couple of weeks later. Now, NONE of the feeds automatically update.

I can get the feeds to manually update, but I have to do this one at a time. All my other scheduled tasks are running correctly, just the RSS feeds are affected. I noticed a few of the feeds stopped updating when I updated my vbulletin software a couple of updates ago, and I have been having this issue ever since.

With the number of people experiencing this exact same problem, I have to assume this is something vbulletin related.

My site has a few custom templates, but even temporarily reverting the templates to the default still does not fix the problem.

Can we please do whatever it takes to get to this problem once and for all and make the fix public so all the others experiencing the problem can have access to a solution?

Surely there is a simple solution to this problem as many people are not affected by it, but what is the common denominator that is causing this issue with so many others, including myself?

Again, everything was working perfectly, then all of a sudden things stopped updating... All other scheduled tasks run perfectly, but the RSS poster robot does not run on its own at all.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Scott

[Steve Machol]

In my experience this has almost always been a problem on the server or RSS feed end. The only exceptions would be modifications to vB itself. The place to start would be to have your host check the server error logs.

[ScottiG]

I will have them check to see what it reveals - I just find it odd that the RSS feeds stopped working with a Vbulletin update and have not worked since.

[ScottiG]

OK, just got off the live chat with my hosting company and they claim an error free server log for my account.

Here is a little more information to see if it helps with a solution...

So I have already explained that the RSS feeds do not update automatically, and that I can update only one at a time if I deselect all RSS feeds and manually update one at a time, but what I just noticed is that regardless how many feed items are actually available from the feed provider, it seems the poster robot only grabs 20-28 and it seems the number of items is dependent on the size of the items themselves. Also, it seems like the task takes a long time to run for just grabbing 20-28 items - It took over three minutes to fetch 24 items from a single feed - this does not seem normal.

I have checked the task log and it appears the poster robot is not running automatically - The only feeds it has grabbed are the ones I have done manually. In "scheduled tasks" the poster robot does indicate that it is scheduled to be run every ten minutes, but it simply does not run.

There has to be a simple explanation for this - What am I missing? Is there some sort of a timeout happening? Do I need to allocate more memory to run the RSS robot on the server? Is there a recommended amount of memory for such tasks?

Thanks in advance!

[ScottiG]

One more observation worth mentioning...

As I mentioned, I can update one feed at a time if I deselect akll other feeds and run the robot manually, however, I just realized that each time the task is run, it does not append the "most recent" RSS items with those already downloaded, instead it reloads all the avaialable items, then adds them to the thread, so what you end up with is a LOT of redundant posts.

For example, lets say you ran the robot four days ago, the thread would look like this... (just a short list of items as an example)

item 5
item 4
item 3
item 2
item 1

The you run it the day after you get...

item 7
item 6
item 5
item 4
item 3
item 2
item 1
item 5
item 4
item 3
item 2
item 1

The the next day...

item 10
item 9
item 8
item 7
item 6
item 5
item 4
item 3
item 2
item 1
item 5
item 4
item 3
item 2
item 1
item 7
item 6
item 5
item 4
item 3
item 2
item 1
item 5
item 4
item 3
item 2
item 1

and so on...

This has created a very large thread of redundant posts.

Does this provide any insight to what may be happening?

Again, thank you very much for any help.

[Steve Machol]

Unfortunately the same info I provided in post #2 is still applicable. I don't have any further insights. Sorry.

[ScottiG]

Aside from your suggestion to have my hosting company check the server logs, do you have any idea what I should be looking for specifically? They claim an error free log, but what specifically would cause the issues I am having?

Server timeouts?
Not enough memory available to run this task?

And why did this function stop working with the upgrade from a previous version of VBulletin? As I mentioned in a previous post, ALL the feeds were working 100% before I upgraded (several upgrades ago) - Is there something specifically that changed in VBulletin that handles the function of the RSS poster robot? - Perhaps that would give me some direction as to where to look?

Is there anyone else within the VBulletin team that has experience with problematic RSS feeds? A quick online search for "RSS feeds not updating VBulletin" returns a significant number of seemingly unresolved issues quite similar to mine - There has to be a common cause. It is irrelevant to me if it is VBulletin related or server related, what is relevant is a documented fix to resolve the issue, which would benefit ALL VBulletin users having the same problem.

Is there someone at VBulletin I can work with (supply my admin log-in info) to see what we can come up with? How far has VBulletin gone to resolve this issue with those that have trouble with it in the past?

Lastly, with so many people having this issue, why is there not a documented fix to resolve the issue? Regardless if it is server related or not, why is there not a "do this to fix the problem" solution available? While there are a few people that have fixed this issue with recommendations from others (all of which I have tried to no avail) it seems there are many more unresolved cases than resolved ones.

While I am not discounting your thoughts that this is server related, I cannot let go of the fact that this started happening IMMEDIATELY after one of the VBulletin upgrades (several upgrades ago) - Which has me thinking that VBulletin did something differently to handle RSS feeds, or scheduled tasks - Is there any possibility this is the case?

[Steve Machol]

The specific suggestions are:

1. Have your host check the server logs for connections to that RSS server.

2. Remove any third-party add-ons you have installed to vB.

[beishe8]

IMMEDIATELY after one of the VBulletin upgrades (several upgrades ago) - Which has me thinking that VBulletin did something differently to handle RSS feeds, or scheduled tasks - Is there any possibility this is the case?

Could some template edit cause it?

[ScottiG]

Thanks for the suggestions...

I have already tried removing all third party add-ons, in fact, I went so far as to completely re-install Vbulletin. Before I did that, I had also tried reverting the footer template to see if that was the cause as the task does not run automatically - But that did not help either.

This is really getting to me - I have been working on getting this right for months now, and I have been working quite intensely for the past couple of weeks, and VERY intensely for the past 48 hours - I have been in constant contact with the support team from my hosting company, and I have tried every suggestion I could find here and elsewhere - There HAS to be a solution, and I am guessing it is a simple one. Something that is being overlooked.

It really sucks having old RSS threads on your home page and in other areas of the site, it makes the site look abandoned, and quite frankly I would not spend much time at my site if I were a new visitor either.

Does it matter that I am running VBA? (again, this always worked before upgrading to 3.7.2) - Actually, I am wondering if the feeds last worked in 3.6.8? It has been so long since they were auto updating that I have actually forgotten when they last did.

Was there anything that could have changed between 3.6.8 and the 3.7 versions that "could" cause this?

[beishe8]

Does it matter that I am running VBA?

Yes,that is a third party addon.

[ScottiG]

Keep in mind, I have disabled all third party add ons already and still had the problem.

[beishe8]

Keep in mind, I have disabled all third party add ons already and still had the problem.

Have you removed their xml files?

[ScottiG]

I tried both ways - First I simply disabled all add ons, then I did a full re-install with no mods whatsoever.

[ScottiG]

It is just strange that it was all working fine, then just simply stopped updating the day I did a VBulletin update - All I keep getting for a response is that it is NOT VBulletin, yet nobody seems to have THE answer as to what IT is. While I want to believe it is an add on causing the problem, I question why the feature stopped working immediately following a VBulletin update? There has to be something in VBulletin that changed the way this feature works, I have no other explanation for it.

I just wish I could find someone that "had" the same issue I am having but resolved it, and so far I have not come across anyone that has worked it out yet.

That is why I was hoping that the VBulletin team could provide some insight as to what "may" have changed between the versions, that would provide a lead to where to look for a solution.