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I am erroneously and automatically logged out of a language website when submitting test materials and my test answers are not saved.

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I'm taking an online French class; the online company is Vista Higher Learning (VHL). I have had various problems with using their online materials. Most significantly: when I'm doing an exercise and/or a lengthy test, I'm given the option of "Save" or "Submit". Sometimes when I click Save, I'm automatically logged out of the program and my responses are not saved. Same for clicking Submit on exams. I have resorted to taking screenshots of my responses for fear that the material will be lost with another auto logout. I have contacted VHL Support numerous times. Their suggested remedies: clear cache files, clear cookies, try another browser. I've done all that. I've also reset Firefox and uninstall/reinstall FF. VHL states that they have no issues with my problems; the program functions normally for them. For me, it does so ca. 80% of the time. But in the most critical moments (like when taking a lengthy test), the program performs as I stated above. I don't want to use Safari because I am a longtime FF user and am familiar with FF. Some of the program glitches occurred on Safari as well. For the last test I took a few days ago, I had to resort to using Safari and it worked. At least when I clicked Submit, it did submit. I'm running FF Quantum 66.0.3 (64 bit) on an iMac running macOS Mojave 10.14.4. Any suggestions would be welcome!!

I'm taking an online French class; the online company is Vista Higher Learning (VHL). I have had various problems with using their online materials. Most significantly: when I'm doing an exercise and/or a lengthy test, I'm given the option of "Save" or "Submit". Sometimes when I click Save, I'm automatically logged out of the program and my responses are not saved. Same for clicking Submit on exams. I have resorted to taking screenshots of my responses for fear that the material will be lost with another auto logout. I have contacted VHL Support numerous times. Their suggested remedies: clear cache files, clear cookies, try another browser. I've done all that. I've also reset Firefox and uninstall/reinstall FF. VHL states that they have no issues with my problems; the program functions normally for them. For me, it does so ca. 80% of the time. But in the most critical moments (like when taking a lengthy test), the program performs as I stated above. I don't want to use Safari because I am a longtime FF user and am familiar with FF. Some of the program glitches occurred on Safari as well. For the last test I took a few days ago, I had to resort to using Safari and it worked. At least when I clicked Submit, it did submit. I'm running FF Quantum 66.0.3 (64 bit) on an iMac running macOS Mojave 10.14.4. Any suggestions would be welcome!!

All Replies (4)

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Since this could be a website issue, contact its support. Websites are known to have problems with one browser but not a different one.

Saving your postings is a good idea. But use a text file instead.


Many site issues can be caused by corrupt cookies or cache.

Warning ! ! This will log you out of sites you're logged in to. You may also lose any settings for that website.

If there is still a problem, Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Did this help?

While you are in safe mode;

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration in Firefox. Since this feature was added to Firefox it has gradually improved but there are still a few glitches.

How to disable Hardware Acceleration {web link}

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If it takes too long to fill and submit a form then the website might timeout and close the connection. If possible then prepare your answers in a text editor, so you only need to paste this content to prevent getting logged off automatically and losing your submission.

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I set my FF cache to auto clear after closing FF. Seems to help and is faster; also disabled hardware acceleration. If I choose to copy/paste course responses, is their any difference between using TextEdit and Notes?

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It is usually best to paste plain text content especially if there is a rich text control on the page, so TextEdit might be a better choice on Mac.