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Instant Notify not working


mkkm

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Yesterday I got a notification about a new cache but couple of hours later I realized that I also had missed some notifications. My first idea was that it is some sort of a glitch and would solve itself soon. So I didn't do anything else at that point.

 

Today it happened again. Couple of new caches have appeared that should have triggered notifications but nothing in my inbox. It might be pretty limited problem as there were no other posts in the forum about the issue. Only reference I found was this:

 

Thank you for your report. This bug was active for a few hours earlier this week. The engineering team fixed it as soon as we became aware. Notifications for unpublished caches are no longer being sent.Cindy / Frau Potter
I think your engineering team may have gone a bit overboard.... It seems *no* notifications for newly published caches are going out any more. At least I haven't gotten any for the newly published caches here today.

So I'm glad it is not just me with the issue. (Of course that does not make zkzkzk any happier.)

Edited by mkkm
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Looks like there still may be some intermittent issues. I received 5 notifications of the 8 caches published to 27-40 miles to the Northwest of Concord, CA this morning. Put a watch on them to see if the FTF hounds will get the ones that did not trigger a notification email.

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I just realised I missed a notification of a newly published cache yesterday too (in BC Canada) why are we not getting notifications anymore? Also my family in the UK didnt get notifications of new caches in their area either so it looks like its a global thing but seems to be hit and miss as to who is getting them. When will this problem be fixed??

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This issue has also been raised on the Facebook group UK & Ireland GC Reviewers & Community Tea Bar. The thread begins -

 

‎"Colin Hoult‎ to UK & Ireland GC Reviewers & Community Tea Bar

30 July at 22:22 ·

Is there an issue with emails being received regarding newly published caches. Myself and a lot of other cachers haven't received emails and only knew of a new ..."

 

I have been experiencing this problem for about a week now. I am receiving notifications for new cache publications hours after they are released and consequently long after they have been found by other cachers. Most cachers do not appear to be experiencing this problem. However a number of us are.

 

I also know that when I post an owner maintenance to one of my own listings I do not get the email notifying me of the log for several hours. I receive notification of found logs on my own caches in the middle of the night when it is unlikely that logs are being posted.

I have tested that it is not a problem with my email service provider by getting my daughter to send me a test email. This email came through all the way to my phone in less than 2 minutes. So clearly the problem is not with them.

 

Please would Groundspeak Lackie post to acknowledge that this problem has been seen and is being investigated.

 

Thanks

Neil Bell

Spire67

Edited by Spire67
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In the past when there has been a problem with some mails not going through, it has frequently been a problem with a specific provider slowing or blocking emails from geocaching. It would probably help sort out the problem if you mentioned your provider. Perhaps you did that in your trouble ticket.

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Actually, here in my area (Munich) it seems to me that the publish notification for a specific cache goes out to either all subscribers or none at all, independent of their respective e-mail providers. I base that assumption on the FTF hunts: If I get a notification mail for a new cache, then the usual rush is on, and it's a matter of less than an hour until the first finds are logged. But if I discover a new cache without having received an e-mail (e.g. by looking at the cache map, or my list of nearest unfound caches), then the FTF log (if there is already one) often explicitly mentions that they didn't get a notification and also discovered the new listing by chance. Also, the next logs (STF etc.) take unusually long to come in, and also sometimes mention a missing notification mail.

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Thanks for the reports of problems with Instant Notifications. We made a change to the architecture of our notification system on July 26. It appears that those changes resulted in some UNintended changes. To help us troubleshoot, it would be useful if we had examples with usernames and GC codes. For example, a GC code for a geocache that was published recently and resulted in emails being sent to _______ [specific username] but not to ___________[specific username]. We are trying to determine if notifications are successful in certain circumstances, but not in others.

 

Thanks for your help in identifying the problem.

 

Cindy / Frau Potter

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Thanks for the reports of problems with Instant Notifications. We made a change to the architecture of our notification system on July 26. It appears that those changes resulted in some intended changes. To help us troubleshoot, it would be useful if we had examples with usernames and GC codes. For example, a GC code for a geocache that was published recently and resulted in emails being sent to _______ [specific username] but not to ___________[specific username]. We are trying to determine if notifications are successful in certain circumstances, but not in others.

 

Thanks for your help in identifying the problem.

 

Cindy / Frau Potter

 

For GC6PCPG, I did not receive the notification but I believe JeremiahsJohnson did.

 

As far as I know, nobody in my area received notification about GC6PGRN.

 

Oh, and I think you meant "UNintended changes" above.

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Did not receive notification of GC6PHKB. Others did not as well. Do not know if anyone got it.

 

Tips and Tricks is checked. I just recently checked it and I'd been getting notifications prior to that. Why would I want Tips and Tricks if all I want is notifications? T&T just sounds like extra email for no apparent reason.

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I did not receive notification for GC6NF7R and GC6NHVN (and maybe several others, which I didn't notice). As far as I can see, these two caches weren't notified at all.

I have the Tips&Tricks unchecked and I have configured the site to use English language.

 

Greetings

RoRo[tm]

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Do those of you who are experiencing this issue have the "Tips & Tricks" box unchecked in your email preferences by chance?

 

The Tips and Tricks option is ticked in my settings and notifications for me are delayed by hours or not received at all. This problem is starting to affect more and more people in our area in Nottinghamshire, UK.

 

I have not received notification for DrunkNinjaHippo's Not A Free Range Chicken (GC6PEC0)

Edited by Spire67
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Hi all, I'm pretty new to Geocaching as only been doing it for two months but I've already found 160 caches and placed four. The first I placed was Hairy Ninja (GC6NGXG) and I believe all the notifications went out ok. I next placed Urban Ninja (GC6NHXV) and again I believe all the notifications went out ok. BUT I then placed Croaked It (GC6P22P) and notifications took 24 hours to go out. I had also communicated its publish on a local geocaching page so it was found before notifications started to go out. Most recently I've placed Not a free range chicken (GC6PEC0) and I've been told no notifications have gone out for this one at all... Again I'd communicated on a local cachers FB page, so it has been found by a few, but still being told days later that no notifications went out at all.. To answer another point below I do have Hints & Tips e-mail ticked.

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Thanks for the reports of problems with Instant Notifications. We made a change to the architecture of our notification system on July 26. It appears that those changes resulted in some UNintended changes. To help us troubleshoot, it would be useful if we had examples with usernames and GC codes. For example, a GC code for a geocache that was published recently and resulted in emails being sent to _______ [specific username] but not to ___________[specific username]. We are trying to determine if notifications are successful in certain circumstances, but not in others.

 

Thanks for your help in identifying the problem.

 

Cindy / Frau Potter

Notifications I have seen: GC6PAB6 and GC6JBFV.

Notifications I haven't seen: GC6PA81, GC5NBR8, GC6A6GK and GC6JJTJ.

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Tips and Tricks is checked. I just recently checked it and I'd been getting notifications prior to that. Why would I want Tips and Tricks if all I want is notifications? T&T just sounds like extra email for no apparent reason.

 

To be clear, it should not be necessary to have "Tips & Tricks" checked in order to receive Instant Notifications. We were simply looking for patterns that might explain the hit-or-miss nature of the failures, and we had a report from a user that made it look like this might be the cause. It seems apparent that this setting is not related to the issue.

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To help us troubleshoot, it would be useful if we had examples with usernames and GC codes.

AFAIK, the problem isn't just for some users, but rather all users for just some caches. In all of the cases I've heard of so far, nobody received an email for a given cache. My newest cache, GC6FD8H, falls in this category. I received the owner email notification for the "Published" log, but nobody got an instant notification email for it.

 

This has happened on half a dozen caches in my area over the last 5 years or so (reported here), but the problem has definitely gotten significantly worse since the recent change. Hopefully the devs can find the common thread.

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Status report:

 

I have tips & tricks checked.

 

Did not receive mail for

 

http://coord.info/GC6PAG1 and http://coord.info/GC6PA32 (and from what I've heard, no one else have gotten notifications about those either). However, I did get notified about e.g. http://coord.info/GC6P4RM published some minutes before the missing two, and I did receive mail for http://coord.info/gc6phbe published later in the evening.

 

Yesterday, did not get notified about http://coord.info/gc6pjn4 (and haven't heard that anyone else got mail about this one either) but did get notified about http://coord.info/gc6pjxq

 

(Using Gmail)

 

Hope this helps, if there is some more info I can provide, just let me know.

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Awesome thanks :) On a side note which may or may not be related, but incase it is - since I updated the official app on my iPhone there are times when I enter a Found It log there and then and although I can see the log it doesn't turn the green dot into a smiley. If you go into the green dot I can see my Fount It log, but it stays as a green dot. If I swipe close the app and go back into it again, it shows as a smiley.. Very odd.. That is intermittent as well, but happens more times than not and only since the update.

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I'm glad I found this thread so I know it's not just my caches. Last weekend I had two new hides published, and a notification was only sent out for one of them. (The second was a Pokemon ammo box and after being published for almost 8 hours still didn't have any views/finds!) Then last night I had another published and not a single cacher got a notification for it. They're all set to premium members only caches so I can see the audit log. 13 hours later, only two have my viewed my newest cache.

 

Also last night at least 8 caches were published, I only got 3 notifications.

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I'm Glad to see that I'm not the only one that isn't getting all notifications... Here are the GC's for three more that were missed in my area GC6P7FA GC6P3GB GC6PJED ... I hope the problem gets fixed, I'm currently on holidays and could have easily gotten the FTF if I knew about them in time...

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Thanks for the reports of problems with Instant Notifications. We made a change to the architecture of our notification system on July 26. It appears that those changes resulted in some UNintended changes. To help us troubleshoot, it would be useful if we had examples with usernames and GC codes. For example, a GC code for a geocache that was published recently and resulted in emails being sent to _______ [specific username] but not to ___________[specific username]. We are trying to determine if notifications are successful in certain circumstances, but not in others.

 

Thanks for your help in identifying the problem.

 

Cindy / Frau Potter

 

Two (known) failed notifications here in New Zealand in last couple of days, to at least three uesers (wb1116, wb-jnr and yeetrees) The caches are GC6NHEQ and GC6P0RV.

 

Thanks for the great work in trying to faultfind and solve this - notifiations are GREAT when working :)

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In the past week, I have had three caches publish without receiving notifications for them. Three. I did receive notification for one I published.

 

For the first one (Paint It Black - GC6MGNM), it would have been the third notification in a batch of 3 for our area. No one received the notification although many received the first two. That was last Monday. I had told some friends that was published, so I also posted on our local Facebook group.

 

For the second one on Saturday, I had two caches in the batch of three. Everyone received a notification for the first one (Topiary Trouble Too - GC6KVNP), but no one received a notification for the third (1616 - GC6PR9B). Our local caching group had an event that evening, so I announced it there and later in the Facebook group.

 

Now I have the third one that published almost 30 minutes ago (Oito-Oito-Dezesseis - GC6PVC4). Yes, I'm impatient given this apparent bug. One cache published; no notification. The title refers to 8-8-16 in Portuguese. Today's date. No notification. I haven't told friends. I haven't posted on our local Facebook group.

 

In the first two cases, no one who normally receives notifications received them for my two caches. By now, I would have received the notification on my new cache. This changes the game. I'm sad.

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Do those of you who are experiencing this issue have the "Tips & Tricks" box unchecked in your email preferences by chance?

 

I have the tips & tricks checked. I'm in Lancaster County PA and along with other cachers have been experiencing issues. It is not with ALL caches and even on the same day and possibly at same publish time I can get some notifications and not others.

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No notification for GC6PVKE this afternoon, but did get notification of another cache shortly thereafter. This also happened a few days ago. Hard to get those FTFs when you don't even know about the cache! How does a feature that has seemingly been working perfectly for at least three and a half years (as long as I have been using it) suddenly turn to poop?

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