Its not a vbulletin issue & there isnt any issue to resolve.

Here, let me explain it to you in a step-by-step chronological fashion:

1. VDF was totally functional, and it automatically logged myself in (and several other people who now have logging in issues)

2. VDF switched to a whole new format/program/whatever that was earlier this year. I had to resign myself in, now with a new password because my old one wouldn't work for whatever reason. I got signed in, and automatic signing in worked for that program.

3. VDF switched back to vBulletin. ***Suddenly, at this point, automatic logging in no longer worked for me*** (or for the other people that expressed the same sentiment). ***Nothing had changed at my end at this point.***

4. It was suggested that I upgrade all of my browsing software. I did, thinking that maybe there was some sort of incompatibility issue with vBulletin 3.8.7 and my current browsers. I checked other online forums I am a part of, and vBulletin 3.8.0 doesn't have this issue, nor does 3.6.12.

5. So, I upgraded my browsers to their most current versions (5 of them...3 on a Mac, and 2 on an Android). That still didn't resolve the issue that started back in step 3 (refer back to the starred sentences above in step 3).

6. Currently, I'm unable to experience automatic sign in, and am being told two things again and again:

6a. The issue is on MY side

6b. There is no issue

7. Now, I have laid out the inherent flaw in argument 6a (read steps 1 through 5 for a refresher, if need be--it should be VERY CLEAR at this point that argument 6a is simply illogical). The flaw in 6b is merely my observation that there continues to be an issue. If there wasn't, I probably wouldn't be back to this thread, "defending" my position. Although I might press a bit about how ridiculous it is for the response to an issue of the website being in the forms of 6a and 6b above, and might make an analogy something like this:

Me: "Help! My house is on fire! Please help me, firemen!"

Fireman 6a: "Well, MY 4 houses aren't on fire, so yours shouldn't be either. This is YOUR problem, and no I won't help."

Fireman 6b: "Nah, your house isn't on fire."

Me: *facepalm* "Okay, fire experts, THIS is a piece of wood, and THIS is fire, and...."

Anyways, that's where we now stand.

I'm sorry that you feel like you are talking to idiots who don't understand simple logic. All I can do at my end is assure you that the symptoms you report are all consistent with a commonly reported cookie problem. Consider the possibility that the "cookie problem" is a second theory which also fits the facts, and it is commonly reported. We need to eliminate the known common cookie problem before we can proceed.

There is a well documented problem (much older than the current shift within vB3) where any kind of issue with the format of your cookie prevents it from being updated. The programmers who wrote vB failed to get forward and backwards compatibility working properly. And they failed to write some fallback code so that a cookie which isn't quite usable just gets deleted. So you have to do it yourself.

When we leapt forward to vB5 that may have left a cookie which has a different style to vB3 cookies. That's why I'm not sure if there could be more than one, or pieces of more than one, left hanging around. Yes the vB programmers should have done better, but that's completely out of our hands. It's not a site specific configurable thing. It's built in. And waiting for vB to fix something which has been around for years, on an old version which is 2 major releases behind the current version (5 -- with all it's ugliness)...well you would be waiting rather a long time. Maybe they (vB) would blame the people who wrote the browser. Either way, the result is it isn't yet fixable because we can't reproduce it. You can. We can't.

So yes, somebody didn't do a very good job of cookies. Thus you have to delete the cookie (or cookies) in your browser. Then you must be sure and clear any buffers where the browser might be storing the cookie (or other info) in cache. Next you restart your browser. Then and only then log back in manually once more, tick the "Remember Me?" box, and it might start working again. Or it might not for 5 other reasons I can think of, which we can work through one at a time. But the cookie issue is the most common problem (based on number of reports) so it is the most likely starting point.

But before I feel like spending more time trying to help you I'm going to need to hear that you are willing. It would be best if we try the process together on just one machine and one browser. I'm sitting at a Mac using Safari, so from my standpoint that would be an easy place to start. So first you have to agree to try out some things on Safari. I'll reply giving you the best instructions I can about just what to do. We can take it to PM if you wish. It will be a dialog.

The great bulldozer of science may be slow and cumbersome but we will get there in the end. We must eliminate all possibility of known bugs (again, not new ones due to any changes or patches or local customizations at VDF, they have been in vB for years) which might be at work. And in doing the carefully documented steps of diagnosis we may find a workaround for you. And if we don't we will then have the kind of documentation you need to get somebody else to find and fix a bug.

It's up to you if you want me to help you.

I've had some success with issues similar to this in the past. This pertains to Internet explorer and Windows 7. Tools>Internet options>General>Delete>check all and delete. Also under Internet options, Go to the Advanced tab and choose Reset near the bottom. This is a big reset that returns IE to the default settings.

In some cases because we use Windows 7 enterprise, I delete the contents of the Temp folder C:\users\username\appdata\local\temp\

Finally in some cases I have to click the start button, click the avatar at the top of the menu above the username> select manage your credentials>Click on any credentials you see under (Windows Credentials, Certificate-Based credentials or Generic Credentials) > remove from vault.

This works for many of the problems related to accessing web sites and remembering password at my job, however I work in an Enterprise environment where it may not work for someone logging in from home. I would also like to state that this is something to try and I am in no way saying the problem is with you or the web site.

Thank you. I believe you have put this aspect of the issue much better than I have so far. It's about finding a solution however you can. It's not about who is wrong and who is right.

It's not that. What I felt was a brushing off, a denial of my issue. I felt as though I was communicating that there was an issue, and was facing a dismissal in several forms, an invalidation as it were. The lack of automatic log in is of little matter to me. My continued persuing of the matter stemmed from a disbelief that this is the way that technical problems are addressed and attended to on this site. It didn't seem to set the proper precedent.

I will look into the cookie problem a little more in depth when I get home. I have already dealt with that, twice, but maybe I missed something. Thanks for the suggestion.