I Can Not Comment on any WordPress Blogs
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Every time I attempt to post a comment to a WordPress.com blog, I get the message “Sorry, you must be logged in to comment.” I am always logged in to my WordPress account when I receive this message. I have tried on multiple browsers (Chrome, Safari) with the same result. Any solutions?
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Hi there,
Can you please make sure that you have third-party cookies activated in your browsers. That’s the most likely reason why this would be happening:
Preview Problems and Third Party Cookies
Failing that, can you please provide the URL of a post where you’ve tried to leave a comment and received this error message?
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Third party cookies are enabled. This is a sample post that I’ve been unable to comment upon: https://thewayofimprovement.com/2017/03/11/keep-an-eye-on-the-ball/
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Third party cookies are enabled. This is a sample post that I’ve been unable to comment upon: https://thewayofimprovement.com/2017/03/11/keep-an-eye-on-the-ball/
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I checked that site’s settings and you should be able to comment there.
The error you describe is almost always cookie-related, so if it’s not cookies that are disabled, it could be an expired login cookie stuck in your browser. Can you please try clearing cookies and see if that helps?
Can you also check if using a different connection has different results. For example, can you comment if you use the browser on your mobile phone, and on the mobile network instead of wifi?
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I emptied my cookies and cache in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and still cannot post there from my computer. However, I was able to post there from my phone.
Thanks for your ongoing help.
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Thanks for checking on your phone. That confirms that it’s not an issue with your account, but is restricted to your computer.
I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be able to comment, so we’ll need to test the different possible causes until we find the one that explains it. We’ve ruled out the most common issues, so let’s try some uncommon ones.
When using those browsers, do you use a regular browsing session or incognito/private mode? While that mode should save cookies and only delete them once you close the browser, I have come across it before that it can interfere with the regular functioning of cookies, which could explain this.
Another option is if you have any anti-malware, anti-virus, or security software installed on your computer which might be overriding your browser settings, especially if that software also installs a browser add-on in the browsers. Can you try starting Firefox in safe mode, i.e. with all add-ons disabled, and see if that works?
Then can you please try leaving a comment with the browser’s JavaScript console open and see if it shows any errors when you submit a comment? Take a screen shot of any errors you see and upload it to a service like cloudup.com or snag.gy and paste the link here:
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I have been unable to comment again through my phone. Changing wifi networks also made no difference for my computer.
I am not using incognito mode. I was unable to post using Firefox’s safe mode, and the Javascript console (on Chrome) showed no errors when I tried to comment.
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I’ll admit this one has me a bit stumped. The problem is definitely not with your username account, but I had a look at your Gravatar profile and I see you have two emails listed on that profile.
When you comment, do you just click on the comment box while logged into WordPress.com and write your comment, or do you fill out a name and email address? And if the latter, are you perhaps using the second email address on your profile, the gmail one, instead of your primary email? Can you check what happens if you use the different email?
Otherwise, please walk me through exactly what you do when you try to leave a comment. Where you click. What info the comment form asks you to insert, and the exact wording of the error that appears when you submit the comment.
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I typically fill out the comment box, click the WordPress icon to log in, and it logs me in automatically because I am already logged in here.
Sometime after clicking the WordPress icon I have to log in manually, to the same result.
Here is an album of the last attempt: http://imgur.com/a/UYVVz
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Thank you for the screen shots. If you’re already logged in you shouldn’t need to click the WordPress icon at all. You should just be able to click in the comment box and type your comment.
But based on those screen shots the site is not seeing you as already logged in. When you go to that site, do you see the black admin bar across the top of the screen?
Can you please try leaving a comment on my site, here, and check if you can see the admin bar there, and if the comment box also prompts you to log in.
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I was unable to post on your bog. This was the error message/page I received: http://imgur.com/a/XtpRM
I tried logging out and posting a couple of times, including ensuring that I was logged out everywhere.
I do not see a black admin bar anywhere I go where I use WordPress
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Your comment actually posted successfully on my site, but only once. It’s in the moderation queue, but it went through.
I do not see a black admin bar anywhere I go where I use WordPress
If you are logged into your WordPress.com account you should see the admin bar across the top of the screen on any site on WordPress.com you visit. This again points to your browser not correctly tracking you as logged in. But that shouldn’t be happening across different browsers and devices.
I see you changed your account email about a month ago. Please go to https://gravatar.com/emails and completely remove your Gmail address there. Then again clear your browser cache and cookies, log into WordPress.com, and try to comment.
I came across an old issue that appears to be very similar to yours, and based on the information on that case this might do the trick.
I know this must be frustrating. Thanks for your patience while we figure this out from apparently opposite sides of the world and for trying all my suggestions :)
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Deleted my gmail address from the account and clear cache and cookies. Now when I log into WordPress this site (i.e. the forum we’re on) has the the black admin bar.
However, no other site does. I tried to leave a comment on your blog and got the same message.
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If I go to a website with “.wordpress.com” in the URL, I see the admin bar and am able to comment there (e.g. football.wordpress.com). But still not with other sites.
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Okay, that’s progress. What might be happening here is that the old email was stuck in the system, as it wasn’t automatically removed from Gravatar when you first changed it a month ago.
However, I see you now changed the email address to the Gmail one and back again between posting the two threads. It would have been better not to do that, as after removing the Gmail address in Gravatar our system needed time to update anywhere that the email might have been cached. By making those changes you might have prevented or delayed this from happening.
By the time you come online anything that needs to update should have completed. Can you please try again?
If you still don’t see the admin bar on my site or another site with a custom domain (note, you’ll only see this on WordPress.com sites with custom domains, not self-hosted sites), please take a screen shot for me of the information on this page:
https://www.whatismybrowser.com/
Please make sure you edit out the IP addresses and location before uploading that screen shot.
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Ok, I emptied all the cache and cookies again.
I still don’t see an admin bar on your site. Here is the info on my browser: http://imgur.com/a/lHrcg
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Can you please try disabling the ad-blocker in your browser?
And just to confirm, you logged in before checking my site, correct?
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Well…I feel stupid.
I had disabled my ad blocker multiple times during this process, but I had an anti-tracking extension (Privacy Badger) on that was catching the WordPress log in. The JavaScript console did not catch that.
By disabling Privacy Badger, or by approving the WordPress login feature in Privacy Badger, I can now see the black admin bar and comment on those sites. I don’t have that extension on my phone or on my other browsers, so I don’t know why it wasn’t working there.
Thank you so much for your patience and diligence.
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Hooray! I’m glad you managed to figure it out. Strange that incognito mode in Chrome didn’t work then, as that should run with all extensions disabled. But it’s possible you have an exception added for Privacy Badger that it must run in incognito mode as well. If you set an exception in Privacy Badger for WordPress.com, and the domains of specific sites on custom domains that you visit regularly, you should be able to both use that extension and be able to comment without running into this problem again.
I think on your phone and other browsers it might have been the email issue.
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