Hi all...

Apologies for the late reply.

I just wanted to take a few minutes to explain why the cookie consent message reappears occasionally, so that you're fully informed about why we need to ask for consent again sometimes.

Occasionally, we need to add a new supplier to our list of suppliers. When we do this, a new supplier will appear in the "Vendor Preferences" at the bottom of the cookie popup. Because this is a new option, we have to show the popup again because previous consent options are now out of date. We therefore have to ask for consent again.

This doesn't happen when we make any change to the website as suggested above. It only happens when we make changes to our suppliers.

We understand that it can be frustrating to see the cookie popup from time to time when we make changes, but we'd prefer to make you aware and allow you to review your choices when things change, rather than making the changes without you being able to review your choices.

We are actively exploring other options at the moment and we hope that we'll be able to change the functionality and make it easier to reject all cookies in the coming months.

Thanks

Matt

Hi all...

We made some changes to the site today, which is why the cookie message has appeared again.

This was expected, but should only appear once for you to review your choices and then should disappear again.

Thanks

Matt

@SlopesOff Thanks for getting back in touch.

You're absolutely able to block unwanted cookies in Brave for Mumsnet, but unless we can store that you've seen the cookie message, it will appear on every page visit.

In Brave, if you select the "Cookies blocked" option for a site, that blocks every single cookie - both from the site owner and from 3rd parties - that may be in use on that site.

If that is the option that you've chosen, seeing the cookie message on each page is expected behaviour, and browsing other sites with the same settings will give you the same results. For example, browsing the BBC site with all cookies blocked will show their cookie message on every page, even if you accept all of their cookies and dismiss the message. This even happens on the ICO web site who are responsible for the cookie legislation.

I hope this helps to explain why you're seeing the cookie message multiple times.

Unfortunately, without being able to store that you've seen the message, we have to show it on every page.

Thanks

Matt

@SlopesOff Thanks for getting in touch. Apologies that it's taken me a day to get back to you.

What settings have you got for Cookies in Brave? If you click the lion icon on the right of the tab bar, there is a setting with three options:

• Cookies Blocked
• Cross-site cookies blocked
• All cookies allowed

What is this set to for you?

If it's set to block all cookies then we can't store that you've seen the cookie popup and you'll see it on every page.

Hope that helps.

Thanks

Matt

Hi all...

I'm really glad that it's fixed for everyone now

Please let me know if there are any more issues with this and I'll get them looked at as soon as possible.

Hopefully you can all enjoy MN distraction-free again now!

Thanks

Matt

Hi all...

We've had a message back from Google this morning to say that they have deployed a fix for the cookie popup showing all the time.

Could we please ask you to delete your existing cookies for the site and to try it again. We'd expect you to then see the popup once, but it not to continually appear after that. It may also help if you close any open tabs with Mumsnet open before clearing your cookies.

This should resolve the issue for everyone, but please carry on sharing any reports with us if that's not the case so that we can investigate further.

Once again, thank you for bearing with us whilst we've been waiting for this to be resolved. We know how frustrating this issue is and we really appreciate you sticking with us whilst we've been investigating and waiting for a fix.

Thanks again

Matt

Hi all...

Apologies for the lack of an update yesterday. We were still waiting on a response from Google as they are still investigating this issue.

Firstly, let me apologise that this issue is still happening. We know how frustrating this is and wish there was something we could actively do to help mitigate the issue; unfortunately we're in Google's hands at the moment. We did manage to replicate it on one of our devices yesterday and we've sent even more information over to the Google engineers.

Their response yesterday evening was that they are still actively looking at the problem and that they will update us as soon as possible.

@Katy75 The Times are using a different cookie consent implementation not hosted by Google, so their options will be different than ours. We don't have control over the buttons displayed in ours as they're set by Google.

We took another detailed look at this again yesterday with our Technical Lead and CTO stepping through every line of code at our end, and we're confident that this can only be resolved by the Google engineering team as it appears to be a problem at their end.

Once again, we're truly sorry that this is still continuing to happen. It shouldn't be. We expected that Google would have resolved the issue by now, but unfortunately that hasn't happened.

I'll give more updates as and when we get them.

Thank you for bearing with us again. I know that your patience is wearing. We're doing everything we can to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

Thanks

Matt

To you and everyone who's posted on this thread, thanks again for your patience. We know how frustrating this is (and we're sorry!) We will of course update you as soon as we've got some news.

Hi all

We're still waiting to hear back from google - really sorry for the delay but we will update as soon as we can.

Hi all...

We're still waiting for a Google Engineer to look at this issue. As they're based in the US, we're hopeful that we'll have some communication from them this afternoon.

I know this is frustrating, and it absolutely shouldn't be happening, but I can assure you that this will get resolved. At the moment we're in Google's hands so thank you for bearing with us whilst we wait for a resolution from them.

I'll keep you updated as we hear anything.

Thanks once again

Matt

Hi again, everyone. Thanks again for your patience with this - it's really appreciated.

We've had a call with Google and they've been able to replicate the problem themselves. It seems very much like this is a problem at their end and they've escalated the issue internally to try to get it resolved.

We're waiting once again for them to come back to us, but we're hopeful it will be sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, thank you once again for bearing with us. I understand how frustrating this is. As soon as we hear back from Google, I'll make sure to post back on here to give an update.

Thanks again

Matt

Once again, thank you for bearing with us whilst we try to get this issue resolved. I'm keeping a close eye on this thread and again, let me reassure you that we're doing everything we can to get this fixed.

@JollyAndBright It's interesting that DP's phone is also having this issue. Thank you for trying that. That could possibly suggest that this isn't a device-specific issue and could be a connection / location-dependant issue. That gives me something else to try in order to replicate this.

@AaronPurr We've had a number of the team try it on various devices. I've personally tested it on at least 6 different iOS devices I have available and it doesn't happen on any of them. I really do appreciate that it looks like it's a widespread issue but only a tiny fraction of our users are reporting this which makes it extremely difficult to pin down as it doesn't happen for the vast majority. That doesn't make it any less important, of course. This absolutely should not be happening and I can understand how frustrating it is for everyone who's experiencing it.

@OhCaptain We don't know for certain that it is a Google issue, but that's what we suspect at the moment as, apart from a small change yesterday to attempt to help with this issue, no other changes have been made to the code that handles that popup. We'll know more when we've managed to get one of their Technical Solutions Managers on the phone to help us troubleshoot more.

We're asking everyone at MNHQ to browse the site on their personal iOS devices in order to attempt to replicate this issue. We really do want to get this resolved, but without being able to sit with a device that has the issue and see what's different about it, it's really tricky.

If anyone who is experiencing this issue would be willing to jump on a call with me to share their screen so that I can see the issue happening, that would really help us to pin this down so that I can get it resolved. If you would be willing to do that, send me a private message or an email to [email protected] and we can arrange something.

Thanks again for your continued patience with us whilst we get this sorted out.

Matt

Thanks again to everyone for their patience with this. I know it's incredibly frustrating. It's frustrating for me, too, because I can't replicate it without the "Block all Cookies" setting being turned on.

I went to the extreme last night and factory reset my iPad to see if I could force it to show me the popup multiple times, but I couldn't get it to show it more than once.

As was explained in this thread, we're using a Google product that shows this popup. We've got a technical support request open with them to see if they can help us to rectify the problem and we're waiting one of their Technical Solutions Managers to get back to us.

This problem should absolutely not be happening for anyone, and I want to reassure you all again that this is being treated as the top priority at MNHQ. We want all of our users to be able to enjoy using the site, and problems like this spoil that enjoyment for the people that it affects.

I'm hoping to have another update for you later today, but I'll keep you all updated regardless.

Once again, thank you for bearing with us. We will get this resolved as soon as we possibly can.

Thanks

Matt

Thanks for bearing with us again whilst we debug this issue. It's really appreciated.

We've just made another small change to the code that controls this popup. We're not expecting this to fix the issue entirely, but it may help in some circumstances.

We're still actively looking at this to get the issue resolved for everyone.

We're still not seeing it happen in the same way that is being reported so it's a tricky one to get to the bottom of, but I can assure you that it's taking priority over here and that I'll keep you updated as we work through this.

Thanks again for your patience.

You can find this information by going to Settings, then General and then About. There are two pieces of information that would be really useful to know if possible, please:

• Software Version
• Model Name

I've attached another screenshot with those highlighted.

We're actively working on this and I want to give you my assurance that we're doing everything possible to get this particular problem resolved as quickly as we can.

Hi all... Matt from the Tech team here.

Thanks for bearing with us whilst we try to get to the bottom of this. I know it's incredibly frustrating to be seeing this behaviour on the site and I really do want to get to the bottom of it.

I've spent a bit of time trying to replicate the issue, both on real iOS devices that I have access to (iPhone XS, iPhone 11, iPhone 8 plus, iPhone 6S, iPad Air, iPad Pro 11") and on various Apple-supplied simulators that I can run.

I've managed to replicate it in a very specific set of circumstances on all of those devices.

If you go to your home screen, select Settings, then Safari and scroll down, there is a setting called Block all Cookies. Could you please check that that setting is turned off on your devices? I know that some of you are seeing this happen intermittently, but if you could check that setting it would really help us to eliminate something that could potentially be causing this.

I've attached a screenshot of the setting highlighted.

If you could let me know if this helps I'd really appreciate it, and hopefully we can get to the bottom of this together.

Thanks

Matt

Thanks for bearing with us - we know it’s hugely off-putting to repeatedly get these notifications and it shouldn’t be happening. It’s in all our interests to have a site which clean and simple to use and so please know that we’re doing all we can to get this sorted out.
As I explained on this thread in November, with regard to the legitimate interest toggles, these are on by default and we can’t change that, as it’s set that way by Google. However we are actively looking into whether we might be able to introduce a ‘reject all’ option and will update you as soon as we can confirm that.

Hi, @NoWordForFluffy & @OhCaptain

We have been testing on iPhones and iPads using Safari and Chrome. I've personally been testing with my iPhone on Safari and Chrome but haven't been able to see it appear on each page/ page refresh. We also use simulators to show how different devices, operating systems and browsers should behave.

We've managed to recreate the issue when logging in now but we are still not seeing it appear on every page/page refresh as some of you have reported. This is a good start though as we can now investigate the issue further.

It's difficult to debug something if you can't see it happening, which makes issues like this very hard to pin down.

As I said before if anyone is able or willing to share a video of the problem happening or jump on a call with us and share your screen, then it'll help us get to the bottom of it faster!

Thanks again for your help on this!

Hi all,

We didn't expect to see it on regular browsers because we've been unable to make it happen on our side.

If anyone is able/willing to record a video of you using the site so we can see the issue happening that would be super helpful - then send it to [email protected]

Alternatively, if anyone is willing to join a call with me and share your screen as you use the site then that would be even more helpful - if you are please contact me at [email protected] or indicate on this thread and I'll get in touch with you directly.

Thanks for all your patience and help trying to figure this one out.

Katie

Hi all,

Apologies it's taking a while for us to find this issue on our end as it's an intermittent issue and we've struggled to recreate it.

We've managed to recreate it in a private/incognito browser when a few different tabs are open it treats each one as a brand new session.

Can I ask you to confirm if you are using private/incognito browsers or regular browsers? This will help us troubleshoot further.

This feature is a Google product so we have registered the issue with their support team and are liaising with them about the issue in case it's a problem on their end.

Thank you for your patience, we hope to have a solution soon.

Katie @ MNHQ

Hi all

We know it's really frustrating and can assure you we're doing everything we can to get to the bottom of this. Please do continue to bear with us.

Hello everyone. Thanks for your continued patience. We quite understand if it's running out..

[Update - we're checking what we can do wrt editing the consent form]

Your details should be remembered until you clear cookies. It might show every time you visit the site if your browser automatically clears cookies - can we ask you to please check in your settings if this is the case? In Chrome it's under Settings - Privacy & Security and on Safari it's Preferences - Privacy.

This shouldn't happen page by page or in the same session and so we're continuing to investigate. In the meantime, please keep letting us know here when it happens as it all helps us figure it out.

Also - please note if you're browsing in incognito or private mode your cookies won't be saved.

Hi all

We're really sorry that this is still happening. We're still trying to resolve this so please do continue to bear with us.

Thank you all for letting us know, and thank you for your patience: we are on the case with trying to get this sorted.

So sorry that this is still plaguing so many of you - we hope to have an update/fix for you very soon.

Thank you to all of you for your patience with this - it's much appreciated.