Second in a series on common Sitecore CMS bugs is another issue that has been observed across multiple versions of the 6.4 family.
Following a configuration or server change of some type you find yourself unable to login to the CMS in ‘Desktop Mode’. While ‘Content Editor’ and ‘Page Editor’ modes work, any attempt to reach /sitecore/shell/ results in a web server timeout. On checking the Sitecore logs you’ll find a successful login audit and after triple-checking you’ll also find the connectionstrings used by the site to access the ‘core’ database are valid and working.
Attempts to reach /sitecore/shell via the login page will simply see the browser waiting icons and eventually the page times out. This can prove a little inconvenient as a lack of access to ‘Desktop Mode’ stops you from doing vitally important CMS tasks such as installing packages, changing the wallpaper or making your user icon into “that wizard dude”.
Clik here to view.
The wheel, it just keeps spinning. Eventually the page times out, you feel disappoint.
After encountering this a couple of times and losing many hours attempting to fix it, the following troubleshooting steps are suggested.
- (Obvious) Check the Sitecore file-system permissions; /Data folder and /Website root inherited permissions, if you’re unsure check the Sitecore installation guide for detailed permission information
- To follow step 1, @gravypower from Igloo has conquered this problem by “moving the /Data folder”. This will likely require a stop/restart of your application pool
- What has finally worked for me, and thanks to Dan McGuane from Sitecore Helpdesk for suggesting this, was to give the IIS user write permissions to the /Windows/temp folder. “Duh…” you might say but I’m pretty sure that’s not suggested in the installation guide
- Throw a civilised party for yourself and your development team, you’ve saved the day! Take the week off to reward yourself.
- If problems persist, install Fiddler and reproduce the issue while debugging, save the SAZ file and send it to Sitecore Helpdesk along with your /App_Config folder contents. They should be able to fix it in under 24 hours so that you and your development team can still take the week off!
