Basic Troubleshooting

Fundamental Steps to Take When Users Encounter Bugs

Users encounter errors (often called bugs) all the time. Sometimes it's an issue on the developer's end, but more commonly it's an issue on the user's end. There are many things on the user's end that might be causing the issue, such as a hardware failure, browser incompatibility, leaving a window open for too long, etc. To combat the waste of time that is chasing down bugs that don't exist, there are steps that can be taken to verify whether a bug exists in the tool, or if the error is specific to that user.

Replicate the Issue

Note! Before any of these steps are taken, try to replicate the issue that the user is describing. Using an up-to-date computer and a modern browser (Google Chrome is recommended), go to the tool they're having issues with and see if you are running into the same bugs. If you find the same issue (or any other issue for that matter), then it's identified as an actual error it becomes something that a developer will need to address. A ticket should then be created for that issue, and the user should be notified that it is being worked on. The rest of these steps can then be ignored.

Troubleshooting Steps

If you are unable to replicate the issue that the user is talking about, then it's likely a problem on their end. These are the most critical steps to have the user take (in order!) to try to solve the problem.

1. Hard Refresh the Page

   1. A hard refresh is different than simply clicking the refresh button in the browser. A hard refresh reloads the page without any of the stored materials from the last time it accessed the page. To perform a hard refresh, press ctrl + shift + R.

2. Use a Modern Browser

   1. Browsers like Internet Explorer and Edge are built dramatically different than other browsers. As such, many tools will either not display properly or may not work at all. These are unsolvable issues and the user should be strongly encouraged to use either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

3. Manually Clear the Cache

   1. Sometimes a hard refresh isn't enough to root out old stored content in a browser, and a manual clearing of cache and cookies can do that. If a user doesn't know how to do that themselves, they can learn how to do that here.

4. Restart the Computer

   1. As the old adage goes: "Did you try turning it off and back on again?" This is a last ditch effort, though sometimes it's necessary. Perhaps their computer hasn't been turned off in weeks and is waiting to install critical updates. Or maybe a process is hung up on their computer and is interfering with other tasks. Either way, restarting a computer can help with a lot of different issues that the user might not be aware of.

If you were unable to replicate the user's issue and none of the above steps helped to alleviate their problem, then open a ticket and a developer will look into it.