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Over the past few months, whenever I go to download a file from ‘My Downloads’, all the files seem to have the message ‘Contacting Personalizer. Check back in a minute.’
Typically its some 5 or 10 minutes before checking back seems to do anything, and then, when the ‘Personalize this file’ link is finally available, and I click on it … it goes back to ‘Contacting Personalizer. Check back in a minute.’ Cycle repeats, sometimes several times before I can finally personalize and download.
I do not think I am trying to download at particularly high traffic times (but maybe I am?), for example I rarely try to download something as soon as it has been released (for me its usually at least a couple of weeks later).
Is there anything that I or Paizo can do to speed up this process? Thanks in advance.
At a 'bad' time I've spent considerable periods repeating that process. When I've intermittently spent half an hour getting try again messages and when I get the personalize this file option clicking it only to get the Try Again response as a result it can be frustrating.
One thing I've noticed is that it's a lot worse when using a dialup connection. When I borrow the use of the household broadband I never need more than one or two reloads of the page to get something, but on dialup I can spend 5 minutes trying to get a download, do something else for 5 minutes as a break, then repeat for up to half an hour before getting anywhere.
Senior Software Developer
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Wow, I can understand how that would be frustrating. If you're on dialup and you see "contacting personalizer", try refreshing the page immediately.
If you're on a broadband connection with relatively low latency (e.g., cable modem, T-1, FIOS, DSL, etc.), refreshing immediately really won't help... Wait 20 seconds. If you're on a broadband connection with very, very high latency -- on the order of several seconds or so (i.e., your connection literally bounces through a satellite) -- then try waiting five or ten seconds before refreshing.
These recommendations assume the site isn't getting slammed with abnormal traffic... If it takes a minute for the front page to start loading, yeah, you might want to wait ten minutes and try again. (If it takes ten seconds to get to your My Downloads page, part of that time is spent talking to the personalizer, so that's a less good measure of the current load.)
(Secret pro-tip: If the website appears to be completely unresponsive, delete any cookie from paizo.com named "woinst". That tells the site to send your requests to any available instance instead of the last instance you were using. If your instance was bogged down for some reason this may get you onto one that is ready to handle new requests.)
I've had issues similar to Mothman's. It's especially annoying when I'm trying to get a fresh copy of something recently updated. I might have to go through this cycle over and over again:
1. Scroll down through dozens of more recent items to reach the link for the updated item, hit "Personalize"
2. Display jumps to the top of the screen and refreshes.
3. Scroll down through dozens of more recent items to return to the link, only to find it says "Check back in a minute"
4. Wait 30-60 seconds; click the "Check back" link.
Repeat Steps 2-4 as often as needed, occasionally 8 or 10 repetitions.
5. Scroll down through dozens of more recent items to return to the link, and see that it has finally repersonalized and is ready for download; click the Download link.
6. Display jumps to the top of the screen and processes the download request, producing the familiar yellow bar to be right-clicked.
And....we're done.
If the scrolling down could be elimitated it would shorten the process some. How far away are we from having the option to "Show only what's been updated since my last download?"
And the frustration continues. I've spent something like two hours today, over the course of three different sessions at various times, trying to download a half dozen PDFs.
Over and over and over and over again it's "Contacting personalizer, please wait", followed by a screen refresh where nothing has changed.
Link, wait, scroll, no joy; link, wait, scroll, no joy. I've managed to download two PDFs in all that time. What is the problem?
Why is it even necessary to instruct the page to Personalize, then refresh the screen in hopes that's been done, then Download as a third step (on the occasions when that even works in the first round?) I already had to enter a password to get to My Downloads; the server knows who it's talking to; why can't I just Download and let it do the multistage operation on its own?
Also, when will the Downloads page be as smart as the one at RPG Now, which lists separately all the files that have changed since my last download?
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I attempted to download last night, and only once got the screen to say anything other than contacting personalizer. After I clicked personalize, the screen went back to saying contacting personalizer. Never was able to get the file (one I believe is fairly small). I was doing this about an hour before Damon Griffin posted his issues. I was asked for my password only a couple times, so that is much better than the last time I posted in this thread.
Just to balance out all the negative vibes . . .
I haven't had any issues with my downloads. I might refresh once when I get the "Check back in a minute" message, but considering some tech issues I've had in the past, that's nothing.
No problems here. Just lots of fun downloads to browse through!
I think we're having some network problems between the website server and the personalizer (they're at separate locations) which can cause the "contacting personalizer" message to be returned much more than normal. I'm contacting our ISP to see if they can find the fault.
Ah, good to know. Thanks!
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Recently you change the personalize on the downloads so that it can take up to 60 seconds before you can download. The only problem is that the downloads page kicks a person out if they haven't done anything for 1 minute. I have to keep signing in and then personalize again.
Sometimes it is a vicious circle trying to download something.
Could you please lengthen the amount of time the download page has not been clicked before it kicks you out?
Thanks.
System Administrator
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There are occasionally session time outs but they are far longer than 60 seconds. I guess I'm having trouble understanding exactly what's happening. Generally you go to a link, if it can't get it done within a certain time, it lets you know that it will take a little longer and asks you to click the link 60 seconds later. Is it asking you to login again when you click that or is something else happening?
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I click the link to download. It says it is personalizing and please wait 60 seconds.
I wait the 60 seconds and click the link. Instead of starting the download like it usually does, it takes me to the 'Home' screen.
I have to click 'My Downloads' again, and it takes me to the sign-on screen for gaining access to personal areas. It has timed me out.
When I get back to the downloads page, the PDF I was trying to download does not show that it is ready to be downloaded. I have to start over by clicking the PDF I want to download.
Sometimes it will personalize really fast, other times it will say I have to wait 60 seconds for it to personalize before I click to download.
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System Administrator
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In the worst case scenario, you shouldn't have to personalize more than twice. That would only happen under certain circumstances however that would be pretty rare. I'm wondering if something else is having trouble there... Usually, you get the 60 seconds prompt after it can't do it within a certain time, I think that's 1 second but don't quote me on that. You can click it before the 60 seconds, if it's not done, it won't hurt it at all but don't just sit and click it forever. But you can do a test every 10 seconds or so.
I just got my shipping notice and tried to download my PDFs. I have so far gone through over five minutes of clicking on a file every 30-50 seconds and have gotten nowhere. I was using Mozilla Firefox but will try other browsers now -- however, I would be very surprised if that makes any difference.
Okay, I am very surprised. I switched over to Google Chrome and was able to download all four of my files, with only one "personalizing" message coming up, and it went away when I tried again 30 seconds later.
Since somebody else reported an issue when they started with Google Chrome, I don't think the choice of browsers is the issue. Either switching browsers makes some sort of helpful difference, or it is just a matter of timing.