Thread

ExpressionEngine 1.6.2
Build:  20080225

Just installed the MSM on a site. I tried to switch sites while in the CP to update the system prefs and set up new templates. Site wouldn’t switch. Stayed on the original.

I then logged out and tried to log back in but couldn’t get beyond the login page.

Using another browser (IE), I logged in and turned off the MSM under the general configs. This allowed me to get back into the CP in Firefox. I’ve now turned the MSM back on but I still can’t switch sites.

If it matters, there are no values in the cookie settings and we’re using cookies and sessions for CP access (required).

Any ideas on why I can’t switch sites?

Temporarily try setting it to sessions only for CP access, then go through each site and do set a cookie domain (only a cookie domain, not a path or prefix, leave those blank), then switch back to cookies and sessions and see if that helps =)

OK -

I’ve temporarily updated the Control Panel Session Type to “Session ID only”.
I’ve updated the cookie domain on the one site to .first-site.com

Just for kicks, I also deleted all my site cookies, history, temp files etc from the browser, closed the browser, and reopened it. I still can’t switch sites to update the cookie domain on the other site.

While I don’t think it’s relevant, I’ll note that we don’t have DNS pointing to the second site yet. The site is temporarily accessed via first-site.com/secondsite/

We need both sites using sessions temporarily, so add this to your config.php:

$conf['admin_session_type'] = "s";

and let’s see if you can switch sites.

Done.

Nope. Still can’t switch sites.

Ok, can you try putting admin.php into your second site’s folder and logging in directly?  See these docs

Right on. That worked. I can log in and I can switch sites.

So…

1. We have over 50 licenses, almost all with MSMs, and this is the only one doing this. What’s going on?

2. We don’t want to use masked access to the CP. How can we fix this?

Ok, in your second site, did you check the cookies for it, now that you can get to it?

Right now, the Cookie Domain for the second site is blank.

Given that we’re not pointing DNS to the site right now and we’re accessing the templates via a directory off the first site, are you saying that the Cookie Domain values on the second site should be the same as the first site?

Yes, I would definitely suggest filling that out with the correct domain and seeing it you can switch sites.

OK - that works. Both sites have the same Cookie Domain value for the time being and when we point DNS to the second site, I can adjust the values.

Thank you so much for your help.

I still don’t understand what’s going on though. We have a number of EE licenses, most with MSMs. To date, we’ve always left the cookie domain values blank and haven’t had any issues.

I would recommend always setting the cookie domains, as that’s usually the first thing we troubleshoot when we do this. Do make sure to remove that sessions line from your config.php as well, and make sure you can still switch sites. =)

Will do. Thanks again for the assistance, Lisa.

Sorry - one last thing.

I removed the sessions line we added in the config file and I updated the Control Panel Session Type settings back to “Cookies and session ID”

Now I can’t log into the original site via the normal /system path.

In which Site did you change the session type?