contact form 7: continuous spinning arrows

FAQ > The spinning arrow icon shows up once I submit a form, but then nothing happens.

Yes, Takayuki, I’ve seen you list this FAQ line item for this recurring problem. I did try deactivating all my other plugins, however switching to the default theme is NOT an option for me. I guess I’ll have to find another contact form plugin.

Thanks for your speedy reply to my thread!
Cheers
tonigroshek.com

Hi,
I’m also trying to resolve a similar problem, the issue for me is that it is not consistently happening. I have a form on a site that in all of my own testing is working fine, but I know that it is failing to work for some people and they are just getting the spinning arrows.

In order to test this further I have set up a couple of triggers using jQuery so that I am alerted via an email when someone starts the form and when they actually click on the Submit button. I send this trigger emails using a simple plugin I made so these emails are sent directly to me and not via Contact Form 7.

I have now tracked a whole load of instances of the form being started and the Submit being clicked and then not working, approximately 50% of all submissions are now failing. It’s worth noting that I am getting all of the Start and Submit alert emails so this seems to indicate some issue within the Contact Form 7 plugin and it not being able to send.

Part of the problem in trying to debug this is that I am still yet to have it fail for me, I have tried using various different browsers on different devices and it all works fine, but my monitoring methods indicate that it is failing. If I could get it to fail for me then I could inspect the page and see if there are any javascript errors on the page or something weird going on!

I’m also in the position that I may have to stop using the plugin on this site if I can’t get this resolved. If there’s any additional info you can provide regarding the way that the plugin handles the submission then maybe I can debug things a bit further? It just seems odd that my own jQuery triggered emails are all going out fine but the actual form submissions don’t.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

That’s a lot of detail for a similar problem so instead of replying to an already resolved different topic why not just start your own?

https://www.ads-software.com/support/plugin/contact-form-7#postform

Hi, yep, I’ll do that.

Jan, allow me to humbly submit that this thread has not been “resolved”. In researching the abundance of forums for this particular issue of the “spinning arrows”, I have seen this plug-in author continue to “resolve” the issue with an incomplete fix. Switching to the default theme, as Takayuki suggests, is not an option for me, as I’m sure it is not for the bulk of those frustrated by this bug. I realize that with over 10 million FREE downloads, the plugin author’s hands are full. However, I’m surprised that the issue hasn’t been fixed by other authors, volunteers, etc.

@dcgroshek: I have started a new thread for my own issue now, but out of interest is your problem a consistent issue of spinning arrows or is it intermittent? The biggest problem I have is that it is intermittent and never seems to fail when I test but only for my client’s customers who use the site. I am seeing about a 50% failure rate on successful submissions.

Hi, yep, I’ll do that.

Thanks, much appreciated. ??

Jan, allow me to humbly submit that this thread has not been “resolved”

It’s your thread. Can you use the drop down on the right to mark it unresolved?

@rick: the spinning arrow problem is consistent w/100% failure at each attempt.

@jan: thank you for the suggestion

Switching to the default theme, as Takayuki suggests, is not an option for me, as I’m sure it is not for the bulk of those frustrated by this bug.

Actually that’s a 100% perfect and valid reply from the author. That’s just one of the default troubleshooting steps.

If there is something in your theme that is interfering with the plugin and switching to the Twenty Twelve theme resolves it then the issue is not with the plugin. It’s with your theme and that’s where it needs to be fixed.

@dcgroshek: Thanks, it sounds like your issue is different than the one I’m experiencing as mine is intermittently failing.

Thank you for clarifying that Jan. I’ll connect with the theme author and pursue a fix there. I assume that switching to the default theme will result in losing all created content/configurations with the theme I’m currently using, which is the Responsive Theme?

I assume that switching to the default theme will result in losing all created content/configurations with the theme I’m currently using, which is the Responsive Theme?

If you mean Emil’s theme https://www.ads-software.com/extend/themes/responsive then I would be shocked that that would lose any settings at all. ??

If you are running WordPress 3.5.1 then just switching to Twenty Twelve should not lose you anything. If you really want to be safe (safe is good) then keep and maintain a current file and database backup.

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/WordPress_Backups
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Backing_Up_Your_Database
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Restoring_Your_Database_From_Backup

Incredibly helpful and much appreciated, Jan!

Hi @dcgroshek, I just figured out the issue that was causing my problem which I’ve explained more fully in my own thread. However, I just thought I’d mention something here quickly in case it helps, for me the problem was the Apache mod_security module for Apache which had some anti-spam rules which prevented the form from submitting if certain drug / pharmaceutical names were mentioned in them (this form was for a Doctor’s practice website). I’m not sure if mod_security is running on your server but if it is and you’ve tried debugging via other means then it may be worth checking out.