# Site is no longer formatted for mobile, screen width is way too wide

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282>\
**Category:** Site Feedback\
**Created:** [May 11, 2022, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282 "2022-05-11T13:58:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/21 "2022-05-11T18:22:14Z")

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I think it is a broader issue. I haven’t had problems with the SDMB, where I’m using discourse classic, but I’m having problems on my laptop on another discourse message board, with about the same timing, and similar symptoms. (Stuff is scrolling off the screen.)

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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/22 "2022-05-11T18:43:56Z")

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A Tech has responded to **Ed Zotti**. The Discourse Team will hopefully resolve this soon.

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**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/23 "2022-05-11T21:37:07Z")

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They must have done **something** , because it looks normal again.

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**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/24 "2022-05-11T22:00:13Z")

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Mine is still messed up on my Android phone. (Google Pixel 4a)

EDIT: Ha! In the \<1 minute it took to post that, my problem is now around 97% resolved. I can see everything but it was still just a tiny bit too wide. I bet it’ll be fixed by the time I finish this edit. (Nope but good enough as it is anyway.)

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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/25 "2022-05-11T22:06:20Z")

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They’re reporting it was two problems, a major one with the footer and a minor one. The footer one is fixed, the minor one will be done after some more review on their side. So hopefully things are fairly useable again though not perfect.

I’ll update as I learn more.

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**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/26 "2022-05-12T02:46:32Z")

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Thanks! I think it just fixed everything (or most everything) as I was writing this message. It all looks normal again!

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**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/27 "2022-05-12T03:25:08Z")

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What is this? This is totally acceptable that they’ve fixed a problem in less than a day. This is what I expect from this site. Great job!

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/28 "2022-05-12T09:07:34Z")

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> [@What\_Exit](#):
>
> Discourse on the SDMB was apparently updated about 2 hours ago.

On a related note, it now doesn’t work at all in my old legacy browser that I refuse to let go of.

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**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/29 "2022-05-12T09:32:57Z")

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> [@GuanoLad](#):
>
> On a related note, it now doesn’t work at all in my old legacy browser that I refuse to let go of.&nbsp;

That’s to be expected. Older versions of most browsers become incompatible with Discourse pretty quickly.

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**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/30 "2022-05-12T13:20:20Z")

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Seems it’s still in the process of being worked on. Sometimes it will look fine, and then I’ll click in a thread and it’ll be just a bit too wide.

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**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/31 "2022-05-12T21:14:28Z")

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I’m using an old iPhone 6 with an old iOS (12.5.4, unable to update further).

Ever since the Discourse update yesterday afternoon, the Straight Dope Message Board appears only as a featureless white screen – both in Safari and Chrome. No banner, text, buttons, posts, images … nothing at all. Just a sea of white.

No changing themes because there’s no way to change that. Any ideas?

I checked Safari’s settings - Javascript is enabled, and I know without that the Discourse board software will not work. Anything else I could be checking?

I also did all the basic stuff (restart phone, clear cache, clear history, etc.). Nada.

EDIT: Just wanted to add – up until yesterday afternoon (US CDT), the SDMB was working perfectly. Then, just like that - _[snap!]_ - nothing but white.

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**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/32 "2022-05-12T21:58:58Z")

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These sites seem to give the skinny on what GuanoLad and I are experiencing:

> **[Blank page when using iPhone 6 since last 16th March](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blank-page-when-using-iphone-6-since-last-16th-march/221463/9)**
>
> Just would like to let everyone know that I have the same issue. I have an iPhone 6S running iOS 12.2, which btw I don’t plan on replacing or updating. I am an active user at https://support.last.fm/ but since a few days ago I just get a blank...

> **[Discourse not loading on legacy browsers](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-not-loading-on-legacy-browsers/221412/30)**
>
> For iOS \< 13 or deprecated Firefox Fennec on Android, we should be showing the HTML view. However, we are failing to do that because there is no HTML view due to which is in our code base since forever. Including the crawler content so we...

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2022, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/33 "2022-05-15T05:02:27Z")

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And for those who don’t want to read all the way down:

The most recent change was caused by a bug, and they have started rolling out a fix. Hopefully @bordelond and @GuanoLad are able to access the site again.

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2022, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/34 "2022-05-15T05:41:59Z")

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🤞 Fingers crossed! Right now I’m reduced to using a proper modern browser that is ugly and has many of my favourite legacy features missing. Or using my phone.

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**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2022, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/35 "2022-05-15T16:25:06Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> The most recent change was caused by a bug, and they have started rolling out a fix. Hopefully @bordelond and @GuanoLad are able to access the site again.

As of about 3 hours ago, not yet.

Reading several threads over on Discourse’s developers forums … I don’t think they’re particularly sympathetic to the old phone/old browser folks. I get it – they can’t make Discourse 100% perfect for all users, so with each software update, they’ll always leave a small number of users behind. For my old iPhone, I guess, my number is now up.

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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/36 "2022-05-15T19:19:46Z")

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As someone that use to do some web development. You usually only test for major browsers and recent builds. I remember customers complaining that their IE7 didn’t work with our site in 2011.

My sarcastic thought, “I’m so sorry your 5 year out of date worst browser choice doesn’t work with our website.”

* * *

**How out of date is your browser?**  
The browser should be more important than the OS or hardware.

If it is over 2 years out of date, I wouldn’t expect a fix. It could happen, but I wouldn’t expect it. But I’m not the developing staff so I could be way off base.

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**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/37 "2022-05-15T19:24:23Z")

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But old hardware doesn’t always run new browsers.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2022, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/38 "2022-05-15T19:32:30Z")

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True and it might take some searching for a near state of the art browser for an iPhone 6. I’m guessing **Opera** is worth checking out. They kind of pride themselves on being niche and working on older stuff.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2022, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/39 "2022-05-15T19:58:14Z")

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> [@bordelond](#):
>
> > [@BigT](#):
> >
> > The most recent change was caused by a bug, and they have started rolling out a fix. Hopefully @bordelond and @GuanoLad are able to access the site again.⁢
> 
> As of about 3 hours ago, not yet.
> 
> Reading several threads over on Discourse’s developers forums … I don’t think they’re particularly sympathetic to the old phone/old browser folks. I get it – they can’t make Discourse 100% perfect for all users, so with each software update, they’ll always leave a small number of users behind. For my old iPhone, I guess, my number is now up.⁢

Supposedly the iPhone 6 (with iOS 12) is the very phone they are targeting with this change. So, if it still doesn’t work, I would actually suggest reporting it there.

The thread I read (the last one in your post) says that the last thing they want to do is show a blank page.

I wonder if we’re on of those remaining sites that gets updates later than the rest, due to the extra options we use. I’m going to page @codinghorror to see if he knows about this.

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**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/site-is-no-longer-formatted-for-mobile-screen-width-is-way-too-wide/964282/40 "2022-05-15T20:13:48Z")

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All I know is that the footer width is still all fucked up on my Pixel 4a and it’s really annoying.

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