Supported web browsers and troubleshooting browser-related issues
This article provides detailed information about the web browsers we support, troubleshooting browser-related issues, and browser short-cut tips.
Audience: Authorised Representatives, IT Specialist, and anyone experiencing browser-related issues.
Summary
The following list summarises the content within this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- Supported web browsers
- Troubleshooting browser-related issues
- Which browser am I currently using?
- What are 'cookies'?
- Clearing the SupportAbility cookies in Chrome
- What is the 'cache'?
- Reasons why you may need to flush your cache
- How to flush your web browser's cache
- What is 'auto-fill'?
- Reasons why you may need to turn off auto-fill functionality
- How to turn off auto-fill in your browser
- Browser Extensions
- Page not loading - Time Out error
- Web browser short-cut tips
Supported web browsers
For the best results, we recommend using the Google Chrome web browser when accessing the SupportAbility Web App. Download Google Chrome
From the upgrade to SupportAbility 8.11 (October 2024), the minimum browser versions required to run SupportAbility optimally are as follows:
- Google Chrome 113 - (April 2023)
- Microsoft Edge 114 - (May 2022)
- Firefox 114 - (June 2023)
- Safari 15 - (September 2021)
- Safari (for iOS on iPad) 15 - (September 2021)
- Internet Explorer - Not supported
If Staff Members are accessing SupportAbility from a web browser that does not meet these minimum requirements, they will see a warning message on their Dashboard to this effect:
Troubleshooting browser-related issues
Which browser am I currently using?
If you are unsure as to which browser you are currently using, when logged in to SupportAbility navigate to 'My Staff Account' from the Dashboard:
Open the 'My System Details' tab:
The 'Browser' details will be displayed as follows:
What are 'cookies'?
'Cookies' are small text files, that are stored on your computer's browser directory and created when you use your browser to visit a website that uses cookies. The purpose of cookies is to keep track of your movements within the site, help you resume where you left off, remember your registered login, theme selection, preferences, and other customization functions. Sometimes however these cookies are not helpful in that they automatically redirect the user to parts of a web page which were not intended.
Clearing the SupportAbility cookies in Chrome
If you are experiencing problems logging in, where you are automatically being redirected to a specific Client, Staff or Activity record rather than to the Dashboard, you may need to clear the 'cookies' as the first step in trying to rectify this issue.
There are a number of different ways to clear cookies in the browser and some of them are more effective than others.
We recommend commencing with clearing the SupportAbility Cookies only.
Please be aware that this process will automatically log you out of SupportAbility, so please ensure all work is saved before undertaking these steps.
Begin by logging in and going to the dashboard page of your SupportAbility installation.
- Click on the lock icon to the left of the web browser address bar
- Click on 'Cookies' (second option from the bottom of the list)
- Select your installation domain name in the list, then click the 'Remove' button
- Click the Done button
- Refresh the browser page
- Log in (please be aware that in some cases, you may be asked to enter your shared username and password again)
Reinstalling Chrome
If clearing the SupportAbility Cookies was not effective, then the issue may be due to the Chrome browser caching specialised page parameters such as redirections. Unfortunately, Chrome provides no easy way to clear this style of cache, and therefore Chrome may need to be removed and reinstalled. If you decide to pursue this option, please ensure that your Chrome settings (bookmarks, etc) are fully backed up or synced to your google account before removing Chrome from your computer, to ensure you don't lose them.
What is the 'cache'?
A 'cache' or 'Temporary Internet File' is created when a browser downloads a web page (including SupportAbility) and stores it locally on your computer's hard drive, in order to facilitate faster access, load times and a speedier browsing experience for the user. Then when you visit the same page for a second time, the browser loads the page locally from the 'cache' instead of downloading everything again from the internet.
Graphic images (such as buttons and icons), photos, and even entire web pages are examples of items that are saved or cached. When visiting a webpage your browser checks first to see if a copy of the files on the page already exists in its cache, and uses these to speed up the process.
Reasons why you may need to flush your cache
The main reason a user might need to flush the 'cache' in their browser is that the cached link may be preventing them from seeing the most up-to-date version of a webpage; or it can also cause the webpage to load improperly or fail to load at all.
Other issues you may experience when the 'cache' fills up, is that performance can slow down, and/or your hard drive may run out of storage space.
To ensure you are always seeing the latest version of a web page, high performance is maintained, and you do not run out of storage space, it is recommended to clear the cache memory, from time to time.
This isn't generally an issue for SupportAbility as we regenerate the links to these items on each release so that users' browsers do not use a cached version. However, should you experience an occasion when SupportAbility is not loading correctly, it may be helpful to clear the cache in an attempt to resolve the issue.
Cache and Privacy
The Internet cache can pose a threat to privacy, particularly with shared computers, as everyone who has access to a computer can see some personal information by simply opening the 'cache' folder and accessing the links from there.
How to flush your web browser's cache
Simply selecting the refresh button (or hitting F5) is not sufficient to clear the cache. While this reloads the webpage it is still using the old files from the cache. Therefore if you are experiencing issues loading SupportAbility or accessing the current version, you will need to clear your browser's cache.
The process will vary slightly depending on the browser you are using. The link below will take you to a site that addresses how to flush/clear the cache for the following browsers:
- Google Chrome
- Firefox
- Microsoft Edge
- Safari
Please select this link Flush the browser's cache to take you to the relevant information.
Once the 'cache' has been cleared, the browser will download fresh copies of everything you access, thus rebuilding the cache. Any cache-related issues should now be cleared up.
N.B. Clearing your cache does not remove any saved passwords.
It is also possible to force a refresh in your internet browser which will clear a page's data cache and reload it with updated information. This link Force reload the problem pages provides information on how to complete this in several of the popular browsers (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Internet, Safari).
What is 'auto-fill'?
Auto-fill is a function in some computer applications or programs, typically those containing forms, which automatically prefills saved data in similarly named fields. Some examples of these fields are names, usernames, passwords, addresses, emails, phone numbers etc.
Reasons why you may need to turn off auto-fill functionality
While auto-fill functionality was designed for convenience, there are times when a user may not want a program to auto-populate and pre-fill information, particularly in a Client Record Management System, such as SupportAbility, where the information being entered in commonly used fields is unique to each record.
As SupportAbility uses a form-based structure, commonly named fields may auto-populate with data, including overwriting existing information, when users have the auto-fill functionality enabled in their browser. We, therefore, recommend that this functionality is turned off.
Duplicate Usernames
SupportAbility prevents users logging in when there are duplicate usernames in your installation, as a security measure. Duplicate usernames are occasionally created when a user's browser has the autofill functionality turned on, and commonly used fields such as username may autofill with previously used/saved data, thus overwriting existing data in the username field. This potentially occurs when a Staff member accesses another Staff member's Account, or when sharing devices.
If a Staff member is having trouble logging in and they are using the correct username and password, it may be helpful to check for duplications of their username. To check this, another Staff member with the 'Edit User Accounts' privilege, will need to enter the username of the person having difficulty logging in, in the 'Quick Search' field.
If there are duplicate usernames in your installation, these will be displayed in the search results:
If the search displays duplicate usernames against two different Staff Accounts (as per the screenshot above), to rectify this, the username will need to be updated in the Staff Account which has the incorrect username (e.g. Brooks Pelkowski). Once this has been completed both users should then be able to log in successfully.
To prevent this happening we recommend that all Staff have the autofill functionality turned off in their browsers.
How to turn off auto-fill in your browser
This link contains instructions on how to turn off the auto-fill functionality for each of the different browsers.
To turn off auto-fill in Chrome:
- Navigate to 'Preferences', then 'Settings'
- In the 'Auto-fill' section, expand the 'Addresses and more' option, using the arrow
- Toggle the setting to OFF if it is on. The system will automatically save your settings
Browser Extensions
Browser extensions allow users to customise their browser by adding features that might not exist in the browser natively.
While there are many efficiencies that can be achieved through the use of browser extensions, they can occasionally be the cause of issues within SupportAbility (e.g. text not appearing correctly in free text fields).
How do I identify if a browser extension is causing issues with SupportAbility?
The best way to determine if a browser extension may be the cause of an issue will be to load SupportAbility in Incognito Mode. Instructions on how to open a new tab in Incognito Mode in Google Chrome are available here.
Loading SupportAbility in Incognito Mode will bypass any extensions that have been installed into the browser. If the issue does not appear when accessing SupportAbility in Incognito Mode, then it is an indication that the issue relates to one of the browser extensions.
The next step will be to identify which extension is causing the issue through the process of elimination. This is achieved by turning off each browser extension one by one, checking SupportAbility each time to see if the issue is still occurring.
What do I do if a browser extension is causing issues with SupportAbility?
Once the problematic extension has been identified, the information relating to the issue observed, confirmation of the browser and browser extension as well as the device being used can be sent to the Customer Success team for further investigation.
Page not loading - Time Out error
When a browser attempts to connect to the SupportAbility servers but cannot do so after a period of trying, the browser may display a 'Time Out' error.
Firewall settings commonly cause this.
When this occurs, be sure to check the firewall configuration to ensure that the organisation's unique SupportAbility web address (URL) is on the approved list.
To determine if the firewall is causing issues with accessing SupportAbility, it might be worth deactivating it temporarily and trying again.
Web-browser shortcut tips
Keyboard shortcuts can also be used to navigate your web browser, and the following are some commonly used ones which you may find helpful.
N.B. depending on which operating system (e.g. Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS)you are using will determine the keys which are used e.g. 'Control' or 'Command', and 'Enter' or 'Return'.
Ctrl+F: opens the 'Find toolbar', where you can type the text you wish to find within a document, or on a web page. If the word or phrase appears more than once, the count will be displayed. Navigation between each instance can be completed by either pressing 'Enter' to move to the next instance, or using the arrows to move to previous or following instances.
Ctrl+T: Open a new browser tab.
Ctrl++: to enlarge the size of the text/images on the screen
Ctrl+-: to reduce the size of the text/images on the screen
Ctrl + L and then Ctrl + Enter: this will duplicate the tab you are on.