intermittent error

I have a recurring error, but I am not sure what triggers it.

If I create a new user, and put them in an ACL group that has permission to use frontend upload module, everything works fine. This user can login at the front of website, and upload from the front of website. Therefore I'm confident permission are correctly set throughout.

But, after a while (I'm not sure what event triggers this) a user who could previously use the frontend upload module, instead gets a 403 error instead.

I will try and supply whatever information might be helpful, for investigating this.
Happy New Year and thank you


this shows the frontend module working for a new user

this shows what happens when the module 'stops working' for a user


this is the acl groups for the new user

and this the acl groups for the user for whom it has 'stopped working'

A bit more information.

I have just updated my joomla version from 3.5.1 to the latest 3.6.5

This has cleared the intermittent error, all permitted users can now use the frontend upload module - whether temporarily or permanently remains to be seen.
I will post again if it recurs.

Meantime would be interested to hear any guesses about why updating joomla clears the error. It might give me a way of clearing the error if it recurs?!

It may be a caching issue or a session which timed out.
I think there was some change to how sessions are destroyed in a recent Joomla version. Maybe that fixed it as well.

If the issue arises again, can you try what happens if the user logs out and in again?
It may also be interesting what happens after a page refresh, closing all browser windows or trying the page in another browser (sessions are browser specific).

Thank you will do that and report back if the issue recurs.

The issue, when it happened, persisted over several weeks, with users logging in every few days.
I am no expert, but guessing that means caching more likely the culprit, rather than sessions.
But only guessing!

Sessions are by default 15 minutes. So that indeed shouldn't be an issue here.
Caching should be only an hour or so, at least not weeks. So that shouldn't be the cause here.

Do you know if those users used the "Remember Me" feature to log in? Imho it shouldn't make a difference for SermonSpeaker but it's worth checking.

Hopefully it is gone anyway.

Hello again,

I know that 2 of us are not using the 'remember me feature' I am not sure about the other two.

The error has recurred, and again I'm not sure what has triggered it.
So far, I have tried clearing the cache (backend, for the sermon speaker component, waited a day(!) as we're not in a hurry) and that hasn't made the 403 error go away. The only users for whom the frontend module now appears are superusers.

Please could you tell me if there is any info I can helpfully provide? We're keen to get this working reliably.
Thank you