#1: Ron Jacobson (shmily999) on Aug 28, 2010

Hi there,

How can I delete a puzzle I have started but have no way of finishing it. It is still on my list of puzzles.

Is there a way or do I need to make a totally new puzzle with it?

Thanks.

If it is one you were designing, edit the puzzle and there is a button at the bottom to delete it permanently.

If you want to delete a puzzle you were solving and have a partially saved solution for, click on the puzzle on the Saved Puzzles screen (or any other place it's listed) and there is an erase option.

I have a puzzle on my list that I cannot delete. There was some glitch when I tried to save a new puzzle, and now I get this message:

Puzzle load error: Puzzle 9236 does not exist

Since I cannot delete it, Jan will have to do that manually. Jan, when you get a chance, could you please do this for me?

Deleted 9236 and 47 other puzzles stuck in the same broken state from the database. I need to find and fix the glitch that creates those, though it seems pretty rare.

Thank you. :-)

About five of those puzzles were mine. I thought it might be from putting my computer to sleep while the create page was open, and then saving when it "woke up", but a later test worked OK.

It was very frustrating to have the puzzles I was working on go poof. Luckily I mostly work from a picture I've already made in a graphics program.

All the functions on the page would work normally, including the "Check" function. It's just the save that didn't.

Jan,
puzzles # 12743, 12744, and 12746 do not exist but are present in my puzzle list. Please delete them. Thanks.

#13330 is another stubborn nonexistent puzzle. I was shocked to find it had deleted and had to remake it. Jan, could you remove this one when you get a chance? No hurry.

For those whose puzzles self-deleted, what browser were you using? Maybe the glitch has something to do with IE?

Firefox 3 and 4

So much for the thought it was an IE issue. :(

I had also considered that due to proximity of the "save" and "delete" buttons that I possibly could've clicked the wrong one (I occasionally have small seizures/tics that can effect mouse control). Another possibility I thought might be that after I clicked "save", I hit the browser back button and then decided to log out; maybe I didn't wait long enough before logging out?

I don't log out. I have the memory option checked so I'm recognized by cookie.

I'm quite sure it's not an accidental hit of the delete button, too, as I had it happen to one puzzle several times. And I was very careful on successive attempts.

Also, the delete button gives you a dialog box asking if you're sure.

It's probably either a server-side database error or (more likely) an intermittent client-side script error where a combination of procedures creates a bad structure somewhere in the browser's javascript memory that screws up the saving. (Either a bad puzzle structure that the database doesn't recognise as a puzzle, or even possibly it screws up the asp that connects to save the puzzle. )

Actually it must be a problem with the save connection, because I know I could still "Check" the puzzle, and that sends the puzzle to the server.

Sounds plausible to me, although I haven't had the opportunity to learn much about programs or programming to even make a guess. I can't eliminate human error in my own circumstance since I only suffered self-deletion of the puzzle once. Asking if everyone to whom it happened if they were using the same browser was a long shot.

On a slight tangent, has anyone else ever had their browser freeze up when creating a puzzle because they chose one of the paint can buttons and accidentally clicked an area of the same color? I've learned to hit the save button quite frequently because of that; I never thought of using a graphics program to create and save the original images.

Yes, that used to happen to me, but not at all since I switched to Chrome.

Yes, that has happened to me. In Firefox, if you wait long enough (about 30 sec - 1 min), a dialog comes up saying that a script is unresponsive and do you want to wait, or stop it. Choosing to stop it works and seems to have no ill effects.

Hmm... wouldn't hurt to try it next time. Thanks infrapinklizzard.

I'm also considering trying Chrome. Thanks fasstar.

Jan,
puzzle # 17853 does not exist but is present in my puzzle list. Please delete. Thanks.

Jan,
I am having the same problem as those above, Puzzle #18227 titled WCP #106 is on my puzzles list and does not exist, if possible could you delete this?

thanks

I have a whole string of puzzles that don't exist in my "your puzzle" area that got auto saved. It doesn't bother me but if Jan wants to clean up...they are 14315-14349.

Jan comes by to clean up once in awhile, so if anyone else has some they want deleted, this is the time and the place. :-)

I deleted a bunch of these broken puzzles. I still don't know what breaks them. I put in a check before saving that makes sure it isn't just saving a bunch of blankness. If it detects that it says "Declining to save empty puzzle". This won't let you save what's on your screen, but it should prevent you from overwriting anything you previously saved with nothingness. It might also make it more obvious when that is happening, so we can better figure out why it is happening.

Thanks Jan!

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