In a Support thread titled “Reset button and green tick in settings are causing issues for plugins,” Andy02 reports that the proximity of the green tick (save) and reset buttons in Discourse settings leads to accidental data loss — especially under spotty WiFi conditions — when users double-click or hold the button too long. This is particularly problematic for plugins like Kanban and Custom Header Links, where a single setting may contain dozens of configured values (e.g., 50+ categories), all lost with one unintended reset. Andy02 suggests mitigations: moving the reset button below the tick, adding a confirmation modal (especially for large settings), or allowing users to toggle confirmation prompts. pfaffman initially misunderstood the issue, thinking only one value could be lost at a time, but later acknowledged the risk when settings store many values. pmusaraj notes that recent Discourse versions no longer wipe all settings on save, but argues that poor connectivity is a broader web issue beyond Discourse’s control. Andy02 clarifies their instance is up to date (v2.4.0.beta) and insists the core problem lies in plugin/theme design — allowing single fields to hold vast amounts of data — which makes accidental reset catastrophic. They urge Discourse to consider safeguards, as this pattern is emerging across multiple popular plugins.
Am i the only one who struggles with losing settings because the green tick to save settings and the reset button are in the same place? I think its because i work while travelling so often have spotty wifi, but it so easy to click and save and then either hold the button for too long, or see no reaction so you click it again thinking it hadn’t gone through - which then wipes your settings.
Probably by default this is a minor inconvenience, but some of the plugins and themese have definitions/settings which can take hours to set up, and one click which can easily happen without intending, and they are all gone.
Some suggestions are:
to have the reset button just below where the tick appears
an offset ‘confirm reset’ modal
discourse recognises when there is a significant amount of text in that setting and conditionally shows the ‘confirm’ modal
I set around 50 of these on the Kanban Plugin and lost them all with either a double click or holding down the click button too long. Not too sure which.
A few days ago i had the exact same issue with the ‘Custom Header Links’ plugin, and decided to post about it as if themes and plugins are making these menus contain large amounts of info they shouldn’t be so easy to accidentally delete due to a poor wifi connection (and partly to vent).
On latest Discourse, saving one of the theme settings doesn’t wipe all the others. This was fixed a few weeks ago, so if you aren’t up to date, please update.
I think this is something that Discourse can’t help you with. If you’re on a poor connection, you’ll have issues with a variety of actions on a Discourse site (or website in general for that matter).
@pmusaraj ours is the most up to date (v2.4.0.beta).
It is not wiping all settings. The issue is theme and plugin builders are expanding a single setting to contain a vast amount of info. See the screenshot above. One reset button and we have about 40 categories and subcategories defined there.
It seems like bad practice on the developers part (that theme component is in its early stages), but as i’ve seen it twice in a week on fairly popular plugins (and i’ve only used three this week), it is probably something worth looking into a solution to.
