When categories is the first entry in top menu, anonymous visitors receive the login page on /, while /categories and /latest remain publicly accessible.

I can’t reproduce :thinking: Any other settings you have changed that might be related?

Thanks, @zogstrip for checking. No, nothing else changed. My workaround: latest is now first entry in “top menu”.

Does it work in safe mode ? Do you have plugins installed/enabled?

?safe_mode=no_themes does the same effect. I have approx. 15 plugins enabled: checklist, details, footnote, lazy videos, local dates, narrative bot, OpenID Connect, Poll, Presence, Solved, Spoiler altert, Templates and Topic Voting.

So weird. Can you try safe mode with plugins disabled too, and share the HTTP status + Location header (you’ll see this in your browser network tab) for /, /categories, and /latest as an anonymous user? Depending on whether it’s a 20X, 30X, or 40X it can tell us different things. Like for example…

Thank you so much for paying attention to this issue. I will answer later, when I am able zu check it.

[image] nat: OpenID Hello! I discovered, that I was able to solve it by deactivating OpenID. I don’t need it anyway. Maybe somebody would like to check the cause? For me, it seems to work fine now. Thank you!

Hey, I discovered the same issue again. But I know one thing, that helps: I have to click on “update” in the admin settings, even if there is no change at all. That helps. There seem not to be any reason. Just a refreshed settings-database helps. But only for several minutes oder hours (max. 4). I d…

The issue isn’t solved, yet. What could I eventually do, to avoid it? The workaround can’t be the solution, but could be a valuable information for the devs. Thank you!

Bug? Visitors can't access forum index

Support Self-hosting

miednr July 4, 2026, 3:05am 11

Do you think, that we could solve the issue? Your ideas are greatly appreciated.

Topic		Replies	Views
View of all categories is blocked for anonymous viewers Support	13	288	February 14, 2026
Forum doesn't work as expected after latest upgrade (tests-passed) Bug	9	826	November 27, 2018
Show Categories on main page for new visitors and Recent for logged in members Support	3	98	July 25, 2024
Display first page to view without login Feature completed	1	1182	January 27, 2014
Bug with access to public topic without login 3.1.0.beta2 Bug	8	788	February 18, 2023

Bug? Visitors can't access forum index

Related topics