Judy_Hawkins reported that topics created before updating the reaction icons in Discourse Reactions settings only show the default heart reaction, while newer topics display the full list. She sought a way to refresh or apply the new reactions to older posts. Heliosurge noted not seeing this issue on their older instances. Judy_Hawkins confirmed hovering over “like” on old posts showed no reaction menu and mentioned needing a test user to verify behavior. JammyDodger clarified that reactions should apply to all posts immediately after enabling, and suggested using different browsers or private windows for testing with multiple accounts. They also explained that once a “Like” is cast, it locks after 10 minutes unless adjusted via the post undo actions window setting. Heliosurge advised creating a test user with a fake email and activating it via admin, then disabling email notifications. Ultimately, Judy_Hawkins resolved the issue by restarting Firefox, which restored the full reaction list on older topics. The issue appears to be client-side caching or browser-specific rather than a system bug.
We had created a number of topics before I updated the list of reaction icons, in Admin → Settings → Discourse Reactions.
Topics created after I changed Discourse Reactions do have the new list, but older topics now only have the single, default heart reaction, no list at all.
I’d like all topics to have the full range of reactions.
Strange checked my 2 instances Stable & Tests Passed. Not seeing this issue on my instances.
Stable is a 7 year old instance.
Just went in and hovered over “like” on a new post to an older topic; no list of reactions.
No other new posts (not created by me) – I need a test user but I don’t know how to create another user for myself to use. I’m still learning!
It seems like there must be a refresh cycle that I don’t know how to set off?
Once you enable Reactions it should work for all posts no matter how old, with no need for a background job. Though I think a page refresh can help.
If you’ve already cast a Like on a post then that will be locked in after 10 minutes and won’t be able to be removed (so no hover Reactions menu). Though you can adjust the timing of that with the post undo actions window admin setting.
The best way I find to play with test users is to have two browsers (Firefox and Chrome in my case) and have my admin in one and a test user logged in in the other (plus private windows as well if I want to use a third and fourth simultaneously).
If you are an admin & maybe full mod.
Create say
Testuser1 use a fake email. No service required. Log in your admin/mod account and activate testuser1.
Log in TestUser1 and disable email notification
One idea. The other is to use a different email account.
As it turned out, I had to restart Firefox and that seems to have solved the problem.