Users getting Internal Server Error when trying to change email address

[Richie (Richie Rich)]

Discourse 3.4.0.beta4-dev (5bc7371192).

Users are unable to change their email address to a previously used email address.

Steps to replicate:

1. Change your account email address to something with a + sign in it, eg. your+name@example.com

(The plus sign may be the significant key here, or it may be a red herring)

2. Follow the email prompts to confirm the change

3. Change your email address back to what it was previously, eg. yourname@example.com

4. Follow the email prompts to confirm the change

5. Error is thrown in the front end:

User is then stuck with:

---

Error from /logs page:

lib/email_updater.rb:136:in `update_user_email'

lib/email_updater.rb:126:in `block in confirm'

activerecord (7.2.2.1) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/transaction.rb:616:in `block in within_new_transaction'

activesupport (7.2.2.1) lib/active_support/concurrency/null_lock.rb:9:in `synchronize'

activerecord (7.2.2.1) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/transaction.rb:613:in `within_new_transaction'

activerecord (7.2.2.1) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/database_statements.rb:361:in `transaction'

activerecord (7.2.2.1) lib/active_record/transactions.rb:234:in `block in transaction'

activerecord (7.2.2.1) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:421:in `with_connection'

activerecord (7.2.2.1) lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:296:in `with_connection'

activerecord (7.2.2.1) lib/active_record/transactions.rb:233:in `transaction'

lib/email_updater.rb:87:in `confirm'

app/controllers/users_email_controller.rb:64:in `confirm_new_email'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/basic_implicit_render.rb:8:in `send_action'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:226:in `process_action'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:193:in `process_action'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:261:in `block in process_action'

activesupport (7.2.2.1) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:121:in `block in run_callbacks'

app/controllers/application_controller.rb:424:in `block in with_resolved_locale'

i18n (1.14.7) lib/i18n.rb:353:in `with_locale'

app/controllers/application_controller.rb:424:in `with_resolved_locale'

activesupport (7.2.2.1) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:130:in `block in run_callbacks'

activesupport (7.2.2.1) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:141:in `run_callbacks'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:260:in `process_action'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/rescue.rb:27:in `process_action'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:77:in `block in process_action'

activesupport (7.2.2.1) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:210:in `block in instrument'

activesupport (7.2.2.1) lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:58:in `instrument'

activesupport (7.2.2.1) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:210:in `instrument'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:76:in `process_action'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal/params_wrapper.rb:259:in `process_action'

activerecord (7.2.2.1) lib/active_record/railties/controller_runtime.rb:39:in `process_action'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:163:in `process'

actionview (7.2.2.1) lib/action_view/rendering.rb:40:in `process'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:252:in `dispatch'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:335:in `dispatch'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:67:in `dispatch'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:50:in `serve'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:53:in `block in serve'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:133:in `block in find_routes'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:126:in `each'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:126:in `find_routes'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:34:in `serve'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:896:in `call'

lib/middleware/omniauth_bypass_middleware.rb:64:in `call'

rack (2.2.10) lib/rack/tempfile_reaper.rb:15:in `call'

rack (2.2.10) lib/rack/conditional_get.rb:40:in `call'

rack (2.2.10) lib/rack/head.rb:12:in `call'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/http/permissions_policy.rb:38:in `call'

lib/content_security_policy/middleware.rb:12:in `call'

lib/middleware/anonymous_cache.rb:403:in `call'

lib/middleware/csp_script_nonce_injector.rb:12:in `call'

config/initializers/008-rack-cors.rb:14:in `call'

rack (2.2.10) lib/rack/session/abstract/id.rb:266:in `context'

rack (2.2.10) lib/rack/session/abstract/id.rb:260:in `call'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/cookies.rb:704:in `call'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:31:in `block in call'

activesupport (7.2.2.1) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:101:in `run_callbacks'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:30:in `call'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/debug_exceptions.rb:31:in `call'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/show_exceptions.rb:32:in `call'

logster (2.20.0) lib/logster/middleware/reporter.rb:40:in `call'

railties (7.2.2.1) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:41:in `call_app'

railties (7.2.2.1) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:29:in `call'

config/initializers/100-quiet_logger.rb:20:in `call'

config/initializers/100-silence_logger.rb:29:in `call'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/request_id.rb:33:in `call'

lib/middleware/enforce_hostname.rb:24:in `call'

rack (2.2.10) lib/rack/method_override.rb:24:in `call'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/executor.rb:16:in `call'

rack (2.2.10) lib/rack/sendfile.rb:110:in `call'

lib/middleware/processing_request.rb:12:in `call'

message_bus (4.3.8) lib/message_bus/rack/middleware.rb:60:in `call'

lib/middleware/request_tracker.rb:385:in `call'

actionpack (7.2.2.1) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/remote_ip.rb:96:in `call'

railties (7.2.2.1) lib/rails/engine.rb:535:in `call'

railties (7.2.2.1) lib/rails/railtie.rb:226:in `public_send'

railties (7.2.2.1) lib/rails/railtie.rb:226:in `method_missing'

rack (2.2.10) lib/rack/urlmap.rb:74:in `block in call'

rack (2.2.10) lib/rack/urlmap.rb:58:in `each'

rack (2.2.10) lib/rack/urlmap.rb:58:in `call'

unicorn (6.1.0) lib/unicorn/http_server.rb:634:in `process_client'

unicorn (6.1.0) lib/unicorn/http_server.rb:739:in `worker_loop'

unicorn (6.1.0) lib/unicorn/http_server.rb:547:in `spawn_missing_workers'

unicorn (6.1.0) lib/unicorn/http_server.rb:143:in `start'

unicorn (6.1.0) bin/unicorn:128:in `<top (required)>'

vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/bin/unicorn:25:in `load'

vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/bin/unicorn:25:in `<main>'

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

@Richie

(The plus sign may be the significant key here, or it may be a red herring)

Enabling e-mail normalization by default

Background In the past, Discourse has shipped with e-mail normalization off. As a result of this, users can create multiple accounts using the same canonical e-mail, through the use of plus addressing. For example, a user with an account tied to bob@discourse.org is able to create another account tied to bob+again@discourse.org. Discourse comes with the normalize_emails site setting which can be flipped to either allow or disallow this. When turned on, it considers both e-mails above to be the …

Did you check the normalize_emails settings? Not saying there’s not a bug here

[Richie (Richie Rich)]

No, I hadn’t checked that setting, I did not know it existed, thanks @Canapin

If this is the cause of the issue then the Internal Server Error bug needs catching and handling to tell the user why they can’t use this email address.

[sam (Sam Saffron)]

somebody is going to have a look at this over the next 4 weeks, we should be displaying a clear warning to the user not a “internal server error”

[Richie (Richie Rich)]

Thanks @sam

[davidb]

This has been fixed with this commit:

FIX: ensure old email set correctly when updating email (#32309)

If you have an unconfirmed email change, I would recommend deleting it first within the user preferences page (ie. /my/preferences/account) by clicking the wrench icon next to the unconfirmed email and clicking Remove email.

Afterwards you can begin the process of changing the email again, which should hopefully work correctly this time around.