[SOLVED] Special Price stopped working on certain products, disappears in admin if I create a new special price

I've got a site with hundreds of products and probably 80% of them are constantly listed with a "special" price and it's been set like this for many years without an problems. A weird issue recently appeared where I have two products with a special price that has stopped working. I initially noticed it on the front end so I opened the special tab in admin and it was blank. So I entered a new special price and saved it (tried it with and without a date range, verified the default group is used, etc.) and every time I save it, it doesn't display a special price on the front end and when I open the special tab in admin, it's blank/what I entered has disappeared.

To add to this, while the problem only exists on two products, it was originally one product and became two after I did a test on the second one by clicking on the tab to see if it was gone on that one as well (and then it stopped working that product as well). These are also the only two products that I've clicked on the special tab as I'm afraid the problem will affect any product I view the special tab in so I've avoided the others.

I tried editing it on my phone instead of my laptop and the result is exactly the same.

I've spent a couple of hours trying to figure this out and have made no progress so I'm hoping somebody here has seen something like this happening and has a possible solution? Thanks.

Your special price is not storing correctly in database.

If you want help here, you could start by providing some more details, as per the forum rules. E.g. what OC version? What PHP version? What extensions? Website URL? etc.

Sorry, OC Version 3.0.3.1, not sure what version of PHP, stinger-performance.com/store, most extensions are just enabled items from the base install like USPS shipping, weight based shipping, etc.

I think a found a clue as to what's happening. I noticed these two products have a product ID on the end of the URL and none of the other products do. Like: ?product_id=136 This appears to be because the SEO has also apparently disappeared and is now blank. Trying to fix it in admin is the same as the prior issue (I add SEO, save, and then go back in and SEO is blank). Is this detail helpful? Thanks again.

SohBH wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:06 pm

Your special price is not storing correctly in database.

Looks like SEO went blank/isn't storing correctly also. What's a possible cause/fix for such an issue? Thanks.

Stinger23 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 2:09 pm

I've spent a couple of hours trying to figure this out and have made no progress so I'm hoping somebody here has seen something like this happening and has a possible solution? Thanks.

Very hard without more info about what's going on and what changes were made that caused it.

paulfeakins wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:55 pm

Stinger23 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 2:09 pm

I've spent a couple of hours trying to figure this out and have made no progress so I'm hoping somebody here has seen something like this happening and has a possible solution? Thanks.

Very hard without more info about what's going on and what changes were made that caused it.

Understood. The only changes I made to these listings between "worked fine" and now, is that I added a few additional selections in a couple of the items under the option tab (the options already existed in those listings, I just added a few more option values). But I did this exact same thing to some other listings and they are still working properly (Special price is showing on front end, SEO isn't blank in admin). So while I'd normally say the change I made to the option is somehow the cause, that doesn't seem to work here since only two of 8 listings where I made these changes are now not working correctly. I triple checked that I didn't somehow mess up something in this option modification but everything looks correct and they display on the front end and are selectable. So there don't appear to be any issues with the changes I made.

As a test, I just made a change in the options tab in one of these listings just to see if it would save/not go blank afterwards and it worked properly. So the problem appears to be isolated to the "Special" and "SEO" tabs.

Check both your OpenCart and PHP error logs. Also check your web browser's developer console when editing the product.

Stinger23 wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:28 am

So there don't appear to be any issues with the changes I made.

Could it be an extension causing the problem?

So what exact product page has issues now? Your website appears to be working fine otherwise.

JNeuhoff wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 02, 2024 9:22 pm

So what exact product page has issues now? Your website appears to be working fine otherwise.

I think it's isolated to these two:
https://www.stinger-performance.com/sto ... uct_id=136
https://www.stinger-performance.com/sto ... uct_id=150

I've discovered more issues. The extra pictures of the items disappeared and I can't add them back to the listing (I'm able to add them in admin and such but after I save the changes, nothing changes on the front end and when I open it back up in admin, my edits are gone).

I've also got some options that just randomly vanish entirely, or some of the drop down options will disappear or the price will disappear (product ID 136 above currently has an "Add EGR Delete Flange" option that is supposed to say no, yes - silver, yes - black, yes - red and it only says "no" as the only option for example).

There is another option that's supposed to be there to allow them to add $15 for shipping insurance but it's vanished entirely in both listings.

Sometimes I'm able to edit these and get them to work, but then other times it doesn't work, or when I open Admin to fix one option, it will "break" the option I previously fixed.

I've tried deleting a problematic option and just starting over with it but it doesn't seem to change the behavior and in some cases it makes it worse because once that option is gone, there is no guarantee that I'll be able to add it again as it's hit or miss.

In all of these cases, I'm able to add/edit them in admin and such but after I save the changes, nothing changes on the front end and when I open it back up in admin, my previous edits are gone.

In some cases, the same problem affects both listings (like the missing shipping insurance option and missing pics). In other instances the problem affects one but not the other (like the EGR delete options).

I've asked my "web guy" who does the more technical stuff for me to take a look at it, look at error logs, etc. as mentioned in this thread but he helps with it as a side gig/favor so he's not been able to look at it yet. When that happens, we may find a clue to what's happening, hopefully.

paulfeakins wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 02, 2024 7:47 pm

Stinger23 wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:28 am

So there don't appear to be any issues with the changes I made.

Could it be an extension causing the problem?

It's possible but I'm not savvy enough to be able to figure out if that's the case. I can say nothing extension related has changed for at least 6 months and those changes were shipping related so I doubt if that is related. So if it's an extension, it's not likely related to anything we did, but rather a glitch within the extension.

Did you check both your OpenCart and PHP error logs and also your web browser's developer console when editing the product?

Check both the PHP settings max_input_vars and post_max_size in your PHP settings using phpinfo().

Stinger23 wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 16, 2024 3:24 am

I can say nothing extension related has changed for at least 6 months

Sometimes a change is made that would cause a problem but the cache isn't cleared, so that problem only appears much later.

Problem has been resolved. I'm posting the cause here in case someone else is searching for it in the future. My web guy was able to take a look at the error logs and found:
PHP Warning: Unknown: Input variables exceeded 1000. To increase the limit change max_input_vars in php.ini. in Unknown on line 0, referrer....

He increased it to 4000 and once I fixed all of the errors that were happening in the listings (added the pics back in, added missing options, added SEO back in, etc.) it's working correctly again.

Thanks for your assistance.

Glad to hear it's now solved. Can you please add '[SOLVED]' to the beginning of the original forum thread title?

Stinger23 wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 17, 2024 11:20 am

Problem has be resolved. I'm posting the cause here in case someone else is searching for it in the future. My web guy was able to take a look at the error logs and found:
PHP Warning: Unknown: Input variables exceeded 1000. To increase the limit change max_input_vars in php.ini. in Unknown on line 0, referrer....

He increased it to 4000 and once I fixed all of the errors that were happening in the listings (added the pics back in, added missing options, added SEO back in, etc.) it's working correctly again.

Thanks for your assistance.

Awesome ADD Creative was right with what the issue was.

Mike

JNeuhoff wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 17, 2024 8:14 pm

Glad to hear it's now solved. Can you please add '[SOLVED]' to the beginning of the original forum thread title?

As they haven't, I will this time.