Intermittent bug where you cannot get MyBinder to work after apparent 'glitched' build

[fomightez]

Intermittent bug where you cannot get Binder to work after apparent 'glitched' build or launch

TL;DR:

Cannot connect to a MyBinder session when you think you should? After you are sure it isn't Ghostery or other ad blocker, try from another browser, computer, or device and see if the launch/build process works there.

Details

With some encouragement, this is being filed to document a rather weird and very rare glitch that seems possibly happens when a triggered build apparently fails on the public MyBinder.org. (I say 'apparently' because they builds should actually work.) As a MyBinder.org power user, I've had cases where a build process fails in a bizarre way in Chrome and then I cannot launch builds from that repository, or even sessions from that repository, in that browser on that computer for several hours after the apparent 'glitched build'. The inability to launch from that particular browser on that particular computer will go on for several hours and often seems like days before it works again in that particular browser in that computer. I believe others have encountered it as well (see below).

Often when odd things like this happen, the Binder developers and power users suggest they turn off Ghostery and other security/ad blockers, see here and here. However, that doesn't seem to be the whole story.

I'd suggest we additionally advise users encountering issues launching, when they feel like it should work, try from another browser, computer, or device, if at all possible. That is because a sort of work-around for this rare issue is to try another browser, computer, or device. Even if you don't want to work on a phone or tablet, they can be useful for checking if a session should launch when you encounter the issue where you seem blocked in your present browser on the machine you happen to be using at the time.

The only real solution I've found is waiting. However, maybe by posting this someone will come up with something more direct below?

I only encounter this when working with Chrome; however, that may be purely because the issue is very rare and Chrome is my main browser. (Though if I am right that some other instances below were this issue, then it isn't limited to Chrome.)

Other possible examples describing the same or similar thing

I believe this report of infinite 'spinning' on the Jupyter Discourse forum may have been related to what I am attempting to described here. (This discussion was also the impetus for filing this issue.)

I think another power user, Tony Hirst @psychemedia, was reporting a similar experience here and here. So maybe it is the redirect from the top-level that is related to this?

And maybe these other ones too:

• here
• here

[meeseeksmachine]

This issue has been mentioned on Jupyter Community Forum. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/spinning-spinning/5217/8

[psychemedia]

In terms of superstitious behaviour around Chrome, I'm not convinced its continual updates don't sometimes break things, particularly if you have lots of open Chrome tabs... I was having a terrible time with Chrome on Thursday in respect of network connections, and when I opened my laptop on Friday morning I noted it had either forced itself to restart or crashed and restarted...