“Updating friends list” error

[evaishtar]

When I tried to log in I get the message “Updating friends list” and, after a while, I get an error message from the system and I can’t log-in.

I tried both the SL and the Firestorm viewers both with the same result.

Then I did a total re-install – uninstall and install again with the same result.

What can I do? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Please email the answer to eva.inanna@gmail.com as I’ve taken SL out of the system.

Best regards.

Evaishtar (screen name Eva Inanna)

[Alwin Alcott]

we can't email you anything. We are just residents as you, and it's not very smart to put your email on a public forum, so better remove that asap.

If you had used the little search box at top of the page you had known this is a wide spread problem at the moment and we only can tell to send in a ticked or do a live chat with support if you'r premium.

Best of luck, hope it's solved very quickly.

[Innula Zenovka]

Last time this happened, a couple of years ago, this was said to be the fix.

There's no guarantee it'll work this time round, since similar symptoms may have different causes, but it's worth a try.

[Emma0 Rammidge]

Innula Zenovkas answer doesn't work this time around. I have tried using a brand new laptop that hadn't previously had SL installed. It's the account that has been corrupted, not the software. But since it seems to be happening to a lot of people it would seem the corruption resides on the Linden servers. Pure conjecture on my part but it seems to fit the known facts.

[Anneliese Wolfenhaut]

It seems this is due to the strange non-alphanumeric symbols some people are adding for their usernames. It is snagging the servers and keeping friends lists from loading. I was locked out of my account with the same problem but found an answer elsewhere about removing friends who have used non-alphanumeric symbols in their usernames. It worked!

Log into your account here: https://secondlife.com/my/?lang=en

Look through your friends list and make a note of the standard username of anyone in your friends list using the odd symbols like ℳღǖʂε 

Then log into your profile here: https://my.secondlife.com/settings/friends

Find those friends in your list, and remove them. I don't know exactly which symbols cause the issue - I removed a handful of friends with a variety of symbols before I could log in, but IT WORKED.