% FAQ

#### I'm using lastpass and stuff is broken

Lastpass arbitrarily breaks tt-rss forms preventing stuff like saving settings from functioning properly.

#### UI is missing CSS or is otherwise visibly broken

- Try opening tt-rss using a clean browser profile or an incognito window (a different browser would also work)
- Unless you're using SSL, try a different network connection in case your ISP is MITMing you
- Some values of ``Content-Security-Policy`` header may break tt-rss, if you have this header set in your httpd config, try disabling it temporarily
- Check for any files in ``(tt-rss)/themes`` not known to Git (especially ``default.php`` or ``default.css`` - formerly default CSS themes for tt-rss, now removed), try temporarily removing all third party themes from ``themes.local``

See also:

- https://discourse.tt-rss.org/t/no-css-loaded-on-main-page/1957/4
- https://discourse.tt-rss.org/t/drop-down-menus-have-text-not-arrows/1703/5
- https://discourse.tt-rss.org/t/drop-down-menus-have-text-not-arrows/1703/6
- https://discourse.tt-rss.org/t/panels-and-menu-messed-up/2208/3
- https://discourse.tt-rss.org/t/ttrss-not-rendering-properly-missing-css/2359/26

#### I managed to lock myself out of tt-rss

This assumes you can't simply reset your password via email (login form - forgot my password).

- If you have OTP (2FA) enabled and know your password but can't provide an OTP token, you can disable OTP via SQL:

```
UPDATE ttrss_users SET otp_enabled = false WHERE login = 'you'
```

- If you don't remember your password run the following query:

```
UPDATE ttrss_users 
    SET pwd_hash = 'SHA1:5baa61e4c9b93f3f0682250b6cf8331b7ee68fd8', salt = '', otp_enabled = false
    WHERE login = 'you'
```

This sets your password back to default (``password``) and disables OTP.

#### What should I use - MySQL or PostgreSQL?

tt-rss is developed with PostgreSQL in mind, MySQL support is an afterthought. 

If possible, consider using PostgreSQL for tt-rss. MySQL is supported but some minor features may be exclusive to Postgres and you're going to see worse performance (because InnoDB is slow).

#### I need an URL I can call to subscribe to feed to integrate with some third party browser extension/application.

<code>https://example.com/tt-rss/public.php?op=subscribe&feed\_url=%s</code>

If feed URL is empty (or not given) tt-rss will display feed subscription dialog.

#### I want to migrate my data but I can't use a database dump

One common use case for this is moving from MySQL to PostgreSQL.

If you don't want to migrate your stored articles, export and import your feeds via OPML, which would also
migrate your tt-rss settings and filters.

If you want to migrate your articles, use this plugin: https://git.tt-rss.org/fox/ttrss-data-migration/wiki

#### I need to get the number of unread articles in the simplest way.

<code>https://example.com/tt-rss/backend.php?op=getUnread&login=LOGIN</code>

No password required. In single user mode, use “admin” for login.

#### Feeds stop updating for users who rarely login

See this thread: https://tt-rss.org/oldforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2909&p=23459#p17145

#### I have used the update daemon before, but switched away from it. However, the UI keeps nagging me about the daemon not running or not updating feeds or whatever.

Find and delete daemon lock file in <code>LOCK\_DIRECTORY</code>.
Usually, it’s <code>lock/update\_daemon.lock</code>. You can also remove
<code>update\_daemon.stamp</code>.

#### I have questions about article purging / I don't think purging works.

In short, you may and will see articles with date older than the cutoff
for purging. Here’s why:

- starred articles are not purged;
- purging is done based on import date internal to tt-rss which
could be different from the timestamp specified by the feed (i.e.
article says it was published on 01-01-1970 but it was imported today);
- tt-rss bumps import date every time article is encountered in the feed, otherwise 
it will get purged and imported again on every feed update causing constantly reappearing duplicates;
- purging is performed after feed was updated hence disabled updates = no purging;

Please see these forum threads for more information:

-   http://tt-rss.org/oldforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=792
-   http://tt-rss.org/oldforum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=560&p=2649&hilit=delete\#p2649

You can see article import date if you mouse over displayed date in
tt-rss web UI.

Related question:

#### I like to manually archive or delete articles and I get duplicates. Why?

Because the articles are still in the feed XML.

See also: [ArchivedFeed](wiki/ArchivedFeed)

#### Using Firefox, “OPML Import window” always visible in Preferences

Apparently it’s some addon or a browser setting problem, using clean
profile helps.

#### Schema upgrade fails on MySQL 5.7 (and newer)

Error message: <code>Invalid default value for 'last_updated'</code>

See this thread/post for instructions: https://tt-rss.org/oldforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3871&p=22884#p22884

#### I have HTTP authentication enabled and get “Your access level is insufficient to run this script” error on login

The problem is that if you have auth\_remote enabled in config.php
tt-rss tries to automatically log you in as the user specified by the
server using HTTP authentication, which may not have administrative
privileges. You will need to either temporarily disable auth\_remote
(replace it with auth\_internal in config.php), temporarily disable HTTP
authentication, or give yourself administrative permissions using the
SQL client:

```sql
    update ttrss_users set access_level = 10 where login = 'you';
```

#### I'm having performance problems, why is tt-rss so slow?

Most likely you don’t have enough hardware for your requested amount of
feeds. Switch up to a faster VDS tier or use something else.