SchuminWeb wrote:

So I recently discovered that BYB is blocking logged-out mobile visitors, at least on Chrome for Android.  When I have BYB turned on and I access the site in private browsing mode (so that I'm logged out), I get a 403 error:

https://imgur.com/MM237ai

When I turn BYB off, the site loads normally:

https://imgur.com/ukX3yQV

It happens to me when I'm logged out, and my mother got the same issue visiting the site on her Android phone (most likely using Chrome as well).  When I'm logged in, everything loads normally.

For what it's worth, my site is https://www.benschumin.com/ and I'm running the Bootstrap Darkroom theme.

Hi SchuminWeb,

thank you again for reporting this.

I tested your site myself on a smartphone in private / incognito mode and I could not reproduce the issue on my side, even when testing without an existing referrer/cookie context. So at the moment it does not look like a general problem affecting every mobile visitor.

I also ran my BYB test checks against your site and BYB responded as expected there as well.

Because of that, I need a bit more information to see what is different in your case. Could you please provide:

-one exact matching log entry from bot_log.txt from the moment the 403 happens
-your Chrome version on Android
-Android version / device model
-the exact URL where it happens first (homepage, category, picture page, etc.)
-whether it only happens on mobile data, only on Wi-Fi, or both
-whether any ad blocker, privacy browser setting, VPN, DNS filter, antivirus, or proxy is active

One more note: your site currently shows a security check page in front of the website (“Security check in progress / verifying you are not a bot”). So there is also a chance that another security layer in front of the site is involved, not only BYB itself.

Once I have one real bot_log.txt line from the exact time of the block, I can check much more precisely what happened.

I would also like to add that I test BYB with the following browsers, and none of them show any issues:

-Chrome
-Microsoft Edge
-Mozilla Firefox
-Opera
-Avast Browser

Best regards,
Olaf

Last edited by Schneider-Fotografie (2026-04-20 15:31:35)

Got another one for you: Google is getting a lot of 403 results from my site in various categories.  Here are two examples.

https://www.benschumin.com/picture/19295 - shows up in Google Search Console's "Blocked due to access forbidden (403)" list

https://www.benschumin.com/picture/17003/tags/bags - shows up in Google Search Console's "Server error (5xx)" list

Both pages open normally when viewed by a real person, but when BYB is enabled, Google gets a 403 error for both of these, and therefore cannot index the pages.  When I hit the emergency stop for BYB and thus turn the service off, these pages are suddenly visible to Google again.  When I reenable BYB, they again give Google forbiddens.

In trying to find the problem for this to allow Google to see my site better, I have scoured every single page on BYB's backend, and can't find the setting that will allow me to let Google in.  What am I missing?  How do I fix this so that Google can see my pages and index them?

I use Cloudflare together with BYB, because every little bit helps. When I did my troubleshooting, I disabled Cloudflare to see if that changed things, but it didn't. Only when I knock out BYB does the problem go away, and it comes back immediately when I reenable it. So I've already isolated it to a BYB issue, but I just don't know what to change to fix the problem.

I agree that the settings are probably too strict. I'm just at a loss as to what settings I need to unset. The one that you mentioned, I've never turned on.

When I enable the plugin on website, immediately get the 403 Forbidden error and then can no longer access my webpage. Had to go into plugin folder on the server and remove the BYB folder to access webpage again.

Piwigo vs: 16.4.0
PHP: 8.0.30
MySQL: 5.7.23-23
OS: Linux
BYB Version: 2.5.0

Prior to May 9th, I had been running BYB for a long time on website with no issues.
Had a new event (new album) I uploaded on May 9th, so sent out link to people and then discovered website was down (403 error). At first I could still access my website but then even I couldn't access.

Since was completely down, I couldn't go into BYB settings. Removed it manually.

Today I tried activating the plugin again and as soon as I activated the plugin, my PC browser was thinking a lot and from -//:---\spam tried access my website and got the 403 error. I couldn't get the setting button to work on my PC (page was still thinking) so quickly clicked on the deactivate slider which did work to turn the plugin off. BYB settings second time I tried reactivating (today) were just default upon activation since I'd previously removed the folder from the server.


Thanks!
Jeff

Katryne

Thanks for letting me know!

Jeff