HIPAA: Temporarily Back-end Unavailable errors

Over the past several days, I've had numerous users report to me that they cannot open/use the forms we have. They get the error "temporarily back-end unavailable" in most instances. I gather that your servers may crash if they get overloaded but can someone please explain to me what jotform is doing about it in order to make a more stable platform? My clients are asking me to consider other platforms that may provide more stablity for this issue and others that have popped up in recent months.

Hello,

We had an issue with HIPAA accounts only about the error "temporarily back-end unavailable" but it is now resolved. Our developers fixed it and our servers are now stable. Could you please check if the issue still persists on your end?

I am not seeing it now but I’ll submit another ticket if I happen to encounter it again.
Thanks,
Tim


Tim Falso
Specialty Benchmarks
17 Campground Lane
Oxford, ME 04270
Office: (207) 688-8486
Email: tim.falso@specialtybenchmarks.com

...

This issue has resurfaced. Many of the people that fill out our forms regularly throughout the day are contacting me and saying the cannot access the forms (they get the error below). I also could not log in to jotform for about the past hour but was finally able to just now (same error). Can someone please explain to me what Jotform has done/will be doing to ensure this does not continue to happen in the future? If the issue repeats, I will have to find an alternate form platform.

Hi,

I checked your forms and they're all working fine. Could you please provide the time when the issue happens?

Just collecting information before sending it to our developers for further investigation. We'll wait for your response. Thank you!

I was first made aware of the problem today at 11:05 EST. I received numerous emails/calls from people scattered around the country telling me it was not working from then until about 12:30 EST.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. We have experienced a temporary issue with the server and it has already been fixed by our backend team. The forms should be loading normally now. Please check and let us know if you notice any further issue. We will be happy to take a look again.

Thanks!

I get that it's now working- I knew that already. I also get that it was a temporary issue, but my broader question is still the same: what is jotform doing to ensure this doesn't happen repeatedly in the future? If you look at this thread, I submitted a ticket last week, you guys said it was fixed, then it happens again. All I'm asking is what is the broader plan to keep this issue from happening?

Please understand that I quite literally have hundreds of people in and out of these forms numerous times per day. They are physicians trying to enter data in between surgeries. Every time there is an issue, they all come screaming to me. I can understand technical issues from time to time but for your system to break twice in one week is a little concerning. I'd really feel better if I had more insight into the underlying issues and what you are doing to mitigate future ones.

Hi,

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Let me forward this to our backend team and ask for more information on how to ensure that it won't happen again or avoid it. We will message you again once we have any updates. Thank you!

Just wanted to pass along that the issue has surfaced again today (getting the "temporarily back-end unavailable" error message. I have a specific example of one where someone sent me a screenshot of it- looks like a submission at 10:20 EST today. If it is truly an issue that relates to abnormally high traffic volume as the messages indicate, are there plans to increase server space/capacity?

Sorry again for the inconvenience.

We alerted our developers and here's the recent message we received:

"Hi all, We had an extraordinary load. We managed and increased resources. System load back to normal."

Could you please check and let us know if the issue still persists on your end? Thank you!

Again, hate to keep asking, but I get that there was an "extraordinary" load but this has now happened at least three times in the past week. If your developers can explain to me how they are mitigating any future "extraordinary" loads to prevent this from repeatedly reoccurring I would really appreciate it. At this point, I need SOMETHING to help my clients regain some confidence in the use of this platform or they are going to make me pursue alternatives (which I do not want to do).

Hi tfalso,

This thread is escalated to our developers for more information about the issue and how to prevent it. Thank you!

Hi @tmsaok,

To avoid confusion, I created a new ticket for your issue. Please check my reply on this page: https://www.jotform.com/answers/2883178-error-404. Thank you!

The issue has occurred yet again. This was reported to me this morning by users in Pennsylvania at about 8am EST. As of right now its working again but this can't keep happening.

Sorry for the frustrations this might have caused. 

Our back-end reported the problem is solved. The issue was due to a database connection problem. 

Let us know if you need further assistance. 

Thanks for your patience. 

This issue has presented itself again today, at least twice. I'm getting reports of the same error message from multiple users around the country.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

We received reports from our HIPAA users about the issue again. We already alerted our developers.

Once we have any updates from the backend team, we will let you know. Thank you!

To avoid confusion, we will be addressing the 504 error message issue to a different ticket. Please check my reply on this page: https://www.jotform.com/answers/2892816

Thank you!