Multiple update notification popups

[redbuppy]

The new improved automatic update system is all right, but I've gotten several popups telling me that the same update (to v. 5.75.8238) has completed. I understand why annoying marketing popups might repeat, but should it be happening with the update?

[nukecad]

I shouldn't have thought so.

How often are you seeing them?
Are they only when you open CCleaner, or at other times?
If possible could you attach a screenshot of one.

I've just turned my v5.75 'Automatic Updates' back on to see if it starts happening here.

Just for completeness, which Windows version/build do you have, and which antivirus are you running?

[redbuppy]

> I shouldn't have thought so.

That's two of us.

> How often are you seeing them?

Once or twice a day; it didn't occur to me that I needed to pay close attention.

> Are they only when you open CCleaner, or at other times?

I haven't been opening CCleaner.

> If possible could you attach a screenshot of one.

Next time it comes up (which, of course, means it won't). It says that CCleaner has updated, and there's a button to bring up the version history web page.

> Just for completeness, which Windows version/build do you have, and which antivirus are you running?

Windows 7 Pro with Avast.

[Dave CCleaner]

Marketing pop-ups to the free user base are highly restricted, generally only appearing during one of our occasional sales, and then a maximum of 1-4 times per campaign, depending on the duration of the sale (usually 1-2 times, although this year's Black Friday/Cyber Monday was an exception with 3-4 per user).

If you are referring to the service notification below, this is set to appear once and once only at some point after you have updated to 5.75 if it seems that you have not opened up the CCleaner console for a while.

The most common source of overmessaging is wiping the "I have already seen this message and I don't need to see it again" flag as a result of removing too many things from the cookie cleaning whitelist.

The fix for this is to go to Options > Cookies in the CCleaner console, right click in "Cookies to Keep", select Import and import the cookies.txt attached here.  That should sort you out.

 

cookies.txt

[redbuppy]

> Marketing pop-ups to the free user base are highly restricted, generally only appearing during one of our occasional sales, and then a maximum of 1-4 times per campaign, >depending on the duration of the sale (usually 1-2 times, although this year's Black Friday/Cyber Monday was an exception with 3-4 per user).

It seems like more; I'll count next time. Maybe it has to do with the cookies discussed below.

> If you are referring to the service notification below, this is set to appear once and once only at some point after you have updated to 5.75 if it seems that you have not >opened up the CCleaner console for a while.

That is indeed the popup. And, as I've said, I've seen it multiple times. At first, I expected to find that there had been small updates, but that's apparently not the case.

> The most common source of overmessaging is wiping the "I have already seen this message and I don't need to see it again" flag as a result of removing too many things >from the cookie cleaning whitelist.

> The fix for this is to go to Options > Cookies in the CCleaner console, right click in "Cookies to Keep", select Import and import the cookies.txt attached here.  That should >sort you out.

My browser (Firefox) is set to delete cookies on exit; if CCleaner cookies live somewhere in that environment, it would explain the problem. I only run CCleaner occasionally, so importing these addresses into Cookies to Keep may not be my solution.

Thanks.

[stackoverflow]

I too am having this issue with the "Your CCleaner has had a free Update". I have all the cookies referenced in Dave CCleaner's post as cookies to keep. In 2 hours today  I've seen the notification 3 times and I've lost count how many times I saw it yesterday.

Thanks

[redbuppy]

For the record, I got that same popup again today when I booted up.

[Dave CCleaner]

3 hours ago, redbuppy said:

For the record, I got that same popup again today when I booted up.

@redbuppy: Confirming that is the same colourful one as in the screenshot above?  It would make sense that you see it one more time since that would still be its "first time" since you restored the cookie whitelist. But if you see it again after that please let us know.

3 hours ago, stackoverflow said:

I have all the cookies referenced in Dave CCleaner's post as cookies to keep

@stackoverflow: Okay now that is an interesting situation.  Can I trouble you for a bit more info on this please?

• Windows version; default browser; firewall; AV; any other cleaners/blockers/etc running on your computer; custom configured hosts file?
• What version of CCleaner were you on prior to this?  Have you received this level of saturation on any other messages (eg: the informational message about Important Updates, the Black Friday/Cyber Monday promo, etc)?
• For my peace of mind, if there is nothing sensitive in there, could I trouble you to screenshot your cookie whitelist? (or DM it to me if you prefer)

 

[redbuppy]

> Confirming that is the same colourful one as in the screenshot above?

It was indeed.

> It would make sense that you see it one more time since that would still be its "first time" since you restored the cookie whitelist. But if you see it again after that please let us know.

I will.

[redbuppy]

I just got another popup.

Why would this be cookie-based instead of all internal to the CCleaner ecosystem?

[stackoverflow]

5 hours ago, Dave CCleaner said:

• Windows version; default browser; firewall; AV; any other cleaners/blockers/etc running on your computer; custom configured hosts file?
• What version of CCleaner were you on prior to this?  Have you received this level of saturation on any other messages (eg: the informational message about Important Updates, the Black Friday/Cyber Monday promo, etc)?
• For my peace of mind, if there is nothing sensitive in there, could I trouble you to screenshot your cookie whitelist? (or DM it to me if you prefer)

Windows 10 20H2 x64
Default browser: Edge Chromium
ESET Internet Security 14.0.22.0

The only blockers are Ublock Origin in Firefox and Edge.
ESET firewall is not blocking any CCleaner traffic. Hosts file is empty (default)

Prior to this I would have been on the last release. Of note is that I updated as soon as 5.75 was released. I only received the one previously described notification until Monday and again today - I've now had 4 today.
I've not received any other messages.

My cookie whitelist is purely the CCleaner default.
*.avast.com
*.ccleaner.com
*.ccleanercloud.com
*.piriform.com

I also set up a Win 10 20H2 VM yesterday and it is having the same multiple notifications. Security is entirely Windows built-in.

[stackoverflow]

[redbuppy]

And yet another popup for 5.75.8238 when I booted up.

[redbuppy]

And another popup.

[nukecad]

Must be bl**dy annoying. (I'm not seeing it here).

At the risk of upsetting CCleaners marketing department - As it's showing in the Windows notification area have you tried changing your Windows notification settings?

Windows Settings>System>Notifications & Actions> Get notifications from apps and other senders.

 

[Dave CCleaner]

This particular service notification only had a 3 day run ... which ended at around 13:00 GMT today. So it should be gone regardless at this point.

Did an audit at our end, and checking the message configuration I can confirm that it was:

1. set to only display once every 31 days (ie: once only given its limited run)
2. bound by a global "safety net" rule that says free users cannot receive more than 1 toaster message every 2 days.

The server log of the number of times content was served over the three days seems to follow a standard pattern - a spike of displays followed by a rapid tailoff as fresh customers updated to 5.75 and those who had their computer off on previous days saw the message for the first time.

Cross-referencing this with the traffic to the CCleaner version history page (which was the link in the "What's New" button) the clickthrough rate did not decline over time as would be expected if many users were getting multiple notifications.

So whatever is happening seems to only be impacting an undetectably small percentage of users - which is good news in the larger scheme of things - but I still want to figure out what is happening in your case so that we can find a solution.

On 16/12/2020 at 09:42, stackoverflow said:

I also set up a Win 10 20H2 VM yesterday and it is having the same multiple notifications. Security is entirely Windows built-in.

@stackoverflow: okay now that is even odder. How "vanilla" is your VM configuration? Anything custom that you may have applied to both computers?  If you weren't noticing the same level of excessive messaging at the end of November/beginning of December were there any noteworthy changes that you made on your main computer since then?

Possibly a long-shot, but if both your main computer and the VM are on the same network, is there any chance that there is some sort of bandwidth-saving forward caching going on? Perhaps on a router, network gateway or by the ISP itself (if you are tethering off a mobile phone or using a 4G/5G router)?

[redbuppy]

> This particular service notification only had a 3 day run ... which ended at around 13:00 GMT today. So it should be gone regardless at this point.

That's good to know.

> So whatever is happening seems to only be impacting an undetectably small percentage of users - which is good news in the larger scheme of things - but I still want to figure out what is happening in your case so that we can find a solution.

I agree about the good news in the larger sense.

I checked, and the EXE is dated Dec. 8, so at least it hasn't been continually updating.

Thanks, Dave. If it happens with the next update, I'll be back here.

[redbuppy]

Well, this is odd.

On January 14 (5:51 p.m. ET), I got the popup that v. 8269 had installed. I made a note, in case there were going to be multiple notifications. There wasn't a second one until yesterday (January 25, 5:18 p.m.), and now I've gotten another (January 26, 5:16 a.m.). The 11-day gap is what makes this so strange.

[Dave CCleaner]

@redbuppy: would I be correct in assuming that the January 14th notification was a little text box and the once from the 25th and 26th were more colourful ones?  To confirm:

• Had you restored the cookies whitelist as per the cookies.txt?
• Do you have any other software or tools on your computer that would be cookie purging (other than the Firefox setting that you mentioned? I assume that Firefox is set as your default browser?)

[redbuppy]

Hi.

I can't say that I remember what the box looked like on the 14th.

The cookies are whitelisted in CCleaner.

Firefox is my default browser, and it deletes cookies at exit. I've also used Chrome recently, and whacked browsing data there at session's end.

[Dave CCleaner]

Just now, redbuppy said:

Firefox is my default browser, and it deletes cookies at exit.

Thanks for this.  Usually the feedback we get on overmessaging never has enough information to pinpoint a root cause - this thread has been absolute gold in that regard.

Just checking, for some additional triangulation, did you have your computer on between Christmas and New Year?  Did you get any overmessaging during that period about our "Boxing Day" sale that ran at the time?

While again, this run of messages is due to end mid-week anyway, solving the root cause for all messages is a high priority - I'll keep this thread posted on any progress.

[redbuppy]

I used this machine every day between Christmas and New Year, and don't remember being overwhelmed by Boxing Day ads.