New Posts generated and then disappear after a certain amount of time.

[Braders]

New Posts work just fine when I and other users initially log in. After around 5 minutes though if I need to refresh a thread/post (that I am reading from New Posts) and then click 'back' they all disappear. Currently the users on my site have to click on 'Today's Posts' to see the latest posts when this happens.

I have a feeling this is because I have the following option set to:

This option controls how threads and forums are marked as read.
Inactivity/Cookie Based

rathen than:

Database (automatic forum marking)

If I understand correctly having read other threads on this, if I set this option to 'Database (automatic forum marking)' then all posts will show up as unread because the database marking is new, until I mark the forums as read ?

How would I mark the forums as read, if this is what I need to do ?

Or

Am I missing another setting to resolve this issue ?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Trevor Hannant]

From the help text:

1. Inactivity/Cookie Based - once a user has been inactive for a certain amount of time (the value of the session timeout option) all threads and forums are considered read. Individual threads are marked as read within a session via cookies.
   
   This option is how all versions of vBulletin before 3.5 functioned.
2. Database (no automatic forum marking) - this option uses the database to store thread and forum read times. This allows accurate read markers to be kept indefinitely. However, in order for a forum to be marked read when all threads are read, the user must view the list of threads for that forum.
   
   This option is more space and processor intensive than inactivity-based marking.
3. Database (automatic forum marking) - this option is the same as a previous option, but forums are automatically marked as read when the last new thread is read.
   
   This is the most usable option for end users, but most processor intensive.

Option 3 is by far the most accurate

[Braders]

Thank you Trevor. I shall change the setting to option 3 and hope all works as it should.

[BirdOPrey5]

New Posts work just fine when I and other users initially log in. After around 5 minutes though if I need to refresh a thread/post (that I am reading from New Posts) and then click 'back' they all disappear. Currently the users on my site have to click on 'Today's Posts' to see the latest posts when this happens.

What's New is a search- there is a search ID generated. This ID only remains valid for a few minutes- after some time the results of the search are no longer cached and you need to rerun the search.