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Microsoft Feedback Client issues with uploads


We're having some serious issues with the mfbclient.exe tool that is part of the feedback platform of VSTS. Basically, our stakeholder's uploads are not being sent.

This is extremely frustrating as you can imagine, as the ability to take screenshots etc is a major benefit of using the tool.

Members of the development team who have VS2017 installed on their machines as well as the feedback tool, can access the feedback request via the email that is automatically sent out when you click on "Request Feedback". Everything works perfectly.

If we send the request to a stakeholder, they can click on the link and it opens up the tool correctly, they can step through the items and make notes etc., and when they submit, their responses come through into VSTS. However, none of their attachments come through. They all say '(Uploading) filename.png' in VSTS.

Upon looking at one of the stakeholder's machines, I can see the mfbclient.exe tray icon says '0MB of 10MB transferred'. Restarting the machine doesn't change this - the attachments don't get uploaded.

Upon further investigation, under %localappdata%\microsoft\team foundation\x.0\testmanagement\ i can see an XML file which contains the list of all the screenshots / attachments etc that are to be loaded. The screenshot files themselves also exist (so, the files aren't missing/deleted). For some reason, the files just aren't uploading.

If I remove the XML file, it clears the attachment 'queue', but as soon as more feedback is entered and a screenshot added, the same issue occurs.

I noticed there was an mfbclient.exe.config file, which I edited on one of the stakeholder's machines and changed the trace level to '4' (verbose), which I thought would shed some light on the issue. However, I can't see anywhere that the logs might be. Does anyone know?

I have tested this with the stakeholder being part of the exact same security group as myself and the team (as I thought perhaps it was a permissions error), but this doesn't change the behaviour.

The only real differences I can think of between myself and team, and the people who are having the issues (and there are quite a few users who have the same issue so it's not just 1 person's problem), is that these people are stakeholders rather than subscribers (shouldn't make a difference), and they don't have Visual Studio installed on their machines (also, shouldn't make a difference).

Can anyone please shed any light on this issue? Has anyone else had the problem? Can someone from MSFT help?


Solution

  • I have the same problem with our VSTS. The problem really is because of the Stakeholder-License.

    If I submit a feeback with a stakeholder account the upload stays at 0%. When I change the user then to Basic in VSTS, the upload starts automatically and completes.

    EDIT: this issue has been fixed, as per this forum post: Feedback Client - Upload fails for Stakeholder