A while back, I had reported that the Detach Bug had been fixed. For many months we have been waiting for the fix to be implemented in the official SL client. It’s finally been released and as best as I can surmise, the fix now prevents you from making copies of worn objects. This does indeed prevent the first reproduction of the bug, but it does nothing to fix the core problem. HUDs that are worn from the ground are still in danger of being lost when they are next detached or when you log out or crash.

How to prevent the Detach Bug

Never wear your HUD directly from the ground. Right click on the HUD and take it. Then wear it from your inventory.

Wearing objects from the ground may lead to inventory loss

What to do if you have lost a HUD or other detachment

You should do the usual things from the Second Life Wiki like clear your cache. But if that doesn’t work, contact Second Life support. Open a ticket on their website and ask for an inventory restart/fix. Explain that you have lost a HUD when it detached, that it disappeared from your inventory and that you have tried solutions from the wiki. They will help you, even if you are just a basic member. Their support might be faster if you are premium however.

Second Life support can help you! If you lost your HUD from the Detach Bug, they can almost always retrieve it using their inventory fix. Always contact support for this problem.

What else can you do?

Please take the time to log into the jira site (the official Second Life bug tracking system) and vote on this problem. The current jira issue for this problem is SVC-2956.

UPDATE (June 26): There is another well commented description of the same essential bug on the jira. Please vote for VWR-12525.

But there were two problems.

First, many of the customer service people didn’t seem to know about the fix or offer it as a solution to premium members who were complaining of inventory loss. It took persistence and luck to find a Linden who would know about the solution and who would do it.

Second, basics don’t have an official channel to get help for this problem. They don’t have an option to file support tickets for inventory loss, and so they had no real way of petitioning for the fix.

A couple weeks ago, I brought this to the attention of Cyn Linden, the VP of Customer Relations at Linden Lab. She let me know that they did discuss it internally, although I never heard what action they took. However, it seems to have worked. For the last week or so, whenever I have referred someone to Linden Customer Service, they have reported back to me success. The CS reps now seem to recognize the problem when it’s brought to them and act on it quickly. This is great news. If you are a premium member who couldn’t get help before. Try live help again, you may have success this time.

As for basics, I don’t know yet what is happening with them. However, I do think that some who have posted on the jira issue have gotten help. If you are a Basic member who has suffered from this bug. You might want to try submitting another customer support ticket or posting on the jira issue. If you do, please take the time to describe what happened and what your computer’s specs are too. That info might be helpful.

JUNE 23 UPDATE: Linden Customer Service has improved considerably on this issue during the last couple of weeks. I am now recommending that you file a support ticket to remedy this problem. Several people have gotten help on this matter within 24 hours of filing a ticket. Tell them that your HUD attachment disappeared after detaching and that you would like an Directory Repair/Inventory Restart.

In the mean time, I’m going to research other ways we can lobby Linden Lab to both fix the bug that is causing this latest rash of inventory losses and to create a channel where Basic members can get support for inventory issues.

I also found this issue on jira, I think this deserves many, many votes: To gather Inventory loss troubleshooting data, let Basic users submit tickets for loss.

Inventory loss bugs affect many Premium & Basic users. Linden has been interested in getting timely data to help track down the causes. However currently, only Premium users may submit tickets about inventory loss. By not allowing Basic users to submit tickets about this, Linden is losing all the troubleshooting data they could provide. And clearly, it’s needed. Linden should start letting Basic users submit inventory loss tickets. Besides, Basic users contribute to the economy, by buying items, buying/renting land, etc. It doesn’t seem fair that there is *zero* official concern when their investment in the economy (items) is affected (lost).

Please note, this issue is not specifically requesting that Linden HELP Basic users (though actually I think it should when we lose items)…it is requesting that we be ALLOWED to help Linden! By giving them data (ticket info) to help them track down bugs that affect everyone.

It’s not enough. Inventory loss should be something that all users of Second Life should be able to get support for, but it’s a start.

JUNE 23 UPDATE: In order to get help for this, I now advise that you open a support ticket about this. Linden Customer Service has made significant progress in the last couple of weeks to address this. Open a ticket, explain clearly what happened (that your attachment disappeared from your inventory after detaching, after a crash, or after it was replaced by another attachment). Ask for a Directory Repair or Inventory Restart. It will work. At least I don’t know of a case when this fix has failed to return HUDs lost in this manner.

I sent this Linden an IM to thank them and to ask some follow up questions. I’ve removed their name so that he doesn’t get swamped with direct support requests. As always, you should go through the official channels to get support. However, I thought many of my customers would want to know some of the things that he said:

Keiki Lemieux: Hello, if you have a moment, I would like to chat.

a Linden: i have a minute or two.. what’s up?

Keiki Lemieux: first, a thank you. you helped one of my customers today find a copy of their HUDDLE EZ Animator with loads of her animations inside. I have been getting dozens of customers with similar problems over the last couple of weeks. They detach a HUD and it disappears, sometimes with 100s of animations inside. I’ve been helping people for 2 years, and this seems to be a new bug that happens when someone detaches a HUD and it just poofs from their inventory. I was hoping you could give me some advice about what directions I should tell them. I am assuming that some of them could get their items back if they could get to the right support person.

a Linden: correct.. the first step is contacting support either by ticket or Live Chat

Keiki Lemieux: what level of membership are they going to need to get help?

a Linden: Premium helps bunches to be honest

Keiki Lemieux: And the problem I’m describing, do you know if it’s a known issue? I never heard of this a month ago. Now I’m getting a couple inquiries a day, which usually means there are dozens who aren’t bothering to IM me.

a Linden: I’ve been able to fix that issue a few times with a”fix” i can do rather quickly. I’ve seen it creeping up a lot lately. Not sure why it’s happening, but i suspect it could be any number of things.. from which viewer they are using, to issues with the servers, to acts of bored dieties

Keiki Lemieux: is there a particular thing they can ask for? “Run that inventory fix it utility” or something?

a Linden: basically, yes.. that would point to the direction that would need to be taken. although sometimes that doesn’t completely fix the issue, often times it will

Keiki Lemieux: and is it a time sensitive thing? do they need to do it within 24 hours or a week or something?

a Linden: i’m sure it helps to alert us as soon as possible, but a week or two is probably fine.. maybe longer than that as well