Is anyone else's sessions expiring while they are ACTIVELY working?

Question

Over the last few weeks, while actively working, we have been getting thrown out of Blackbaud. We lose all the work that was not saved. I have been typing, and it has thrown me out. I've opened a support ticket because this is causing us to lose a massive amount of time and effort. I can't keep saving after every keystroke in hopes that I don't lose my progress!

Is this happening to anyone else?

Roberta A. Gilbert · Answer

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/316379#Comment_316379

Thanks, Mary.  Can someone perhaps combine the two threads?  Not sure where to put it - it seems to be a general occurence across environments/solutions.  A colleague told me today that she experiences this all the time in RENXT, and like me, she has multiple tabs open so that she can read from different areas of RE at the same time.  But the tabs themselves are just a symptom of the underlying problem inherent in NXT - that we cannot work at the speed our brains are capable of, because we have to sit and wait for almost every screen to process and refresh after saving a change.  Sometimes while we are waiting is when everything shuts down, and I can't tell if the last Save "took" or not.

For some more perspective, I recently attended the K-12 Conf in Boston (which was wonderful, btw).  While I was there, I met the people who actually program and update Tuition Mgmt, which I use constantly.  I mentioned to one of them that there are functions that I am blocked from implementing or adjusting, without assistance from Blackbaud.  So she pulled out her laptop and asked me what I was trying to adjust.  I explained a particular issue with a family I was unable to adjust, and she said "oh you're not allowed to do that, but I can - what is the family's name?"  So she magically fixed this family's billing for me right there, on her Blackbaud computer.  BUT.. the thing that also got me is that even her official Blackbaud computer stalled with either the big green or blue pulsing ball - just like mine does.  Her reaction was "oh that doesn't usually happen on that page, implying that she sees it on other pages.

So this stalling and freezing and logging out is not because any of BB's users are using the wrong browser or an under-powered laptop, or too many tabs.  It's happening to BB employees too.  They know how to do things and they work fast and she simply out-ran the server.  This is what I think is happening.  Those of us who are on multiple areas of Blackbaud all day long, designing and running reports, complying with large requests from auditors, etc.  - we are collectively out-running Blackbaud's servers.  And we should not be getting used to this!

I said in another thread last year, that if a server has time to tell you that it is processing page 1 (of say a 50-page report) then the server is already too slow.  I see messages like that on my screen all the time - it used to make me laugh but now it's just annoying.  It shouldn't even have time to 'splain what it's doing in order to let me download a report.  That report should be ready by the time I blink twice.  I know it's possible, because in Database mode I was able to get that.

So now we're a giant step removed from being able to manipulate the database directly.  What has been done on the hardware side, to make up for the lost time?  It does seem that the devs or engineers knew that this was a probability in any web view.  So now it's a reality - what are they and Blackbaud doing about it?

Respectfully, as always,

Roberta

Mary Stanton · Answer

FYI, here is another recent post tracking the same issue - one of Blackbaud's product managers, Jessi Walters has commented here: July 2026- Frequently getting logged out of Blackbaud

Roberta A. Gilbert · Answer

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/316319#Comment_316319

Yes!!!!  It happens all the time. I have had 2 support cases open about this, and all anyone wants to do is open up a screen share so they can see it happen.  I have explained that it happens randomly and not on a timed schedule, but nobody has had any idea why.  I just want them to report it, so that someone will take it seriously.  Once it happened while I was actively in a screen share on a completely unrelated case, and all my Blackbaud browser tabs closed while we were reading and clicking on the screen.  Not the other tabs - just the Blackbaud ones.   It is maddening.

Please don't suggest I just open fewer tabs either.  That is not a solution.  I am constantly switching back and forth between tabs, because it's the only way I can quickly view and compare more than one function at a time, without waiting forever for one tab to change screens.  I work simultaneously in multiple Blackbaud solutions, on multiple monitors, all day long.  I need to work quickly, and not have Blackbaud's server speed slow me down.

I even just set up a new laptop - it has lots of RAM, a fast CPU, and can handle multitasking on anything I throw at it —  except Blackbaud.  Just as they did on my 5 year old underpowered desktop, the Blackbaud tabs shut down all at once while I am actively working on them.  Even online banking, usually notorious for logging me out if I am idle for 10 minutes, is not this bad.  The old database view switched instantly from one view or function to another.  As soon as you made NXT browser-based, everything slowed to a crawl, and the servers have not been able to keep up.  Blaming the users for having too many tabs open is not the proper response here - we do what we need to do, in order to keep working and meeting deadlines.  Please help us by providing servers that can keep up.  Thank you.