Am I seeing a bug? How do I know where to turn when I have an issue?

Issues can be bugs which affect many Residents, or observed behavior of your own setup which can be adjusted to act as expected.

What is a bug?

A bug is an unintended computer error or problem. Bugs have a common characteristic: they can be reproduced by more than one person using the same conditions. For example, if you go into appearance mode to edit your avatar height and the height slider provides the opposite result where increasing height makes your avatar shorter, this would be a Viewer bug. A quick search in the Knowledge Base for "appearance" provides two articles, including one with a video tutorial that demonstrates the expected behavior of the height sliders. Once you know that the feature is not acting as expected:

Learn How to Search the Public Issue Tracker (JIRA)
Go to the Issue Tracker
Search for the issue to see if it is already reported
- If the bug is reported, add your information to the bug report.
- If the bug is not reported, create a bug report.

Tip: Tip: When searching the Issue Tracker, try using a variety of search terms to avoid duplicated bug reports. Residents each describe issues differently. Try using some of the descriptions found in the Knowledge Base article that explains expected behavior for your issue topic.

How do I file a bug report?

For information about filing a bug report, see Creating bug reports and feature requests in the Public Issue Tracker.

What is the general process for fixing bugs?

Once you've filed a bug report, it may get attention from other Residents who:

Share the same issue
Offer reproductions
Attach patches or changes to the source code
Vote on your issue

Votes from other Residents help prioritize the issue. Once the issue is acknowledged and "imported" by Linden Lab, it will be investigated and worked on.

For additional information about the process of bug reports filed on our Issue Tracker, please see Issue tracker. Check out Issue Navigator - Recent bugs with votes for a quick look at the most recently filed bug reports prioritized by votes.

Trivia: Trivia: The term "bug" dates back to the 1800's as reference to flaws in mechanical systems, with further reference during WWII pertaining to radar electronics. In 1947, a literal bug was a moth found trapped between relay points of a Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator at Harvard University. Removal of the moth was considered "debugging" the machine. Reference.

Non-bug issue

A non-bug issue is something unique to your setup. These issues can be corrected by adjusting your Viewer settings, connection type, or components, so that they act as expected. If you're experiencing a non-bug issue, go to the Knowledge Base to find information about the expected behavior of the feature you're using. Self-help articles might get you back on track quickly. If you're unable to resolve your issue based on information in the Knowledge Base, head to the Support Portal. The Knowledge Base contains articles about Support Ticket types to help get your ticket in front of the Support Team that specializes in your issue type. Decentralized support helps get your issue addressed quickly.

Example of a non-bug issue:

"Regardless of the Region I go to, many objects on my screen are red."

This is an example of the Highlight Transparent feature found in your View menu. Highlight Transparent provides the ability to show transparent objects in red on your Viewer screen. This feature can be toggled using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Alt-T or going to View > Highlight Transparent. The feature acts as intended, revealing transparent objects when active. Turning off this feature by adjusting your Viewer setting corrects the issue.

Additional knowledge resources

Video Tutorials are available from our Showcase Tutorials web page. Use the search tool to locate a video tutorial about your topic.

I'm still not sure if my question is about a bug or a non-bug issue.

Our Support staff will be able to help you identify what type of issue you have. If they let you know it sounds like a bug, then head to the Issue Tracker and file a bug report. If they're able to help you resolve a non-bug issue, but you didn't find information about your topic in the Knowledge Base, please submit a Knowledge Base Suggestion ticket so we can make sure the Knowledge Base is updated.

What affects my Second Life experience?

Running Second Life involves complex systems inside Linden Lab, along with components used by Residents.

Your components

Software - The Second Life Viewer
- Second Life is an application. It is necessary to download, install and run Second Life.
Hardware - Your computer system
- Check to make sure your system meets our minimum system requirements.
Internet Connection - Your internet service
- Packets of data flow between the Second Life Viewer and your computer hardware. Direct-wired DSL or cable internet service provides better performance.

Understanding expected behavior of your components when using Second Life can help determine what type of issue you're having, and whether the issue is a bug or non-bug problem.

The Knowledge Base is a great first stop for information. The Knowledge Base contains articles about expected behavior of the features in our standard Viewer, types of internet connection, and information about system compatibility, including some system components. The articles contained in the Knowledge Base are related to the standard Viewer.

Note: Note: If you are using our Release Candidate or another Tech Preview Viewer version, bugs should be reported on our Issue Tracker. Issues with our beta software are not supported.

Our components

"What is it? How can it fail? How we fix it." Understanding how our systems work and how we provide solutions empowers you to better identify what type of issue you may be experiencing. Check out Service Disruptions explained by Joshua Linden, or click one of the links below to go directly to that section.

How do I know if there are service disruptions affecting my Second Life experience?

Second Life Grid Status Reports provide information about service disruptions or scheduled outages. Follow updates via RSS feed and Twitter