Ticket replies showing (empty) on 1.17.7

smusmu

osTicket Version v1.17.7 (a18df93) — Up to date
Web Server Software Microsoft-IIS/10.0
MySQL Version 10.5.5
PHP Version 8.4.17

Mailserver: Exchange online using Oauth2

Problem:
Upgraded from 1.17.0 to 1.17.7
When submitting a reply to a ticket, the reply will display (empty).
No user input is saved.
This is a periodical issue, as it does not happen on every response, even on same ticket.

KevinTheJedi

smusmu

Hmmm, what’s the raw body contents of the message?

Cheers.

smusmu

Hey Kevin, thanks for the reply.

I am unable to find the original message, I did not note the ID, and the agents have "cleaned up" the tickets in question.
I was only able to save a screenshot.

NEW!
I had few reports of this happening when adding a "Internal note" to a ticket.
The agent noticed it, deleted the note and added it again, which worked!
The same thing, "resubmitting", works on ticket replies.

I have not yet been able to catch the error, and see the body content being submitted.

KevinTheJedi

smusmu

That is an Agent reply. That should definitely not be empty unless it included content that was stripped during sanitization or maybe browser extensions messing with it or maybe even firewall, etc. We will need the raw contents of the message to see what’s up.

Cheers.

nikben

Same issue on v1.18.3, just after upgrade from previous version

smusmu

Update from Agents:
This happens typically when using "Canned response" or when they use "AutoHotkey" to generate a predefined reponse.

This could easy be issue with browser (latest Edge).
Could this be conflicting issue with "Drafts" save, when inserting predefined response?

smusmu

I have the POST request of a reply, that ended being (empty):

Request URL: helpdesk.local/scp/tickets.php?id=169111
Request Method: POST
Status Code: 302 Found
Remote Address: 192.168.0.115:443
Referrer Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
cache-control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate
content-length: 13
content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
date: Fri, 30 Jan 2026 10:19:35 GMT
expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
location: tickets.php?id=169111
pragma: no-cache
server: Microsoft-IIS/10.0
x-powered-by: PHP/8.4.17
:authority: helpdesk.local
:method: POST
:path: /scp/tickets.php?id=169111
:scheme: https
accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,/;q=0.8,application/signed-exchange;v=b3;q=0.7
accept-encoding: gzip, deflate, br, zstd
accept-language: da,en;q=0.9,en-GB;q=0.8,en-US;q=0.7
cache-control: max-age=0
content-length: 1670
content-type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundaryScjrTPmfzlbFXraW
cookie: (REDACTED)
origin: helpdesk.local
priority: u=0, i
referer: helpdesk.local/scp/tickets.php?id=169111
sec-ch-ua: "Not(A:Brand";v="8", "Chromium";v="144", "Microsoft Edge";v="144"
sec-ch-ua-mobile: ?0
sec-ch-ua-platform: "Windows"
sec-fetch-dest: document
sec-fetch-mode: navigate
sec-fetch-site: same-origin
sec-fetch-user: ?1
upgrade-insecure-requests: 1
user-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/144.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/144.0.0.0

FORM DATA:
id: 169111
CSRFToken: 8ac6fb9292b02492da80c7a768ce5c59514e3c7b
id: 169111
msgId:
a: reply
lockCode:
I2iTRsvmg5:
from_email_id: 53
reply-to: all
cannedResp: 0
draft_id:
response:
No, unfortunately it does not come with an integrated pump. 
These pumps can however be used for the chair:  <a href="REDACTED">Pompes pour Matelas - acheter en ligne | CompanyName</a>
I wish you a good day. 
signature: none
reply_status_id: 1
draft_id:

KevinTheJedi

smusmu

Nothing looks out of place there and contains content in the "response" field. So that should work. What do you mean by "AutoHotKey"? We don't have such a thing.

Cheers.

DrMichaD

I have exactly the same problem with version 1.18.3.
Everything worked normally for months before the update, but immediately after updating to 1.18.3, I noticed that agents' replies to new tickets suddenly only showed (empty) after being sent; the text that had been entered had disappeared. If text is then entered again in another reply in the same ticket, it is displayed after submission. This also works with the same content as the previous reply. So it cannot be due to faulty characters. This phenomenon occurs sporadically and not always, but it can be reproduced when a new test ticket is created and several replies are created in it. Suddenly, instead of the text entered, only (empty) appears.
I have tried this on various systems with the latest version of Firefox and with Safari on the iPhone and have been able to reproduce it.

My configuration:
OsTicket 1.18.3
Microsoft Server with IIS
PHP 8.5.1
MySQL 8.0.44
All PHP extensions for PHP active

KevinTheJedi

DrMichaD

You are using PHP 8.5 which is not supported. Downgrade to PHP 8.2-8.4 (8.4 recommended), restart the webserver and php-fpm, and retest.

Cheers.

DrMichaD

KevinTheJedi

Hi, thank you for your reply.
I tried PHP 8.4 and restarted everything – same problem. Then I even tried PHP 8.2 – same problem. Then I reinstalled PHP 8.5.1 and the problem with osTicket version 1.18.3 remains.
As a last resort, I downgraded osTicket 1.18.2 to PHP 8.5.1 and the error was no longer reproducible. I don't think it's due to the PHP version.
Cheers

nikben

The same problem we ecountered on 1.18.3, just after upgrade, i guess is not related to PHP version, like suggested.
We are running our osTicket on PHP 8.2.

KevinTheJedi

DrMichaD

I’m wondering if it’s this change:

https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket/pull/6910/changes/877adf564aba70cc810ee9862c1718ba9daaf0d2

Try reverting this when you upgrade to v1.18.3, clear all cache/cookies/sessions, restart the webserver and php-fpm, and see if that helps.

If not then I wonder if you can apply the v1.18.3 commits one by one to see at what point it breaks. This will give us a better idea as to what’s going on.

Cheers.

KevinTheJedi

DrMichaD I posted the wrong link but I just updated it.

DrMichaD

KevinTheJedi
Hi, thank you for your reply.
After integrating your htmLawed.php file into my system today, the problem with the (empty) message no longer occurred.
I will continue to monitor and test this.
Can you tell me where the error or problem was (if it should now work permanently)?

My configuration:
OsTicket 1.18.3
Microsoft Server with IIS
PHP 8.5.1
MySQL 8.0.44
All PHP extensions for PHP active

KevinTheJedi

DrMichaD

Your response isn’t so clear.. did you upgrade to v1.18.3 then replace the new htmlawed file with the old one from v1.18.2, or?

Cheers.

DrMichaD

KevinTheJedi
I rejoiced too soon, as the error just occurred again.
I wrote a lengthy response with two screenshots on a ticket and sent it, and suddenly, it just said (empty). Luckily, I had copied the content beforehand. When I clicked on “Edit and resend,” there was only a hyphen in the reply field—I wonder why? I deleted the hyphen and pasted my copied content again, and resending the identical content worked normally.

I upgraded from 1.18.2 to 1.18.3, although 1.18.2 ran without this error. Then I replaced the htmlawed file with the file you posted above.
I am now switching back to PHP 8.4.16.

KevinTheJedi

DrMichaD

So what I was asking you to do is essentially replace the v1.18.3 htmlawed file with the one from v1.18.2. But you have to restart the webserver and php-fpm to clear file cache and any server side caching; trust me, it matters.

Cheers.

DrMichaD

KevinTheJedi
Yes, I did that, replacing the htmlawed file of version 1.18.3 with version 1.18.2.
I also activated PHP 8.4.16.
Of course, I restarted php-cgi.exe and IIS.
I have now created a few tickets and written lots of responses – so far, no (empty) in the text.
I'll continue testing...

KevinTheJedi

DrMichaD

Hyphen means empty content which means it was likely stripped. Now we need to figure out what is stripping the content. Please provide the EXACT steps to replicate the issue from the time you login to the time the issue is reproduced including the EXACT content you are using that winds up empty. I did a few tests and couldn’t replicate the issue so I need exact information to replicate it.

Cheers.

DrMichaD

KevinTheJedi
I cannot reproduce the problem in the current configuration.
Should I use the htmlawed file from version 1.18.3 again and try to reproduce the problem?