Sidebar and Search buttons broken on mobile site

For the past couple of days, the sidebar and search buttons on the mobile site (the ones at the top of the page) haven't been working at all. Everything else on the page is fine. I've tried clearing all browser data, and still no dice. I'm using the stock ICS Android browser.

I have the same issue with stock browser and Chrome browser on android. Side menu, search function, and ability to switch order of comment history broken.

Same issue on Chrome beta, 4.2 Jelly Bean.

Same with me. Also had an add for Gamespot start before a video that locked up my browser when it would finish playing. Happened every time and always required a reboot to fix my browser from being stuck on a black screen with no video controls or option to close the player. Standard IOS browser.

Noticed the same thing in both Chrome and Dolphin on my phone; everything works fine on my iPad.

The stock Andriod browser on my phone has the same issue, but the site works fine with the Firefox browser for Android.

I tried Firefox and got the same issue. Must be related to the OS somehow - mine's 4.1.2.

This same thing was happing to me but if you go into your browser setting, at least in chrome for android, and click the "request desktop site" box everything works fine.

This was happening on my iphone 4 as well but only on pages that weren't the front page.

Hmm... no go for me. Although Im on windows phone. =\

Looking into it. Things were working just fine with the mobile nav and since Friday looks like things broke on certain configs. Everyone will be all hands on deck today. Tuesday that is.

confirming that "request desktop site" views the same, but menu does work. Chrome on Android 4.1.2.

I recommend others try this, or switch to a desktop user agent in their browser's settings. I haven't had this issue in several days since changing my user agent. Unfortunately this makes posting more difficult because the WYSIWYG editor keeps jumping to the top of the page.

It wasn't working for me. I didn't change anything and now it is. Is this true for anyone else?

@slax: Yep, it's working now for me as well.

They're not working for me on my android phone. I've tried the android browser (following the phone), I've tried Opera and lastly Dolphin. When I move around the page with the navigator/selection marker, the side button/search button aren't clickable/selectable; they don't highlight. There seems to be something off when not one of 3 browsers can load the page properly. I haven't tried the site with a mobile before. I'm guessing that one of the buttons, the one to the left of the Giant Bomb logo is supposed to be the menu button where we can log in and otherwise access the site's features like the podcast and forums? Its pretty essential stuff. I hope it can be fixed or if it isn't broken, then at least be made more compatible than it currently is.

I'm guessing that sidebar button to the left also is the go-to place to switch from white to dark; and pretty much everything else. Man, I hope it isn't my phone that is the issue. :)

A fix for this went out today. We share a lot of the code between the mobile and desktop sites but in this case a needed component had not been included for mobile.

@funkydupe: If you are still having issues what phone and version of Android are you using?

@alexisg: Hi, it is a HTC Tattoo. It is quite old, using Android 1.6 if I'm not mistaken. This has to be one of the few sites its had issues with, perhaps because of the new more complicated menus you guys use. Considering what you said about a fix just coming out, my phone is just too old for the site now?

@funkydupe: Hmmm not super sure about this device. Android 1.6 is pretty old but I am surprised that the simple js that invokes the menu is breaking on it. I noticed there were some news about this device getting 2.1 but I didn't find anything about a final release (these were all news articles from like 2009).

@alexisg I posted this as an edit in my thread on the weekend about the mobile site but it seems to have been buried. When you go to the Podcasts section of the mobile site you can only get the most recent podcast. There is no way to view older ones other than attempting to search for them. You can change page between comments but not podcasts.

Your phone is too old for anyone to actually care about. How did you end up among the 0.2% of Android users still stuck on Donut?

@lordandrew: It still works, so I've kept it. Friends have seen smart phones come and go while this one has been reliable for me at least. There isn't much rocket science to it actually. 0.2% of? That's either a lot, or very few. Now that sites are starting to grow too advanced for it I might have to invest in a new one. Giant Bomb is among the few sites my phone can't navigate properly.

@alexisg: I can confirm the nav side bars are now working for me on Windows Phone. Thanks for the fix!

@alexisg Confirmed this works on Chrome Android 4.1.2. Have you tried the site recently @Funkydupe?

@greks224: Nah, giving up navigating the site now. When I try to click the side button it highlights the top half of the screen as a selected/clicked button instead of just the button itself and nothing happens beyond that. That goes for the search button on the right as well. I'm able to type in directly www.giantbomb.com/forums and browse the topics of the forums; but I'm not able to click and actually enter more than the two or three initial threads listed from the top. The others aren't registering as clickable/highlighted links. The phone can navigate vBulletin forums just fine so there has to be something a bit different about this structure causing my old phone not to recognize the threads and menus of the mobile site. Going to the giantbomb.com/login I can log in but to no use really since I can't use the forums properly, which was what I hoped for. The old forums worked okay. Its never been able to stream video, but I've been able to stream the podcast; now the podcast won't work either. The play button is unresponsive/not clickable just like the top buttons referred to in this thread.

@alexisg Yes I heard about the possibility of a firmware update, but it was probably scrapped in favor of new phones. I've searched around a bit and found a few rather shady/hobby-type sites where they claim they've upped the version to 2.3 but yeah, its probably not true; in any case I don't have the technical insight to do that type of work on a mobile device. Its too bad because my impression of the site is that it is faster now.

Looks like the side bar is finally working. Chrome on Android 4.2.2

This is still not working on Android. None of the links work when I tap them, I have to long press to bring up the menu and then choose open and it works.

Galaxy S3 4.1.2 - stock JB browser

Nexus 10 4.2.2 - stock JB browser