Mint.com's broke, can I fix or must I switch?
June 30, 2010 1:40 AM Subscribe
Mint.com went kablooey for me tonight. (I'm pretty sure it's a javascript thing.) Is there something I can do to fix this?
I have an older Mac, and when I attempted to log into Mint tonight pretty much the whole site's busted.
It seems to be a javascript error of some kind; every little button or clickable link which uses javascript is basically greyed out. Some will highlight when clicked on, but will not load a new page, or perform the action they're supposed to perform (e.g., closing an alert notice).
I don't know much about javascript and am not sure if there's anything I can do as an end user to mitigate the problem. I've asked about it at their site but they haven't been very helpful, and when I've googled I find that their support forums have a rep for being a bit shite. I can't upgrade my browser, or use Chrome, or update to Flash 10; my OS is too old. Does this mean Mint is broken until I buy a new computer? Because that's not happening for a while, and this basically obliterates the usefulness of the service.
If so, can anyone recommend another web-based personal finance tracker?
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Details:
Mac OS X 10.3.9, Firefox 2.0.0.20, Flash 9.
Status bar at bottom reads "javascript://" when I hover over any of these buttons.
"Error Console" in Firefox is giving me lots and lots of "Unknown property, declaration dropped" errors and threebig red flag errors: "Mint is not defined," "$MM is not defined," and "GOOGLE is not defined."
Mint recently added a new feature called Goals; I'm not sure if this is purely a Goals thing; I've been checking Mint through my phone app for the last few days and can't remember specifically the last time I logged in through this computer. But I haven't changed my browser settings or updated it in any way in months, and Mint had previously worked.
I have an older Mac, and when I attempted to log into Mint tonight pretty much the whole site's busted.
It seems to be a javascript error of some kind; every little button or clickable link which uses javascript is basically greyed out. Some will highlight when clicked on, but will not load a new page, or perform the action they're supposed to perform (e.g., closing an alert notice).
I don't know much about javascript and am not sure if there's anything I can do as an end user to mitigate the problem. I've asked about it at their site but they haven't been very helpful, and when I've googled I find that their support forums have a rep for being a bit shite. I can't upgrade my browser, or use Chrome, or update to Flash 10; my OS is too old. Does this mean Mint is broken until I buy a new computer? Because that's not happening for a while, and this basically obliterates the usefulness of the service.
If so, can anyone recommend another web-based personal finance tracker?
--------------------------
Details:
Mac OS X 10.3.9, Firefox 2.0.0.20, Flash 9.
Status bar at bottom reads "javascript://" when I hover over any of these buttons.
"Error Console" in Firefox is giving me lots and lots of "Unknown property, declaration dropped" errors and threebig red flag errors: "Mint is not defined," "$MM is not defined," and "GOOGLE is not defined."
Mint recently added a new feature called Goals; I'm not sure if this is purely a Goals thing; I've been checking Mint through my phone app for the last few days and can't remember specifically the last time I logged in through this computer. But I haven't changed my browser settings or updated it in any way in months, and Mint had previously worked.
Can you upgrade to 10.4 at least? I still have a few machines around running Tiger and plenty of software is still developed that will run on them, including the latest version of Firefox.
Outdated versions of OS X sell for insane prices online but maybe you can befriend someone at an Apple Store and get a loaner DVD to do an upgrade.
(Backup everything first, naturally.)
posted by bcwinters at 4:41 AM on June 30, 2010
Outdated versions of OS X sell for insane prices online but maybe you can befriend someone at an Apple Store and get a loaner DVD to do an upgrade.
(Backup everything first, naturally.)
posted by bcwinters at 4:41 AM on June 30, 2010
1) You can check here for comparisons, but in my experience, Mint is the easiest, best supported, and has the most bank connections (supposedly all of them).
That being said...
2) There's no way to upgrade to a netbook or anything? Because you're not running an "old" Mac--at 5+ years old you're running a wholly unsupported machine and OS (to say nothing of the browser and plugins) that's a generation or two past any reasonable expectation of use with modern apps.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you can afford an iPhone or Android (the only two mobile app platforms Mint supports) plus a data plan, then you should have enough available money in the near future for, at the very least, a sub-$300 netbook with a current-gen OS or a Macbook that's less than 3 years old off of eBay.
posted by zombieflanders at 7:02 AM on June 30, 2010
That being said...
2) There's no way to upgrade to a netbook or anything? Because you're not running an "old" Mac--at 5+ years old you're running a wholly unsupported machine and OS (to say nothing of the browser and plugins) that's a generation or two past any reasonable expectation of use with modern apps.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you can afford an iPhone or Android (the only two mobile app platforms Mint supports) plus a data plan, then you should have enough available money in the near future for, at the very least, a sub-$300 netbook with a current-gen OS or a Macbook that's less than 3 years old off of eBay.
posted by zombieflanders at 7:02 AM on June 30, 2010
Response by poster: I am aware that the OS is very old. I bought the laptop refurbished a few years ago; it is out of warrenty and the extended service plan is done. I plan to replace it later this year. Since I will be spending a lot of money on a new laptop in a fairly short amount of time, I do not wish to spend a couple hundred bucks on the old one for something that's only going to be useful to me for a few months.
But anyways. The site worked until like a week or so ago. What I'm trying to find out is, is there any sort of extension I can enable/disable, a plug-in, something that could possibly address this issue? I don't know enough about javascript to tell and all the googling I'm doing is finding me lots of stuff to for and about writing in the language, but not so much for a mere user.
posted by Diablevert at 7:17 AM on June 30, 2010
But anyways. The site worked until like a week or so ago. What I'm trying to find out is, is there any sort of extension I can enable/disable, a plug-in, something that could possibly address this issue? I don't know enough about javascript to tell and all the googling I'm doing is finding me lots of stuff to for and about writing in the language, but not so much for a mere user.
posted by Diablevert at 7:17 AM on June 30, 2010
How about trying Opera 9? It's worth a shot, although I don't think it's on the supported browsers list.
But really, your best bet is to find a Tiger installer disc somewhere. You just need to find someone to loan you one. Heck, If you're in the NYC area, I'll try and dig out mine.
posted by bcwinters at 7:30 AM on June 30, 2010
But really, your best bet is to find a Tiger installer disc somewhere. You just need to find someone to loan you one. Heck, If you're in the NYC area, I'll try and dig out mine.
posted by bcwinters at 7:30 AM on June 30, 2010
Since it used to work and suddenly doesn't, try clearing your browser cache and cookies. I've occasionally had problems with my various google apps that were solved by doing this. If that doesn't work they may have upgraded something on their end that's not supported by your older browser.
posted by volition at 5:46 PM on June 30, 2010
posted by volition at 5:46 PM on June 30, 2010
Best answer: mint.com uses yodlee for it's back end. Never used mint.com, but I've been a light user of yodlee for years.
posted by jefftang at 6:33 PM on July 21, 2010
posted by jefftang at 6:33 PM on July 21, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by CharlesV42 at 4:41 AM on June 30, 2010