Troubleshooting
If you experience issues while using MicrobeTrace, please consult the documentation to see if there's a guide to explaining what you're seeing or correcting the error you're encountering.
If the documentation does not cover the problem you're having, please check to see if anyone else has experienced similar issues in the past.
If you cannot find a description of your issue in the documentation or the issues, please let us know!
If your issue is an emergency requiring immediate attention, please e-mail us. However, in the interest of assuring that any issues can be addressed systematically, please follow the above steps prior to sending your email. If possible, please also include sanitized data files, step-by-step instructions to replicate the issue, and a screenshot of the error message or otherwise confusing thing.
Once you reach out to us, we may occasionally set up a call so we can understand your issue with more depth and clarity, and possibly attempt to resolve it. One thing we may ask you to do is open up the developer's console in your browser. The developers console can be used to troubleshoot certain kinds of issues, which makes it extremely useful. However, it can also be dangerous, as hackers can use it to send your data to the outside world. To protect against this, MicrobeTrace provides a warning to be careful doing this sort of thing (with a link to this page). However, to be safest, if we (MicrobeTrace support) ask you to do put something in the developers' console, you should be able to do so with your computer disconnected from the internet. If you're speaking with someone other than MicrobeTrace support (e.g. anyone without a cdc.gov email address), and they instruct you to open the developers console, do not do it, and immediately email [email protected] with as much detail as you can about the encounter, including any contact information you have for that person, how you came to know them, and what they asked you to do.
DO NOT E-MAIL PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION TO US. Doing so will result in your email being deleted and all relevant information security offices notified. It's a huge nuisance for us and liability for you--save us all the trouble and don't do it.