So I did a backup of all files and database while the document menu was not appearing, then ran setup and took another backup. The changes are:
1. Fully thirteen thousand records removed from the modx_session table. I had run setup only around 48 hours prior to this, so these (12,882) records accumulated in just that time (assuming setup truncates this table).
2. modx_actions_fields seem to have been regenerated (to the same again), AUTO_INCREMENT numbers increased, etc. (I also made a couple site_tmplvar_templates tweaks on an unrelated bug between captures.)
3. The timestamp and UIDs in config.inc.php, and a few other probably inconsequential changes such as my login count, for some reason my password hash, my action history, etc.
I didn't compare the cache or directories related to packages.
A couple example records:
INSERT INTO `modx_session` (`id`, `access`, `data`) VALUES
('6niaajbsdusf0sdd16t91gie04', 1389974777, 'modx.user.0.resourceGroups|a:1:{s:3:"web";a:0:{}}modx.user.0.attributes|a:1:{s:3:"web";a:4:{s:16:"modAccessContext";a:1:{s:3:"web";a:1:{i:0;a:3:{s:9:"principal";i:0;s:9:"authority";s:1:"0";s:6:"policy";a:1:{s:4:"load";b:1;}}}}s:22:"modAccessResourceGroup";a:0:{}s:17:"modAccessCategory";a:0:{}s:28:"sources.modAccessMediaSource";a:0:{}}}modx.user.contextTokens|a:0:{}modx.user.0.userGroupNames|a:0:{}'),
('723uiehrar30h3bpeevv6t1ia0', 1389974780, 'modx.user.0.resourceGroups|a:1:{s:3:"web";a:0:{}}modx.user.0.attributes|a:1:{s:3:"web";a:4:{s:16:"modAccessContext";a:1:{s:3:"web";a:1:{i:0;a:3:{s:9:"principal";i:0;s:9:"authority";s:1:"0";s:6:"policy";a:1:{s:4:"load";b:1;}}}}s:22:"modAccessResourceGroup";a:0:{}s:17:"modAccessCategory";a:0:{}s:28:"sources.modAccessMediaSource";a:0:{}}}modx.user.contextTokens|a:0:{}'),
Anyone any idea what might be causing these huge session record accumulations? (I'm assuming this is the likely cause but haven't yet proven it.)
I've the extras Provisioner, Gallery, Quip, VersionX, Batcher, FormIt, getPage, getResources, GoogleSitemap, Login and siblingNav installed, in case that is relevant.
I ran setup an hour or so before the office closed Friday evening and all manager activity would stop and there are 6,200 records in modx_session. As far as I can tell no-one has done any editing since before I ran setup, and probably no-one has logged into manager. I have rolled out the database on my local dev server with the 12,882 session records, and manager seems to work OK, suggesting either this is not the cause, or perhaps it is hitting a memory limit. I have asked my hosts for any errors from the Apache log.
Where are session records deleted? Perhaps I can start there and work backwards.
[ed. note: technicaltitch last edited this post 10 years, 3 months ago.]