[Uptown3]

Today I ran into a problem I haven't seen previously at BBO. When I logged in at around 2 PM central time, the number of people playing was around 42K. I clicked on the People tab and made sure that the three friends of mine that I wanted to invite to my table were online, i.e. listed in the Friends list. They were. When I clicked on the Casual option, immediately my friends disappeared from the Friends list, and the number of People playing, displayed above the People list dropped down to 12K. When I hit the back button, the friends showed up again in the list, and the number of people playing reverted to 42K. I was not able to start a table and invite them - the site displayed the error message that the people were not online.

[Uptown3]

Additional info - I logged out and logged back in, and had my friends do likewise. Same result. Then I tried a different browser - Edge (my first try was in Chrome), same result. This is on a Windows 10 box, btw. Then I asked on of my friends to start the table. They got the same behavior.

[Uptown3]

Additional info - I'm getting the same behavior right now - 9:23 PM central time. Prior to clicking the Casual option, the number of players online is 11,763, and several of my friends are listed. I click on the Casual option, my friends disappear, and the number of people is 2,940.

[nancybreg]

I am having the same issue. Anyone have a resolution?

[sfi]

There was a recent announcement that BBO has moved the casual play to a different server from the tournaments. It sounds like there are effectively two different areas on the one interface, and not much visibility between them. If you start a table, your friends need to be on the same area to see the invitation and join the table, and clicking the 'Casual' button takes you from one area to the other.

Try having them all click on Casual. Then you should be able to see each other.

[paulg]

This behaviour is explained at https://blog.bridgeb...-5-6-0-is-here/.

[diana_eva]

When you start a set game, you need a new step now (temporarily, I hope): Ask all your friends to click the Casual button before setting the table.

Once you're all in Casual, you should be able to see each other and start your game as usual.

[Ernord]

Same problem today. When starting a new table all my friends disappear.

[Derrygirl2]

I'm also having problems, when I start a table for a casual game with friends I immediately appear offline to my friends and they don't receive the invite to the table. Will try the suggested fix above. Its a pity there isn't any explanation on the BBO homepage as far as I can see. We are new to BBO and I only found this discussion forum website through a google search on BBO problems, its strange there isn't a link to it from the BBO website.

[barmar]

 Derrygirl2, on 2020-May-12, 06:22, said:

its strange there isn't a link to it from the BBO website.

Scroll down on the home page, the link is near the bottom.

[Derrygirl2]

 barmar, on 2020-May-12, 09:18, said:

Scroll down on the home page, the link is near the bottom.

Thanks Barmar, I looked again, and you're right there is a link to the discussion forums down at the very bottom of the public BBO homepage, but not on the homepage once you've signed in, so its not immediately apparent to a newbie!

Glad to see that there is now a link to the discussion 'Cannot set up a table with people (friends) in the message section on BBO.

[menkody]

I have tried all sorts of options Some users (not all) are not moving “seemlessly” between the two servers. I can not detect a difference in userNames or equipment. We have had to give up multiple times now.

Any help would be appreciated

[MarjaR]

 menkody, on 2020-May-14, 10:55, said:

I have tried all sorts of options Some users (not all) are not moving "seemlessly" between the two servers. I can not detect a difference in userNames or equipment. We have had to give up multiple times now.

Any help would be appreciated

Everyone needs to access BBO through its website address, thus NOT using an Android or iOS app.
Furthermore, everyone needs to click Casual once logged in to be able to invite friends to a table or to be invited to a table.