Administrator Unable to Access Own Project Pages After Upgrading from 17.10.4 to 17.11 (Infinite Loading)

How to Use GitLab Self-managed
, ,
1

Hello everyone,

After upgrading my self-hosted GitLab EE (Omnibus) instance from 17.10.4 to 17.11 , I have encountered a critical issue:

Context

  • Instance: GitLab Enterprise Edition, self-hosted via Omnibus

  • OS : Debian 12

  • Account Role: Primary administrator (project creator)

Issue Description

  • When logged in as the administrator , I can no longer open the pages of projects that I originally created.

  • Network requests in the browser all return 200 OK , yet the page spinner never resolves and no content is displayed.

  • If I impersonate another user with identical project permissions, I can access those same project pages without any issue .

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Upgrade GitLab from 17.10.4 → 17.11 using the Omnibus package.

  2. Log in with the administrator account that owns the projects.

  3. Click on any project created by this administrator.

  4. Observe the infinite loading behavior despite HTTP 200 responses.

Observed Behavior

  • Browsers Tested: Chrome & Firefox (latest stable releases)

  • Nginx / Workhorse Logs: No errors or timeouts detected.

Troubleshooting Already Done

sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true

The health check reports no critical issues .

Questions & Debug Suggestions

  1. Known regressions? Are there any reported bugs between versions 17.10.x and 17.11 that affect administrator permissions or project page rendering?

  2. Additional debug steps? What further log files, configuration settings, or database checks should I investigate to pinpoint the root cause?

  3. Workarounds or patches? Is there an interim fix, hotpatch, or point-release I can apply while awaiting the next official release?

Thank you in advance for your insights and assistance.

—

Kévy

Self-hosted GitLab EE Administrator

2

Update (2025-06-23)
I have narrowed the scope of the issue:

  • The infinite-loading behaviour occurs only when my administrator account is also a direct member of the project’s parent group (Owner role).
  • As soon as I leave the group—so that my access is provided exclusively by the global administrator role—the project pages load normally.
  • Re-adding the administrator account to the group (any access level) immediately reproduces the problem.

Additional reproduction steps

  1. Upgrade GitLab EE from 17.10.4 → 17.11 (Omnibus).
  2. Ensure the administrator account is an Owner of Group A.
  3. Navigate to https://<gitlab>/group-a/project-1 → infinite spinner despite HTTP 200 responses.
  4. In Admin › Users, remove the admin account from Group A.
  5. Refresh the same project URL → page renders correctly.
  6. Add the admin account back to Group A → spinner returns.

Hypothesis

A permission-resolution conflict may arise when an instance-wide administrator is simultaneously an explicit group member. UI rendering seems to hang during permission checks.

Please let me know which additional logs, queries, or debug traces would help isolate the regression.