Authentication issues

I am testing out upgrading from 7.5.11 to 7.7.10. My application that requires me to login when launched is giving me a “Please try again” statement. I can login to the designer and web page no problem. I noticed if I launch the application from the designer selecting the staging mode then I can login. I checked the authentication test in the gateway web page. The only login that does work is the admin password.

I do not have a license, I am resetting the trial period to debug…does the trial period not let you publish changes? All I did was ran the 7.7.10 exe and set up SQL connection, trying to login to the app like I normally would. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you