Logging out 16 July 2014 at 6:18AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Site Feedback 5 replies 1.1K views

Pyxis

1) Since joining, I have experienced many instances when spontaneous logging out occurs. It did it again just now.
I'm not talking about the logging out that occurs due to inactivity. These spontaneous loggings out occur when I'm actively engaged on the forum, and is annoying!
Is there a reason for this! Can it be stopped?

2) Also, is there a way of increasing the length of inactivity before enforced logging out occurs? It seems to be quite quick, and again is a bit annoying, especially if all you've done is gone to make a cup of tea, or answer the phone, etc!

3) finally, is there any security problem involved with spontaneous or enforced logging out? It does worry me if I haven't actually logged out myself, but had it happen to me! This has all been worrying me for some time.

Thank you

rubywhatashmoo

You can tick the box "keep me logged in" when you sign in to the forum - then just manually log out when you're finished browsing?

torbrex

The cut-off is normally about half an hour of inactivity but I have experienced being 'kicked out' while actually using the forum although not as often as it seems you have been having the trouble.

My latest was just last week when I logged in to answer a post, checked round a couple of other threads but when I clicked on 'CP' I had to log in again.

fermi

Inactive timeout for a session is somewhere about 40-45 mins last time I noticed.

I hardly ever get any other type of forced log out, as I tick "remember me" on this laptop even then I'm logged back in without having to do anything the next time I load a forum page.

There are two factor on staying logged in.

One is the actual login session the forum knows about, which as said seems to have at least a 40 min inactivity timeout. i.e. that is how long your login session lasts from your last activity on the forum.

What usually causes problems is not the forum logging you out of that randomly and prematurely, but instead is your browser losing 'contact' with that session. i.e. the connect between your browser and that session gets lost and consequently the forum stops recognising you as that user and you appear logged out, even though to other people you may still seem logged in. The forum doesn't pick it back up again until you log in again, and restore a link.

The long and short of that is that it's usually the session cookies that link your browser session to your actual login session that have got messed up, deleted, or something similar.

I have my browsers set to always allow and keep MSE cookies, and don't allow any security or other software to mess with them, so unless I go in and deliberately delete them I almost never see this happen to me.

So I would say that you need to check:

- Make sure the browser you are using is one of the mainstream ones and is completely up to date.
- Browser cookie and security settings that may interfere and cause you to lose your session.
- 3rd party security or built in OS security that might be interfering in the same way.

Pyxis

Thank you Fermi!
I hadn't thought of the browser et al!
Willco!

fermi

Seems the most likely thing.

Next time it happens if you check your profile or posts before you log back in, if you still have the green then it means the forum still thinks you are logged in.

In which case it would be something causing your browser to forget that you are.