Log me in Automatically

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Log me in Automatically

Postby CarrieVS » Thu Oct 24, 2019 12:16 am

Is the "log me in automatically" function no longer working? It used to be weeks at least between having to re-log-in and now I can't even last an evening - I haven't timed it but I don't think ticking the box is actually making a difference at the moment.

It's not a big deal but TCS is pretty aggressive about logging you out for inactivity compared to most forums I'm familiar with, so I usually opt to stay logged in on my personal devices.
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Re: Log me in Automatically

Postby cmsellers » Mon Oct 28, 2019 3:19 am

I've noticed this too, but it's been going on for years (well before Tess made me a backend admin), and in all that time I haven't been able to figure out what causes it. It's definitely not an issue of a set amount of time, because I stay logged onto TCS for weeks between visits on my phone, and then may find myself logged out after a few hours on desktop.

I've had a couple hypotheses that I've discarded after testing. My current best guess: it seems to happen most often if you try to refresh a page while the site is down, so I'm guessing that maybe doing that somehow clears cookies? But it's a tentative guess and I have no idea how I'd confirm that's the cause, much less how to fix it.

If you have any suggestions on how we might isolate the problem or even fix it, I'd love to hear them.
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Re: Log me in Automatically

Postby CarrieVS » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:14 am

It seems to be working again as of a day or two after I posted this. I assumed someone had tinkered with a setting.

For me, it had only been going on for a couple of weeks and I never noticed a correlation with the site being down.
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Re: Log me in Automatically

Postby CarrieVS » Thu Oct 31, 2019 10:31 pm

So,as soon as I said it seemed to be working again... logged out within an hour or so, just as if I'd not ticked the box. Not a big deal, only updating for accuracy.
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Re: Log me in Automatically

Postby Krashlia » Fri Nov 01, 2019 3:28 am

is your computer erasing cookies or something?
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Re: Log me in Automatically

Postby Dr. Ambiguous » Fri Nov 01, 2019 4:48 am

For whatever little it's worth I'm never had issues with this myself. To my knowledge none of the settings have been changed. Yup, helpful.
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Re: Log me in Automatically

Postby CarrieVS » Fri Nov 01, 2019 10:13 am

Krashlia wrote:is your computer erasing cookies or something?


I don't get logged out of any other sites.
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Re: Log me in Automatically

Postby Pedgerow » Fri Nov 01, 2019 9:19 pm

If it is a cookies issue, I've never ever experienced it, so perhaps we can compare cookies to rule that out? If you click the left of the URL bar in your browser (at least in Opera, but I assume other browsers are the same), it will hopefully show you which cookies you have for this site. I have ten cookies in place; do you?

Also, I've noticed that this site seemingly doesn't have an SSL certificate. I don't know where this site is hosted, but you should be able to get a free Let's Encrypt SSL if you want one. If you're hosting this on a cPanel server, Let's Encrypt might not be available, and you might need to ask your hosting provider for a free AutoSSL certificate instead. I do this for a living so I might be able to help, although I'm not very good at it so probably not. I have no idea, for example, if some browsers or browser extensions clear cookies for sites without SSLs installed, but it sounds like it could be possible.

CarrieVS, what browser are you using? The fact that it happens on some devices but not others suggests that it could be an issue with the device rather than the website itself.
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Re: Log me in Automatically

Postby CarrieVS » Fri Nov 01, 2019 9:25 pm

I have 12 cookies for TCS.
I am using Chrome on Windows 10 and I have no difficulty with "keep me logged in" functions on any other website, including another phpBB forum.
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Re: Log me in Automatically

Postby Dr. Ambiguous » Sun Nov 03, 2019 9:47 am

Looked into this a little bit more and I've determined the following:

TCS is currently set so that your login session never expires, meaning you (should) only get logged out if something happens on your end. (I sign in maybe once every 4-6 months, so this makes sense).

TCS is set to validate your session by either your IP address or your browser. I know the browser option works since I often sign in on the same browser, same computer from multiple different IPs with no logout.

TCS is currently set to not require a secure cookie, meaning the lack of an SSL certificate shouldn't affect it.

All this is to say that TCS has its settings correctly configured to remember login and never sign users out (if selected). Obviously, despite being configured correctly it doesn't actually always work correctly. Whether the issue is being caused by something on your end or if it's a case of TCS being glitchy I'm not sure.

For what it's worth I currently have 6 cookies set from TCS, which tells me... I don't know what it tells me, other than it's different than both of you, so fuck if I know. Carrie, do you know what your cookie settings on Chrome are currently configured too? Do/what extensions do you have enabled? I'm not sure if either of those are the cause of the problem, but need to start somewhere.
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Re: Log me in Automatically

Postby CarrieVS » Sun Nov 03, 2019 10:23 am

It's working again, so after working (barring the occasional one-off sign out every few months) for years, then consistently not working for weeks, it seems to have become intermittent. I am not changing anything on my end.

Unfortunately, it seems that I checked my cookies just after it started working again so that test is null and void and can't be repeated unless and until it stops working again.

It's not a big deal, I just wondered if anything had changed or maybe something had been accidentally switched off on the back end.

However, in answer to your questions, I've never changed my cookie settings so it's the Chrome default.
My extensions are Adblocker Plus and LastPass, both of which I've had since long before this started to be an issue.
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