Users Getting Randomly Logged Out

[bigsoccer tech]

I've been trying to troubleshoot this for 2 weeks and my team can't find any problem. We didn't modify any code but about a month ago users on FF, mac and pc, started getting intermittently logged out. Myself included. I've cleared cache and cookies, I'm using default vb cookie settings.

Any ideas?

[Zachery]

Are you always checking remember me before logging in? What is the uptime of your mysql server after you get logged out? AdminCP > Maintainance > Diagnostics > System Information > MySQL Status > Uptime

[bigsoccer tech]

Of course.

Uptime 13068244 Uptime_since_flush_status 11237836

could a bad index cause this?

[bigsoccer tech]

I thought it was adblock but now it's happenign to me and i don't have that installed

[Wayne Luke]

Reset the cookie path and domain to the default in vBulletin under vBulletin Options -> vBulletin Options -> Cookie and HTTP Header Options. These values only need to be changed if you have multiple forums installed on the same domain.

Make sure that the cookie timeout is 900 or more. This is the number of seconds someone can be logged in from their last activity before being logged out. Personally, I think 900 second (15 minutes) is too short so always set this to 1800 seconds.

Other than those settings, vBulletin really has no control over cookies. The RFC demands that the cookies be maintained by the user agent (e.g. the browser). If the user agent deletes the cookies or they get corrupted on the end user's machine then they will get logged out, even with remember me checked.

If you delete the contents of the session table, it will automatically log out any user that doesn't have remember me checked.

My guess is that the cookie path is incorrect and the user agent is not keeping track of the cookies properly.

[bigsoccer tech]

Reset the cookie path and domain to the default in vBulletin under vBulletin Options -> vBulletin Options -> Cookie and HTTP Header Options. These values only need to be changed if you have multiple forums installed on the same domain.

Never touched them. Changed them away and back to see if that would stick

Make sure that the cookie timeout is 900 or more. This is the number of seconds someone can be logged in from their last activity before being logged out. Personally, I think 900 second (15 minutes) is too short so always set this to 1800 seconds.

Ours has always been between those numbers. Again we didn't change anything when this started.

It appears to be a firefox issue on mac and windows.

Other than those settings, vBulletin really has no control over cookies. The RFC demands that the cookies be maintained by the user agent (e.g. the browser). If the user agent deletes the cookies or they get corrupted on the end user's machine then they will get logged out, even with remember me checked.

If you delete the contents of the session table, it will automatically log out any user that doesn't have remember me checked.

My guess is that the cookie path is incorrect and the user agent is not keeping track of the cookies properly.

i have manually deleted my own cookies a million times and it's still hapenning to me. I will go delete the session table like you just suggested.

Praying...

[lim (x³-7x²) = ∞]

Previously I have this problem too, many chances that you have problems with clocks on server.

If it's dedicated server make sure you have ntpd installed (and not "ntpdate on cron").

[bigsoccer tech]

Yup, we triple checked that and all server times are synced up. Plus, that wouldn't make it firefox only.

We also checked that our pages weren't calling items across subdomains, like css files or anything, that could possibly confuse a firefox cookie.

Still nothing.

[Wayne Luke]

Check the values of your cookies immediately after you get logged out and before you log in again. Then check them after logging in and see if they match.

[bigsoccer tech]

Off to find a sqlite viewer for macosx...