I keep being auto-logged out of iNat

Bug Reports
21

It is definitely the norm for iPad, on phone it sometimes stays logged in for a day.

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22

I did mention I was using chrome and a laptop. But to be more specific (which I should have been) it is a PC “Windows 10 Home” if that helps any. Thanks!

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23

ok. so i’m thinking your issue is probably different from the issue described in the original post, which i’m guessing is related specifically to iOS somehow.

in your case, you note that the issue happens after you restart the machine, but i wonder if the issue actually happens when you restart your browser? if so, you might have a setting in your browser set to delete cookies upon shutting down the browser. (if so, just disable that setting.) or it’s possible you might have some extension (such as an adblocker) that is causing issues, as seems to have been the case with crosslament (above). (try disabling the extensions and/or use a different browser without those extensions.)

…

for the iOS stuff, i was thinking maybe the issue had something to do with Apple’s aggressive cookie handling (ITP), but then it should affect Safari on MacOS, too, and i think the fastest cookies should be eliminated should be 24 hours in special cases (and edropkin is saying that the problem may arise faster than that).

so then i was looking around, and it looks like IOS specifically might not like cases where the cookie contents include non-ASCII characters. i’m not sure about whether that means the base64 encoded value or the base64 decoded value, but if i’m looking at things correctly, i think that the decoded value in the refresh token would look something like this: {"_rails":{"message":"key","exp":"expiration date","pur":null}}junk?. it looks like the junk(?) at the end may contain non-ASCII characters. i’m not sure what that junk(?) at the end is supposed to be though. i wonder if it could be eliminated, and maybe that could fix the problem?

(i sort of doubt that iNat would have done anything to change this kind of thing though. so i’m not sure why the problem would have magically resolved itself for several months, only to reappear. maybe the problem is actually appearing or disappearing as iOS is updated and handling things slightly differently between different versions?)

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24

Safari on iPhone SE, iPhone 13, iPhone X and iPad. It does the same thing on all of them so I assumed it was just something with all Apple devices.

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25

thanks. i suspect iOS is the key. i haven’t heard others say anything about Safari on MacOS having similar problems, and i think iNat staff mostly use MacOS. so they would have easily caught issues on MacOS, i think.

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26

I normally use the Android app when i’m on my phone but i sometimes go onto the website on my phone’s browser (still Android) if i want to use the search filters and normally when i do this, i will be prompted to log in on my phone’s browser even though i am already logged in in my app

There is also a glitch in the app where i am unable to add IDs after a while and i have found that the solution is to open the observation in my phone’s browser, which will either prompt me to log in, or it will force the app to restart, after which everything will be back to normal. Not sure if this has anything to do with the problem mentioned originally but i suspect it does

27

as far as i know, this normal behavior. the app and a website session on a browser are separate things. their login states are not connected. logging in in a browser session does not also log you into the app, even if it is on the same device. logging into the app does not also log you into your browser, even if on the same device.

if you log into the website with the “remember me” option checked, you should be able to come back on the same browser on the same device within 15 days of that first login without having to log in again, assuming you don’t have anything in your browser’s settings or anything else that is deleting cookies. but if you’re only going to the website, say, once a month, the login refresh cookie may expire in the meantime, and you’ll have to log in again. or if you log out of the website from any browser on any device, you’ll have to log in from scratch from any browser + device after that.

i’ve never experienced this. so i’m not sure what you’re describing here exactly. the next time this happens to you, you can generate some log files form your app and send them to help@inaturalist.org, and staff may be able to tell you more about what may have caused the inability to add IDs.

1 Like
28

Just as a note since this topic has been brought up anew, I followed the previous threads on this issue months/year(s) ago, and I was in the same boat as some other posters I recall for whom the fix did not work. I have attempted to concurrently sign in on multiple devices. On my “primary” computer, there is no issue and I am automatically signed in almost every time, perhaps needing to log in once every month. On my phone and other laptops I have previously signed into (with “Remember Me” checked and cookie settings adjusted as previously recommended), I am forced to log in almost every time I reopen the device/Chrome. As others have noted, it is not easy to know exactly what triggers it, but it seems that typically (1) closing the browser window signed into the account (2) closing the browser app (3) letting the phone sleep/not using the browser for a long time are all sufficient to require logging in again. All these are on the latest updates of Chrome, but they persisted when I tried signing in with Safari. My account has login through the Google account.

For the most part, this is a minor issue, but it is annoying to have to log in constantly and to have an inbox flooded with google verification emails.

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29

what kinds of devices are you using? Mac, Windows, iOS, Android?

is this true on all the devices? are you signing in often enough (every couple of weeks or so) on each device that the refresh token isn’t expiring?

on your “primary” computer, if you log in using the Google account on multiple browsers with “remember me”, then close down both browsers, and then open up iNat in both browsers again, what happens?

1 Like
30

All computers are on Mac and my phone is iOS (all latest versions)

This is true of all devices. Because the account was created by Google sign-in, there is no way to enter the username and password manually. Signing in on the non-primary computer is usually sporadic (only when the primary computer is unavailable), but for the phone, I sign in every couple days or so, but I am always logged out, and the google verification email is always sent. From what I recall, even when the Chrome app is not closed manually, if the app has not been used long enough that the url reloads in an opened window (even a few hours), signing in is necessary.

Fully quitting either browser logs out of the iNaturalist account*. Both can be logged into concurrently, and I will be signed into my account upon opening the iNaturalist home page in a new tab on both browsers. Also may be worth noting that signing into Safari or Chrome on the “primary” computer doesn’t send a verification email as it does on the phone or the other computers

* Some other accounts like eBird remain signed in after quitting the browser, but I don’t mind signing in after quitting the browser completely.




Also many thanks for helping to troubleshoot this issue

31

If you create a password you should be able to sign in manually. You can request a password reset email here: https://www.inaturalist.org/users/password/new Whatever you enter as your new password will be your account’s password.

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32

Not sure why, but the link keeps redirecting to the iNat home page

33

Whoops, forgot to specify that you need to log out first.

You can also add a password in your account Settings, but that flow is a bit confusing. Just make sure to click on “Save Settings” after adding the new password.

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34

hmmm… you said:

but then you also said:

does that mean you never close your browser or shut down your primary machine? or are you saying that “fully quitting either browser logs out” only after you’ve signed into multiple browsers?

35

Sorry for the lack of clarity. I normally use chrome for work on my primary computer more-or-less continuously, so I did not realize/remember that quitting the browser logs out until trying the two-browser test you suggested. However, the issue is that on other computers and on my phone, I will get logged out even if the app is not closed.

I will test to see if creating a password and signing in again will resolve the issue.

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36

Signing in with the password seems to have fixed the issue for now. Thanks to @pisum and @tiwane

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37

I am using adblocker. Sounds like it might be the issue in my case but I would not eliminate me simply deleting them from a duplicated observation. Even though I try to avoid duplicating (instead preferring to upload obs separately) there are times I see something in an observation that I didn’t notice before and I will sometimes just duplicate it and other times I go in and grab the files for a separate obs. I’m going to pay more attention if this occurs again. Thanks!

38

That is entirely possible too. This was not a big issue for me so I didn’t pay much attention. I’ll keep an eye open.

39

The junk is a cryptographic signature to make sure the cookie contents aren’t tampered with. We can’t remove it, though it’s possible something about the signing algorithm writes some characters that mobile Safari doesn’t like. That seems like a bit of a stretch, though.

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40

FWIW, I don’t know what changed but this hasn’t been an issue for me lately. I think it was clearing the Safari history maybe that fixed it, but I’ve stayed logged in since. Or maybe it was the mandatory email thing, because after I was logged out for that, I haven’t gotten logged out after logging back in. Who knows. (Not me.)

1 Like