I'm being automatically logged out of iNaturalist

Bug Reports
44

I likely checked iNat (while signed in) on my phone today at some point although I couldn’t swear to it.

I uploaded a bunch of obs on desktop without problems.

I just navigated to iNat on my phone and I was logged out and had to log back in. See previous email for regular practices and equipment/software info.

Does anyone think deleting my bookmarks and creating new ones might help?

45

I just opened Chrome and checked my obs to see if anything needed attention. Then I closed chrome and processed an audio file. When I opened Chrome and navigated to iNat to upload the file, I was logged out. My previous post where I was logged out on my phone says it was posted ‘2h’ ago.

I’m not sure there’s much else I can add for details on this and it’s easier to just keep logging back in than to keep adding reports that don’t really give you any more info. :-)

edit to add:
One last report! - 36 minutes after the previous one. I deleted my bookmark and made a new one. I again left the site and closed Chrome. I came back about 30 minutes later and I was logged out.

46

Me too. Even in a browser tab left open. Chrome on Samsung tablet. I cant remember if it has been happening on desktop too as havent used it much lately.

1 Like
47

Today there was no problem for me. When I opened inat it was not logged out. I last logged in yesterday.

48

This just happened to me on Firefox. I logged in last evening and checked the “remember me” box but found myself logged out again this morning. I’m used to the site ‘forgetting’ me and having to log back in every time after a browser update, but I don’t think there was any update this time that triggered it.

49

Are people using a bookmark? And if so, which URL is the bookmark using?

50

I get logged out frequently this month. I ~sometimes~ sense it is related to switching among my iPhone, my iPad, and my iMac. But, not consistently :pensive:.

I’m also noting that if I seem to be logged out (I get a please log in page), sometimes I can switch between the forum iNat link or even an open tab and become logged in without really logging in on the page presented.

I realized this is an uncool sort of report, as it may have so many variables in play. I’m sorry :pensive:

1 Like
51

Not using a bookmark

52

I’ve been noticing this too recently. I’m using the inaturalist.nz site. Using Vivalidi 4.1.2369.21 (Chromium)

  1. I last logged in either this morning, or yesterday(?) with Remember Me ticked and was using the site no problem today.
  2. I checked my cookies, and had 2 cookies for the site: remember_user_token and _inaturalist_session.
  3. I closed all iNaturalist tabs, but kept the browser open and could reopen the site no problem.
  4. I then closed the browser, and reopened it.
  5. Browsing back to https://inaturalist.nz (manually entered) I was prompted to login.
  6. Checking the cookies, I only had _inaturalist_session. No remember_user_token.
  7. Logging back in with Remember Me checked restored the remember_user_token cookie.

I am convinced that some problem with the initial login check is sometimes causing the remember_user_token cookie to be deleted, which then causes the login screen to appear.

I’m thinking the same too. Could it be the Rails 5 upgrade has messed with the remember_user_token cookie?

EDIT: After approximately 24 hours I’m logged out again.

1 Like
53

Bookmark using
https://inaturalist.nz/home

1 Like
54

This has been happening to me in the past week or few. I didn’t document when it started, but it stopped maybe a day or two ago and then started again.

What happens is this:

  • I go to inaturalist.org, and log in if necessary. Specifically I go to http://inaturalist.org/ (which redirects to the https).
  • I do…basically anything. Looking at observations, and editing my own observations.
  • I close the browser. (The browser is set to retain all my iNaturalist cookies.)
  • I reopen the browser and go back to inaturalist.org (again, specifically http://inaturalist.org). It now asks me to login again.

I am using Vivaldi 4.1.2369.21 (Stable channel) (64-bit) on Windows 10.

Edit: I just tried https://inaturalist.org/ vs. https://www.inaturalist.org/ (reopening each after closing the browser each time), but it turns out I’m still signed into both. So now I’m wondering whether it’s the timing that makes any difference. I’ll post here again if I get more info.

55

For the past day or so I’d closed/restarted my browser and my computer and still retained my login on iNat, but then I AFK’d for a few hours and when I got back I’ve been logged out again.

1 Like
56

Yep, this has been happening consistently to me (logged out every time, even though I am checking the keep me logged in/remember by username/pwd box every time) for the last 2-3 weeks. I am using Chrome and www.inaturalist.org as my bookmark.

2 Likes
57

For the last week or so, I have to sign back in every day, after turning my Mac off the previous evening. Every morning I check the ‘remember me’ box.

Get to site using inaturalist.org
Mac OS Sierra, version 10.12.6
Firefox 91.0.2
Use email address and password to sign in

There have been a lot of Firefox updates the last couple weeks, as they fix a major update they rolled out 2-3 weeks ago (to the best of my memory.)

Not a major problem, just odd.

2 Likes
58

So we’re pretty sure we found the cause of this and just released a potential fix. Let us know if you see any improvement. Theoretically you shouldn’t have to log out and log back in for this fix to take effect.

3 Likes
59

Interestingly, and I dont know if this is relevant, I dont remember having had to log in this morning (ie about 3 hours ago), but about 2 minutes ago I went to that bookmark and had to log in.

Anyway, hopefully that was me getting the fix:)

1 Like
60

I’ve logged out and back in several times since your post. Twice, I’ve not been remembered, once yesterday and once today, out of about six logins. I will follow up after more experience with it.

61

I’ve also been logged off quite a few times. And everytime I’m logged off, the login webpage does not remember my email (no dropdown menu with the option to select the email).

I’m on Chrome on Windows 7

62

@tlit46 and @joaolemoslima, looking in the database, you both have remember tokens that expire in over two weeks, so you should remembered every time you visit the website… assuming you’re visiting using the same browser you used to sign in, and that browser is accepting cookies from iNat. Are both of those things true?

If you’re using the same browser and it’s accepting cookies, do you mind if I experiment with your accounts to try and figure this out?

1 Like
63

I had to log in last night just an hour after your announcement, @tiwane. But I thought perhaps that was like a ‘set’ for the new fix. After visiting a few times today (more than is likely healthy but that’s another issue!), I visited minutes ago and had to log in again.

For these two incidents, I was on desktop - specs as above: Chrome Version 92.0.4515.159 + Windows 10 Home

But, again… in today’s world, this is a minor annoyance and I’m not terribly bothered by it.