Also having this issue - I’m getting logged out much more frequently than in the past, and it doesn’t seem to matter which browser I use (Chrome for Windows, Chrome for Android, Samsung mobile browser, MS Edge for Windows…). I sometimes have to log in several times a day.
I encountered it just now after restarting my browser. I was logged in before shutting the browser down, having logged in last night.
My remember_user_token cookie was present straight after restarting the browser, before heading to inaturalist.nz (I purposely checked before going there). Once I visited https://inaturalist.nz/observations/identify I was shown the login screen and the remember_user_token was deleted.
I’ve done a little digging through the code and my best guess is that it’s deleting the cookie because it’s hitting this line of code due to the cookie being thought to be invalid for some reason (scratch that this code is no longer used).
The devise gem (where Rememberable is housed) was upgraded from 4.71 to 4.80 as part of the Rails 5 upgrade. I couldn’t find any release notes that hinted at any change around Rememberable, but perhaps there’s some change there that no longer plays well with the way inat is using it?
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More frequently logged out here on Chrome too - not mid session, but after closing the browser tab, with ‘remember me’ ticked.
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I just wanted to add my voice to this. I use both Microsoft edge, and Google Chrome. I used both this morning, but this evening I had to sign in to Edge. And probably will when I use Chrome next. It used to be about once a month, and now it is random. Every three or four days, it seems. I always check ‘remember me’ when I log in. It’s not really a major problem, but is kind of annoying.
same here. Also chrome. Also suddenly happening every day instead of once every now and then.
This used to only happen to me sporadically (time-scale of weeks) and I assumed it was normal cookie-or-token expiring.
But recently it has started happening more frequently. Today I’ve had to log in twice from the same browser. It has become slightly annoying, and I would love to be able to troubleshoot it.
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Happening as often as three times in a few hrs, Chrome on Android
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iNat forgetting my login has been happening again to me in the past week.
And like how this other person says, it’s too intermittent for me to be able to figure out what triggers it.
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FWIW: I had closed my browser and shut down my computer last night, and this morning after rebooting, for the first time in several weeks, I did not have to log in anew to iNaturalist. A pleasant surprise…and fingers crossed. Safari 14.1.2 on a Mac (Mojave 10.14.6).
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This has been happening to me intermittently for the past several weeks (Firefox 92.0, Linux). I got frustrated enough to monitor my cookies and today I caught it in the act. I monitored Firefox’s cookies.sqlite database as I shut down the browser while logged into iNaturalist, restarted the browser, and navigated to https://www.inaturalist.org. The remember_user_token cookie was present with an expiration date of 10 Oct 2021 when I shut down the browser, and still present when I restarted Firefox, but disappeared as I opened the iNaturalist page. So, apparently something in the iNat startup is deleting the cookie even though it has not expired.
Hope this helps debug the problem. (Sorry, I didn’t get screenshots.)
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Just had this happen to me this morning. I used iNat this morning without needing to log in, then a couple hours later, I moved to a different internet connection in the same building (same external-facing IP address) and found myself logged out again.
Hi,
I’m also in since a few months now (I don’t remember exactly since when, but “few months” is a good approximation).
- I’m using Firefox (latest version) on Windows 10
- I at least need to log in with name and password everyday, even with the “remember me” checkbox ticked.
- and I also regularly need to log in again after leaving the site for 10 minutes or more (either by closing the tab, closing the browser or going to another website).
And now, since yesterday, my log-in URL (https://www.inaturalist.org/home) takes me to a “User undefined” page instead of my personal profile.
(I don’t know English well, so I apologize if i don’t make sense)
I use Inaturalist in my pc, in chrome
Problem :- For some days, whenever I come to www.inaturalist.org, I have log in, even after clicking “remember me” It is kind of disturbing, It would be easy for me to log in automatically without typing my email address and password again and again, if anyone can remove this bug, THANKS!
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Welcome to the forum, @aaryan1. I have the same thing, but not all the time. This is an issue that happens for many of us, but intermittently. I believe the staff is working on a solution. It seems to be taking a while as it happens inconsistently and differently on various platforms. Meanwhile, I hope you will enjoy exploring the Forum - there are any number of interesting discussions to explore, in addition to the bug reports.
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My new homepage after logging in, since a couple of days, and in addition to the fact that the website doesn’t “remember me” anymore…! If I then click on the iNaturalist logo, I’m brought to my normal homepage.
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Huh - that’s odd. What web address to you use to bring up iNaturalist before logging in?
If you use a browser bookmark - what’s its address set to?
Also, what browser and its version are you using?
(This issue might be worth splitting out into a separate topic)
I can’t tell if it is linked or not to the previous “logging in/remember me” issue, but it is brand new since two-three days. My bookmark is always the same: https://www.inaturalist.org/home. Then I must log in (since I’m not remembered), and then I am automatically directed to this page…
(Firefox latest version & Windows 10 up to date)
thanks for letting me know :)
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Just adding a data point, I use iNaturalist.ca, and on typing https://inaturalist.ca/ into my browser address box, I invariably have to log in, whether or not I have previously checked Remember me, even if my previous visit was minutes ago (it often is!). On Chrome, Windows 10 on a laptop.
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i think the key here – or at least one way to trigger the problem – is to upload an observation in the web uploader.
i don’t normally use the “Remember Me” option when logging in, but i tried using it the last couple of days to see if i could encounter the problem you all were noting. yesterday, i worked mostly from Edge in Windows 10 and didn’t see any issues. this morning, i used Edge again on the same computer and connection more than 24 hours after the creation of the remember_user_token cookie, and still no issues.
so i started using Firefox and Chrome, too (alongside Edge on the same computer and connection), and i didn’t notice any issues in the morning using either of those. but then this afternoon, i noticed that after closing Firefox for a while and then opening it back up, i was taken to the log in screen. i went back through my history in Edge (since i was mostly using iNaturalist there), and noticed that the most likely thing that i had done differently between the morning and the afternoon was that i had uploaded an observation.
so i did some testing:
- open up Edge, along with a window open to iNat, logged in with Remember Me option. (in that window, open up Developer Tools and look at the Application monitor to verify remember_user_token cookie has been created.)
- open up Firefox, along with a window open to iNat, logged in with Remember Me option. (in that window, open up Developer Tools and look at Storage monitor to verify remember_user_token cookie as been created.)
- close Firefox, and wait 10 minutes
- open up Firefox, along with a window open to iNat. i’d expect it to take me to the home page without having to log in, and it does. no issues so far.
- in Edge, upload an observation with a photo, then delete it after it has been uploaded.
- go back to Firefox, refresh browser window, and notice that the refresh_user_token is still there.
- close Firefox and wait 10 minutes.
- attempt to repeat step 4. this time, i’m taken to the login screen, which is unexpected.
- still in Firefox, go ahead and log in with the Remember Me option. verify that the remember_user_token cookie is created.
- close Firefox and go for a quick run (wait 30 minutes).
- repeat step 4. no issues. home page opens without having to log in.
- repeat step 5.
- repeat step 6, and then wait 1 minute.
- attempt to repeat step 4. get same unexpected result as in step 8.
- repeat 9-14 and get the same results.
- open up Chome, along with a window open to iNat, logged in with Remember Me option. (in that window, open up Developer Tools and look at the Application monitor to verify remember_user_token cookie has been created.)
- repeat step 5.
- go back to Chrome, refresh browser window, and notice that the refresh_user_token is still there.
- close Chrome and wait 1 minute.
- open Chrome, along with a window open to iNat. i’d expect it to take me to the home page without having to log in, but it takes me to the log in screen.
- go back to Edge, refresh browser window, and notice that the refresh_user_token is still there.
- close Edge and wait 1 minute.
- open Edge, along with a window open to iNat. i’d expect it to take me to the home page without having to log in, but it takes me to the log in screen.
- go back to Chrome, and log in with the Remember Me option. verify that the remember_user_token is created.
- in Chrome, upload an observation with a photo, and then delete it.
- repeat 19-20, and get the same result as step 20.
so every time i had to log in again was preceded by my uploading an observation, and it doesn’t seem to matter which browser i’m using. so i would expect that if someone else took the following steps, they would be able to reproduce the problem:
- open your browser of choice.
- in your browser window, go to https://www.inaturalist.org, and log in with the Remember Me option.
- you should end up on your home page.
- open up your developer tools, and look at your application or storage monitor to verify that the remember_user_token cookie has been created.
- close your browser, and wait 1 minute.
- open your browser, and go back to https://www.inaturalist.org. it should take you to the home page without having to log in.
- upload an observation with a photo, and then delete it.
- check that the remember_user_token is still there.
- close the browser, and wait 1 minute.
- open your browser, and go back to https://www.inaturalist.org. you will want it to take you to the home page, but instead it will probably take you to the log in screen.
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