How to stop a website from logging you out

Signing in to Google Chrome has many benefits. For instance, your browsing data, passwords, bookmarks, etc. are synced continuously across devices. Even more importantly, you won’t need to sign in to Google services such as Gmail, Drive, etc., repeatedly whenever you close Chrome. Unfortunately, some Chrome users are getting logged out of their Google accounts on Chrome. Let’s see how to fix if Chrome keeps you signing out.

Typically, if you are signed into Chrome, quitting the browser shouldn’t log you out. That will annoy anyone who would have to re-enter their account credentials every time for Google services.

Fortunately, the issue can be fixed easily with the few troubleshooting tips mentioned here. Let’s check them out.

1. Restart Computer

Many of us put our computer to sleep or in the hibernation mode for days without properly shutting it down. Restarting a computer fixes various issues on your PC and will also update the Chrome browser. If you haven’t restarted in a long time, it would be good to begin the troubleshooting process for Chrome by restarting your device.

2. Enable Cookies

You must have cookies enabled on your browser if you want to stay signed into the websites. So take a look at Chrome settings and see if cookies are enabled or not. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Click on the three-dot icon at the top-right of Chrome. Select Settings, from the menu.

Step 2: Click on Cookies and other site data.

In case you don’t see the option, click on Site Settings followed by Cookies.

Step 3: Choose Allow all cookies. Relaunch Chrome.

3. Check Cookie Settings

If the cookies were already enabled or after you enabled them as shown above, you need to check certain cookie settings that might be logging you out from Chrome.

Firstly, disable the toggle next to ‘Clear cookies and site data when you quit Chrome.’

Additionally, scroll down and check the websites listed under ‘Always clear cookies when windows are closed’ and ‘Sites that can never use cookies.’ If you are being logged out from a particular website only, remove it from these two lists.

4. Clear Cache

Sometimes, a corrupted cache file might also be responsible for not keeping you signed in Chrome. To fix that, you will have to clear cache in Chrome. Don’t worry. No data of yours, such as bookmarks, passwords, etc., will be deleted. Deleting the cache will only remove temporary files.

To clear cache for Chrome, open Chrome settings. Click on Clear browsing data under Privacy and security.

A pop-up screen will open. Click on the Advanced tab. Select All time under the Time range option and check the box next to Cached images and files. The rest should be unchecked. Then click on the Clear data button.

Tip: Find out how to clear the Chrome cache and cookie for one site only.

5. Enable Allow Chrome Sign-In

If you are logging into Google sites such as Gmail, YouTube, etc., but Chrome doesn’t keep you logged in for the sync services, the chances are that you might have disabled Allow Chrome sign-in feature. When it’s turned off, you can log in to Google sites without logging to Chrome. So you might be thinking that Chrome is logging you out.

To fix it, you need to enable Allow Chrome sign-in setting. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Go to Chrome Settings from the three-dot icon at the top.

Step 2: Click on Sync and Google services under You and Google.

Step 3: Enable the toggle for Allow Chrome sign-in.

6. Disconnect Google Account From Chrome

If you are using Chrome’s sync feature to stay signed in, you should try disconnecting your Google account from Chrome for a while. Adding it back after disconnecting it should fix the issue.

For that, follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to Chrome Settings.

Step 2: Click on Turn off next to your name and email address under You and Google. Doing so will log you out from Chrome and other Google sites. Your existing bookmarks, passwords, browsing history, etc., will not be deleted.

Step 3: Relaunch Chrome and go to Settings again. Click on Turn on and add your Google account details to sign in to Chrome. Hopefully, whenever you close Chrome now, you won’t be logged out.

7. Reset Chrome Settings

Lastly, you should try resetting your Chrome settings. Doing so will also fix logging out issue on Chrome arising due to various changed settings or extensions. Resetting Chrome will not delete your bookmarks, passwords, or any of your data. Find out in detail what happens by resetting Chrome before you proceed further.

To reset Chrome, open Chrome Settings. Scroll down and click on Advanced to show more options.

Scroll down to the bottom and click on ‘Restore settings to their original defaults.’ Confirm on the next screen.

Switch Account

After completing each troubleshooting step, restarting your PC should be a good choice. We hope when you close Chrome, you won’t be signed out now. Sometimes, a user may sign in to a different Google account, and Chrome will make it the default account. Find out how to change a default account in Chrome.

Next up: Tired of losing your tabs when you accidentally close Chrome? Check out 3 ways to save tabs before closing Chrome from the next link.

There's a webpage that keeps logging me off for inactivity. Signing in again is a hassle. Is there some snazzy piece of software that anybody knows about that will periodically "poke" the page or something to keep it open indefinitely? Thanks to any who can help.
posted by gnossie to Computers & Internet (6 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite

Is this by any chance a bank site or other financial institution that's logging you off?
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 12:23 AM on June 27, 2013

Response by poster: No, it's an online course.
posted by gnossie at 12:40 AM on June 27, 2013

Be careful about using an extension that reloads the page while taking an online quiz. In my experience with Angel (which was developed by Satan just to play with us), if your instructor has not enabled the Save option, reloading the page will erase everything you've answered so far.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 7:19 AM on June 27, 2013

Best answer: Without knowing the specific mechanism the site uses to decide to time out, it's difficult to say that any one solution will work. Here are a few of the mechanisms I can think of, but no guarantees that any one of the solutions I offer will work for you:

• The server uses a session cookie or a cookie that expires and detects how often it receives a request from that session - This can likely be solved by sending another request to the server, by (for instance) reloading the page or navigating to another page, though as others have mentioned doing so can cause other problems if the server doesn't save your work somehow.
• A timestamp is stored in a form element or cookie representing the last point in time that you interacted with the server and that is sent - this is a really dumb way of doing it, but knowing online course coding standards, I could see it. You'd need some sort of script or something that can fudge the timestamp format, which would require some research and knowledge about how it generates that timestamp.
• The page itself has a bit of Javascript that detects mouse or keyboard events on the page and resets a timer whenever a mouse or keyboard event occurs (this is probably the most likely scenario) - This one can have various solutions, depending on how far you want to go. A program (perhaps an Auto Hotkey script) that generates innocuous keyboard or mouse events that are sent to your browser could work, as could something like a Greasemonkey script that overrides the timeout script (though you'd likely have to understand the specific code they use in this case).
• Some combination of the above - in this case, you might need multiple solutions that address the various parts of the issue.

« Older Edible plants to grow in the shower?   |   Managing multiple monitors Newer »

This thread is closed to new comments.