Session

You might say

After signing in, why does the page stay signed in after refresh?

State a service keeps for a signed-in person and can look up using a browser-held identifierAfter sign-in, a request that matches the cookie domain, path, and browser policies can carry a session identifier, which the service uses to find a still-valid session. A session may expire or be revoked, prompting another sign-in; this differs from the current password check failing.

Know first

Authentication

Session

From sign-in to expiry: how a session recognizes the same person

Browser · Sign-in / Network

Welcome back

Account lin@example.com　Password ••••••••

Signed in · server stores session_7

Response header Set-Cookie: session_id=session_7; Path=/; HttpOnly; Secure

After verification, the service creates or updates a session and uses Set-Cookie to store an identifier in the browser. The cookie usually does not contain the full session record.

What a session goes through

The server creates a session at sign-in: After credentials pass, the server creates a session state for this person and gives the browser an identifier.

Matching requests carry the identifier: Requests carry it when cookie domain, path, and browser policies match; the service looks up the session to keep the user signed in.

It fails after expiry or clearing: When the session expires or the identifier is cleared, the server no longer recognizes it and the page asks for sign-in.

Quick checkChoose the best answer

A user reports being asked to sign in again every half hour. What is the most likely cause?

The user mistyped the password, so authentication fails each timeThe database is down, so all operations failThe session lifetime is too short, so the identifier stops being accepted

You can say this to an AI Agent

Users are asked to sign in again every half hour. Check the session lifetime setting and state its current value; if it is too short, adjust it to a reasonable duration and confirm an hour of continuous use stays signed in.

Learn next

1Authentication→2Cookie→3OAuth→

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