Starting a few weeks ago (I think), perhaps 20% of the time, when I tell Firefox to open tidbits.com in a new window, I’m not logged in. It’s happened several times, but well under half the time. (It just happened, hence this post.) Any ideas what is causing this?
Due to busyness and travel, I haven’t upgraded Firefox (141.0.3) for two months and I haven’t upgraded macOS Sequoia (15.5) for five months, so I don’t believe a change in my software is responsible. I do not recall for sure, but I think this has happened on two different Macs.
Edit to add info. It has happened on two different Macs, and at least sometimes (maybe always?), I’m logged out of TidBITS but not logged out of TidBITS Talk.
Sounds like the cookies containing your access token are going away.
If you’ve added anything to your browser that blocks/manages cookies, make sure you’re not auto-deleting your login credentials.
Since I’m not seeing this on my computer, I don’t think the site is serving cookies with short expirations, which is the other thing that usually causes this sort of thing.
Good synopsis of the situation. I believe I have not added anything to the browser (on two computers) recently, and whatever is happening affects only TidBITS.
That’s a good guess, especially for fumble-fingered me, but it’s happening more than I would expect and even after I’ve started being careful to select New Window and not New Private Window.
As far as trials and tribulations go, this is a good one to have (as long as it’s taking the place of some other) since it’s easy to have Firefox enter my credentials. But I do wonder what happened.
My theory du jour is that when I authenticate on Mac A, it invalidates my authentication on Mac B. Then, when I authenticate on Mac B, it invalidates my authentication on Mac A. One cycle of testing, conducted over a span of several minutes, is consistent with this theory. (Does that mean I have proved my theory in an internet sense?)
Six days later, it has been consistent that when I authenticate with one Mac, the other Mac has its authentication invalidated. (If I visit consecutively with the same Mac, no problem.) Does anyone routinely visit TidBITS from two different Macs without needing to re-authenticate when switching computers? (Note that the issue is with TidBITS but not TidBITS Talk.)
I believe that you can only be logged in via a single browser, whether on one or mutiple devices.
I first verified your experience. I logged in via Safari on my desktop. and viewed the Membership Benefits page. I then logged in on my laptop. When I went back to the desktop and refreshed the page, I was not logged in.
So, I then experimented by using two different browsers on the same Mac. I logged in via Safari. I then logged in via Chrome. When I refreshed the page in Safari, I was no longer logged in there.
I also opened multiple windows and tabs in the same browser after logging in, and was logged into all of them.
Thank you for your testing. I had thought that the problem was recent, but perhaps what was recent was my usage of two devices. (I thought the problem was less than a month old, while my usage of two devices was at least seven months old. But memory is the second thing to go, and mine is certainly going.) In any event, I’ll adjust to the new normal.
Yes, I did say “Note that the issue is with TidBITS but not TidBITS Talk.” Or did I misunderstand something? Are you logged into TidBITS on multiple devices?
Thanks, I hadn’t seen that before. For me, it says that I have recently used seven devices, although I’ve only used two. I suspect that those alternating logins from the two computers made it dizzy.
I’ve been seeing this too. I suspect I log in to TidBITS more than anyone, and I’m having to log much more than in the past. My best guess at the moment is that it’s related to a WordPress update, but I haven’t had time to look into it (and am traveling this week).