If you’re a webmaster or a web developer, you may occasionally encounter an issue where WordPress keeps logging you out. This can be frustrating, especially when working on client sites or while troubleshooting plugins or themes.
The good news is that this problem is relatively easy to fix once you understand its root causes.
In this blog post, I will walk through some common reasons behind the WordPress keeps logging out issue and how to fix it.
1. Incorrect Cookie Settings
WordPress uses cookies to authenticate users and maintain their login sessions. If the cookie settings on your WordPress site are incorrect, you might experience frequent logouts.
How to Fix:
Ensure the cookie settings are correctly aligned with your site URL.
Follow these steps:
#1 Check your Site URL:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > General.
- Ensure that both the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) fields are exactly the same. If they are different, update them to be identical, whether it’s with or without “www” or “https”.
#2 Modify wp-config.php:
If changing the site URL doesn’t work, you can manually define your cookie settings in the wp-config.php file. Open the wp-config.php file located in the root directory of your WordPress installation and add the following lines:
define(‘COOKIE_DOMAIN’, false);
define(‘COOKIEPATH’, ‘/’);
Save the changes, and this should fix the issue if it was caused by cookie mismatches.
2. Browser Cache and Cookies Issues
Sometimes, the problem may be caused by the browser you are using. Old or corrupted cache and cookies can cause login issues, leading to frequent logging out of WordPress.
How to Fix:
To resolve this issue, you can clear your browser cache and cookies.
#1 Clear Cache and Cookies in Your Browser:
If you’re using Chrome, click the three dots in the top-right corner, go to More Tools > Clear Browsing Data, and select Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files.
For Firefox, click the three horizontal bars in the top-right corner, go to Settings > Privacy & Security, and under Cookies and Site Data, click Clear Data.
#2 Try a Different Browser:
After clearing the cache, if the issue persists, try logging into WordPress using a different browser or using incognito/private browsing mode.
3. Corrupted Plugins or Themes
A faulty plugin or theme can also cause WordPress to log you out unexpectedly. Some plugins, particularly security or caching plugins, can interfere with your login cookies, causing your WordPress website to log you out frequently.
How to Fix:
To diagnose whether a plugin or theme is causing the issue, follow these steps:
#1 Deactivate Plugins:
- Go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins.
- Deactivate all your plugins at once by selecting all plugins and choosing the Deactivate option.
- Check if the logout issue persists. If the problem is fixed, reactivate each plugin one by one to identify the culprit.
#2 Switch Themes:
If deactivating plugins doesn’t work, try switching to a default WordPress theme such as Twenty Twenty-Three.
- Go to Appearance > Themes, and activate the default theme.
If this fixes the issue, the problem likely lies in your previous theme.
4. Server Configuration Issues
Lastly, your web hosting configuration can also play a role in causing WordPress to log out unexpectedly. This includes issues with server caching or misconfigured session storage on your server.
How to Fix:
Contact Your Hosting Provider: If none of the above solutions work, the issue may lie with your hosting environment. Contact your hosting provider to ensure that the server session configurations are set up correctly and that there are no cache-related issues on the server side.