Cita:Recently, there have been a lot of people having problems logging in and/or logging out of their forums. This also includes having to login after every action in the ACP.
Almost every time, this is due to incorrect cookie settings. This is easy to fix, and here's how.
* If your URL is http://www.example.com, your settings should be:
o Cookie Domain: .example.com/ (occasionally .www.example.com is needed)
o Cookie Path: /
* If your URL is http://www.example.com/myforum/, your settings should be:
o Cookie Domain: .example.com (occasionally .www.example.com is needed)
o Cookie Path: /myforum/
* If your URL is http://subdomain.example.com, your settings should be:
o Cookie Domain: .subdomain.example.com OR .example.com
o Cookie Path: /
* If your URL is http://subdomain.example.com/myforum/, your settings should be:
o Cookie Domain: .subdomain.example.com OR .example.com
o Cookie Path: /myforum/
If you are hosting on a localhost (i.e. a test forum on your computer), your cookie domain will usually have to be blank.
If you cannot work out your cookie settings, you can use this cookie generator created by our very own DennisTT and it will attempt to give you the correct settings. It is also recommended that you do not change your cookie settings when you install your forum as they are usually correct in the installer.
You can view your current cookie settings by viewing the source code from a page of your forum. If your cookie settings are wrong, you probably won't be able to change them in the ACP as you may not be able to stay logged in. If this is the case, in order to change them, find a way to open and edit ./inc/settings.php and edit the new values into the file. Then, you MUST go to 'ACP > Configuration > General Configuration' and make the change here too. This is because although editing the file will make you able to log in, the settings aren't updated in the database, and when you next save any settings in the ACP, the old settings will come back.
Also make sure ./inc/settings.php is CHMOD to 666.
99% of the time, this will solve the problem. However, sometimes your browser is set to not accept cookies, and this will cause a problem. Here's how to check your browser is accepting cookies:
* IE 6/7/8 - Tools > Internet Options > Privacy (tab) > Change setting to 'Accept All Cookies' > Apply > OK.
* FF3 - Tools > Options > Privacy (tab) > Cookies > Accept cookies from sites > *tick* > Accept third party cookies *tick* > keep until > *they expire* > OK.
* Opera 9/10 - Tools > Preferences > Advanced (tab) > Cookies > Accept cookies > *tick*.
* Safari - Edit > Preferences > Security (tab) > Accept cookies > Always > *tick*.
* Chrome - Spanner symbol > Options > Under the Hood (tab) > Cookie settings > Allow all cookies.
After changing any cookie settings it may be necessary to clear your browser's cookies and then try again.
If you are still having problems logging in or out, please post in this thread rather than making a new one, as there is often 2 or 3 threads on this each day.