Magento Admin Session Timeout Issue

Question

I'm having an issue with Magento CE version 1.9.0.1 with admin session timeouts. It goes like this:

1. I log into the admin.
2. I go to the Catalog page.
3. I leave the window open, and after a while my session times out.
4. Later, I come back to the open window, and click on link to manage categories.
5. Because my session has timed out, I see the login screen. I put in my username and password and submit.
6. The page refreshes and requires me to login again. I put in my username and password and submit.
7. The second login works.

This is different from the infamous "can't log into the admin, page just refreshes" bug because it only requires two logins to work every time.

I think it might have something to do with an old key being left over in the URL on step 5, but I'm not sure. Any ideas?

Edit 1 To be clear, I am not looking to simply extend the lifetime of the session.

Edit 2 I should note that I have a different domain for the admin than I do the frontend. I can't find a way to set a different cookie domain for each.

Answer 1

If you have any dev environments, make sure you're setting the cookie domain to the FQDN so you won't log yourself out logging into dev in the same browser session.

More Details:

• http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/modules_reference/english/mage_adminhtml/system_config/edit/web#session_cookie_management_field_descriptions

Answer 2

Yes, you need to update few setting to increase the session time in admin.

Go to=> System => Configuration => Admin => Security => set Session Lifetime (seconds) : value as you want. ( like : 14000).

Now go to

System => Configuration =>Web => Session Cookie Management => set Cookie Lifetime 14000.

Note : This would be effect after next login.

below is another Solution. It should produce the desired results according to the following code in: app\code\core\Mage\Core\Model\Session\Abstract\Varien.php

if (Mage::app()->getStore()->isAdmin())
{

     $adminSessionLifetime = (int)Mage::getStoreConfig(’admin/security/session_cookie_lifetime’); 
       if ($adminSessionLifetime > 60) 
       { 
          Mage::getSingleton(’core/cookie’)->setLifetime($adminSessionLifetime); 
       }
}

Answer 3

From Magento admin, go to:

Stores > Configuration > Advanced > Admin > Security > set the value to 31536000

In php.ini file, change the following:

session.cookie_lifetime 31536000
session.gc_maxlifetime 31536000