PHP session time not working

Question

I keep getting timed out between page requests. Sometimes it seems to work, others it doesn't. Can't seem to see a pattern or reason. I'm using the following code at the top of each page and setting $_SESSION['start'] when I validate and log a user in.

<?php 
session_start();
$inactive = 86400;
if(isset($_SESSION['start']) ) {
$session_life = time() - $_SESSION['start'];
if($session_life > $inactive){
    header("Location: login/logged_out.php");
}
}
$_SESSION['start'] = time();

$isLoggedIn = isset($_SESSION['first_name']) && isset($_SESSION['username']);

$_SESSION['url'] = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
?>

What am I doing wrong and how can I keep users logged in? Do I have to set a cookie? Or is it that the default session expiry time in PHPINI file is lower than the one I set and therefore timing me out. Any Idea how I can override this and keep users logged in for the time that I specify. This is beginning to drive me a little crazy.

I've seen also that using ini_set("session.cookie_lifetime","86400"); might work?

Any help would be very welcome.

Do you need logout user after 86400sec or after 86400 of unactive time? — Arthur Halma, Sep 09 '12 at 08:28
You should [invalidate the session](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/520237/how-do-i-expire-a-php-session-after-30-minutes/1270960#1270960) immediately instead of sending a redirect response. — Gumbo, Sep 09 '12 at 08:28
Here's the solution for your question. http://stackoverflow.com/a/1270960/1173667 — Rezigned, Sep 09 '12 at 08:29
Arthur Halma- I need to log them out after 86400 of unactive time — user1022772, Sep 09 '12 at 11:53

PHP session time not working

0 Answers0