ASP.NET MVC FormsAuthentication Cookie timeout cannot be increased

Question

Using the default ASP.NET MVC template, I cannot figure out how to increase the FormsAuthentication timeout. It seems to always use 30 minutes.

I have followed Scott Gu's recommendation from this blog post, but it does not seem to make a difference. Does anyone have a suggestion?

His suggestion was to set the timeout value in the web.config file:

<system.web>
    <authentication mode="Forms">
          <forms timeout="2880"/>
    </authentication>
</system.web>

YeahStu · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-07 13:08:24Z

7

My issue was only occurring in my production environment at my web host.

I found this link and generated a machine key to put in the web.config. Once I did that, the timeout value took effect.

edited Jul 7, 2011 at 13:08

answered Feb 5, 2010 at 19:03

YeahStu

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MARKAND Bhatt Over a year ago

The link loads content in some Asian language. Not English

Vyrotek · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-20 21:42:49Z

2

I had the same problem and adding a custom MachineKey with a ValidationKey to the web.config solved the problem. It seems to affect shared hosts.

I used this site to generate a random machine key: http://aspnetresources.com/tools/machineKey

answered Sep 20, 2010 at 21:42

Vyrotek

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Comments

Levi · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-03 01:27:29Z

0

Be sure that you are setting this in the ~/Web.config file and not in the ~/Views/Web.config file. Also, 50 million minutes is approx. 100 years, which might be hitting some date-related overflow in the browser. Try using a more reasonable number like 2 - 3 years (1.5 million minutes).

answered Nov 3, 2009 at 1:27

Levi

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YeahStu Over a year ago

Those are good suggestions. However, I wasn't actually using the large timeout value. I had it set to something more reasonable like 2 days. As far as the location of the web.config, I do have the setting in the appropriate file. I believe that setting exists by default in the ASP.NET MVC template, so I have not moved it.

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