overdrive.com constantly logging me out

[haertig]

Is anyone else seeing this? Recently, the website https://overdrive.com has been logging me out every few minutes. At first I thought it was just forgetting my credentials between login sessions - like a cookie or javascript problem. But after more testing, I login successfully, use the site for a while, then bam - it logs me off right in the middle of doing things (not idle). It's acting like an inactivity timeout ... except I am not inactive. I'm actively typing away, clicking on links, and using the website. I have not checked a stopwatch against the timeout-like occurrence, but I'd guesstimate it's in the 10 to 15 minute range. [edit] Update: Tested with a watch, timeout was about 20 minutes [/edit]

I've been using the website for years and never run into this behavior before. No changes to my computer, web browser, etc. The problems appear to have come out of the blue, starting maybe a few weeks ago. I don't remember the specific start date, because initially I thought it was a browser/cookie login issue and just kept re-logging in for quite a while before getting annoyed enough and deciding to start investigating. Web browser settings: Cookies and scripting are allowed on the *.overdrive.com domain, and have been for a long time. Web browser: Chromium (the opensource browser that Google Chrome is based on, but before Google adds all their spyware to it to turn it into Chrome).

[edit] Cleared all cookies and locally stored site data. Logged out. Exited browser. Re-logged-in. No change: still got logged out after about 20 minutes. [/edit]

[DNSB]

The first question that comes to mind is have you tried a different browser?

[JSWolf]

Same thing happens to me using the latest version of Firefox.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The first question that comes to mind is have you tried a different browser?

I wouldn't change browsers because Overdrive is misbehaving. But I agree it would make for more complete testing.

It looks like JSWolf has already done the testing with FireFox - so we know at least two different browsers are experiencing the same problem. My guess at this point is "all of them probably will". Overdrive engineers most likely attempted to add a timeout with a popup telling you your session is about to expire, except they forgot to put in the popup. Who knows why they thought they needed a timeout in the first place though.