Session Lost After Page Redirect in PHP

PHP session lost after redirect

First, carry out these usual checks:

1. Make sure session_start(); is called before any sessions are being called. So a safe bet would be to put it at the beginning of your page, immediately after the opening <?php declaration before anything else. Also ensure there are no whitespaces/tabs before the opening <?php declaration.
2. After the header redirect, end the current script using exit(); (Others have also suggested session_write_close(); and session_regenerate_id(true), you can try those as well, but I'd use exit();)
3. Make sure cookies are enabled in the browser you are using to test it on.
4. Ensure register_globals is off, you can check this on the php.ini file and also using phpinfo(). Refer to this as to how to turn it off.
5. Make sure you didn't delete or empty the session
6. Make sure the key in your $_SESSION superglobal array is not overwritten anywhere
7. Make sure you redirect to the same domain. So redirecting from a www.yourdomain.com to yourdomain.com doesn't carry the session forward.
8. Make sure your file extension is .php (it happens!)

Now, these are the most common mistakes, but if they didn't do the trick, the problem is most likely to do with your hosting company. If everything works on localhost but not on your remote/testing server, then this is most likely the culprit. So check the knowledge base of your hosting provider (also try their forums etc). For companies like FatCow and iPage, they require you to specify session_save_path. So like this:

session_save_path('"your home directory path"/cgi-bin/tmp');
session_start();

(replace "your home directory path" with your actual home directory path. This is usually within your control panel (or equivalent), but you can also create a test.php file on your root directory and type:

<?php echo $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']; ?>

The bit before 'test.php' is your home directory path. And of course, make sure that the folder actually exists within your root directory. (Some programs do not upload empty folders when synchronizing)

Session lost after page redirect in php

You need to put exit(); after your header redirection, otherwise you have just loaded two pages of content into 1 page.

Also make sure you have session_start(); at the top of all your scripts.

PHP Session variable is empty after redirecting to another page

session_start(); needed on each page on top where you are going to deal with SESSION in any way (create,update,delete).

So add it in your first page like below:-

<?php
  session_start();
  $_SESSION['loggedin'] = true;
  $_SESSION['username'] = $username;
  $_SESSION['start'] = time();
  $_SESSION['expire'] = $_SESSION['start'] + (5 * 60);
  echo "Bienvenido! " . $_SESSION['username'];

  header('location:login-success.php');
  exit();

php session lost after header() redirect

You need to call session_start(); in both scripts to start and resume the session.

See: http://php.net/manual/en/function.session-start.php

session lost after redirect header location in safari and edge (only from webmail)

After some hours struggeling i found the solution.

The Problem of losing the session after redirect with header location,

The new "samesite" attribute from PHP 7.3.

If this is Strict, you will lose the session after header( 'Location: /foo' , true, 302);

use Lax and fine..

At this moment i dont know why this just happens from webmail and only on safari and edge..

the session_starts at the top of the scripts:

$sessionSet = array(
    'path' => '/',
    'domain' => $_SERVER[ 'HTTP_HOST' ],
    'secure' => TRUE,
    'httponly' => TRUE,
    'samesite' => 'Lax',    //  Strict will lose the session for some reason in some case..
    'lifetime' => 18000
);
ini_set( 'session.save_path', '/dir/to/sessions' );
ini_set( 'session.cookie_lifetime', $sessionSet[ 'lifetime' ] );
ini_set( 'session.gc_maxlifetime', $sessionSet[ 'lifetime' ] );
ini_set( 'session.gc_probability', 1 );
ini_set( 'session.gc_divisor', 3 );
ini_set( 'session.cookie_samesite', $sessionSet[ 'samesite' ] );
session_set_cookie_params( $sessionSet );
session_start();

PHP Session lost after redirection

You forget session_start();. (-brombeer)

You need session_start(); to initialize a new session or use existing session.

<?php

session_start();

include("authenticate.php");
 
// check to see if user is logging out
if(isset($_GET['out'])) {
    // destroy session
    session_unset();
    $_SESSION = array();
    unset($_SESSION['user'],$_SESSION['access']);
    session_destroy();
}
 
// check to see if login form has been submitted
if(isset($_POST['userLogin'])){
    // run information through authenticator
    if(authenticate($_POST['userLogin'],$_POST['userPassword']))
    {
        // authentication passed
        header("Location: http://192.168.0.20:8090/index.php");
        die();
    } else {
        // authentication failed
        $error = 1;
    }
}
 
// output error to user
if(isset($error)) echo "Login failed: Incorrect user name, password, or rights<br />";
 
// output logout success
if(isset($_GET['out'])) echo "Logout successful";
?>

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