Content Hub Tip #37: Users get logged out all the time?

Have you ever experienced being logged out of an application or website periodically? It can be frustrating and time-consuming, especially if you're in the middle of doing something important. Unfortunately, this is a common issue many people need help with when using various online platforms. The Content Hub is configured the same for security reasons. 

The most important question: Can we do something about this?

The answer is yes. In Content Hub you can increase the expiration time of the authentication cookie. This way it takes longer for it to expire, thus allowing you to stay logged in longer.

How do you do this?

First of all, you need to have Superuser rights. If so, log into your Content Hub instance and go to the Management setting. On that page find Settings, scroll down to PortalConfiguration and select the Authentication setting. An easier to find the Authentication setting, is to search for it.

Make sure to view the configuration as Text. Look for the setting ExpireTimeSpan. It could be that you can't find the setting, no worries you can just add it to the configuration. Be sure to add the following line to the JSON.

"ExpireTimeSpan": 30,

By default, it is set to 30 minutes. This means that every 30 minutes when the user hasn't interacted with the system, the user gets logged out. By increasing this value, you prolong the time period a user is allowed to be inactive in the system. Easy does it! Make sure to hit Save when you make the change.

Remark: Although the maximum value for the ExpireTimeSpan setting is 1440 (equivalent to 24 hours), I recommend you not to do this. This exposes your system unnecessarily. I would recommend it to a maximum of one or maybe two hours max. Try to find the sweet spot between user experience and security, without exposing the system for too long.

Do you want to learn more about the other setting on the Authentication page? Read about it in the Content Hub documentation.