Hi @BlakeMorrison, @Will, @Bud, and anyone else following this thread. The details you’ve provided so far have been helpful and I want to provide an update from our end. It’s possible there may be more than one thing taking place based on what’s been described, one of which is expected behavior:
Esri’s security protocols require a timed logout from Esri Community. The way this works is that a login period should only last eight hours, as @SimiBasu had previously shared. Following that window, the next time a user attempts to access a page on Esri Community our system will recognize that time limit has passed and initiate a logout. When users undergo a logout, the typical behavior is that they’re returned to Esri Community’s Home Page. This means that if a user logged into Esri Community 8+ hours prior clicking on an Esri Community link or experience a page reload, that will lead to the system instead initiating the logout process which appears to be in line with experiences you’ve described.
A quick point on this: We recognize that even though the 8 hour login window is a required security protocol that we don’t have plans to change, users being redirected away from a page they had open (perhaps in a tab from the day before) or needing to follow a link twice (once for logout, then once to visit the desired page) isn’t the most ideal scenario. Changing that redirect behavior to take someone to the desired page directly after the logout process would be a customization and it’s something that we’re bringing up with our platform vendor to better understand what would be involved and/or gauge its potential as a future update.
I mentioned that there may be more than one thing taking place. Something we’re still looking into with our platform vendor is whether some logouts are being triggered earlier than the expected eight hours. We had engaged Esri’s Authentication team during this process, and they were not able to replicate that circumstance. If earlier logouts are happening, there is some possibility that individual organizations are being affected, for instance, due to some interaction with their company’s firewall.
If you find that you are being logged out earlier than eight hours from your last login, please confirm new examples with us and, if applicable, please include any URLs that were followed or the last page you were on right before the logout occurred. Even better, if you happen to be able to catch a screen recording that would be understandably difficult to plan for but great. You can send that to esricommunity@esri.com.
Blake, regarding your suggestion that this is a problem affecting all Esri domains rather than just Esri Community, this is again something that our Authentication team couldn’t replicate but it’s something we’ll be happy to reconnect with them about if more examples occur. If/when it does happen in other Esri domains, please do let us know what URL you were attempting to reach and what URL you were redirected to. Any details regarding the time of your last login to ArcGIS Online or MyEsri are useful. Screen recordings, like above, are also excellent to capture if possible.
Jesse Cloutier
Community Manager, Engagement & Content
