Linux – Chrome doesn’t remember browser sessions after restart

cinnamongoogle-chromekubuntulinuxUbuntu

When I restart my computer and open Chrome again, my tabs from my previous session are reopened. However, most websites (Gmail, GitHub, Twitter/Tweetdeck, StackExchange) ask me to login again.

I'm using different user profiles and I've the same problem with all of them.

I think the problem started after updating to Chrome 53, but I'm not 100% sure that's the case and even if so, if that's a coincidence or not.

When I look at the developer console, the cookies are still there. On some websites, I'm still logged in.

How can I find out what's going wrong?

Update:
I've reinstalled Chrome (apt purge, rm -rf ~/.config/google-chrome and apt install) and now it's asking me to login again (enter my password and two-factor auth) on my Chrome profile every time I ~~reboot~~ restart Chrome. There is a small warning sign on my profile name (right top).

The settings page says 'Account sign-in details are out of date.'

Update 2: I even have this problem after closing Chrome and restarting it.

Best Answer

Solution

To fix this issue you need to unlock your keyring before launching chrome.

Disconnect your Google account; go to chrome://settings click Disconnect your Google Account... check the box to clear local Chrome data, sign out and then close Chrome.
Launch seahorse by typing seahorse into the terminal or open it from Menu>Passwords and Keys.
In Default keyring delete Chrome Safe Storage and any accounts.google.com enteries.
Unlock the Default Keyring and Login by right clicking and clicking Unlock
Launch Chrome, go to chrome://settings and click Sign in to Chrome

Hopefully this fixes your problem, I recently installed Linux Mint and this worked for me, I don't fully understand why but it seems Chrome does not wait for the keyring to unlock and this results in chrome not being signed in.

Reproduce This Issue

Steps to reproduce this issue:

Install Linux (mint or otherwise) with cinnamon (on a VM or otherwise)
Install Chrome and sign in
Reboot
Ensure Keyrings are locked - go to Passwords and Keys and lock all Keyrings
Open chrome - you will be prompted to unlock the Keyring and sign in will fail

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Google chrome logs out from every webpage after system user has logged out

I too would ask you to start over, by uninstalling and killing all chromium processes.

An operational note, you really shouldn't be logging in as the system account. You log in as yourself, and if you need to do system things, become root temporarily.

Also, logging out will kill any processes started by you which haven't been placed in the background.

For install:

sudo /bin/bash
exec su - root
pgrep -l chromium    # ensure list is empty, otherwise kill those processes
                     # pkill chromium
apt install chromium-browser
exit
id   # confirm you are now yourself and not root
# start chrome with specific directory
chromium-browser --user-data=~/.config/chromium >/dev/null 2>&1 &
# you could make this an alias in your .bashrc:
# alias chrome='chromium-browser --user-data=~/.config/chromium >/dev/null 2>&1 &'

You could add nohup to keep it running after logout, but re-attaching to it after logging in is problematic.

Once chrome is started, edit settings:

Choose Continue where you left off
Choose Offer to save your web passwords (in advanced settings)

Chrome – Google Chrome doesn’t remember the Google account sessions

Go to chrome://settings/content/cookies.
Uncheck the option "Clear cookies and site data when you quit Chrome".
Done.