Windows Mattermost client unexpected consistent session expiration

Troubleshooting
#1

Summary

Two Windows Mattermost client users consistently have to login to the Mattermost service on a daily basis with “session has expired” errors

Steps to reproduce

This is tricky as only two users out of 10 are experiencing this behavior. Windows Mattermost client 4.3.2 on Mattermost Server 5.17.1.

Expected behavior

The users launch their Mattermost clients and are able to re-establish their sessions without needing to re-authenticate.

Observed behavior

The bulk of the users, a mix of Windows 10 and MacOS, have no issue bringing up their Mattermost clients and the session re-establishing after being offline all night without needing to re-authenticate. However, two Windows 10 users have to re-authenticate each morning when launching the Mattermost client. The Mattermost Server is configured for session lengths of 180 days in all three configuration spots (AD/LDAP, Mobile, SSO). I think it might be a client issue more than a Server configuration issue as one of the two users who needs to re-authenticate also connect to multiple Mattermost servers and need to re-auth to ALL of them.

I have uninstalled and re-installed the Mattermost client, but I suspect perhaps there may be remaining stale configuration files/registry settings that are possibly lingering after the uninstall has been completed, which is why the behavior appears to be persisting between installs.

I’m just looking for some additional suggestions on things to try or other things that I could look for to ensure the client is fully uninstalled (assuming my hypothesis is valid). Thanks!

#2

@ashblade Please take a look at this troubleshooting guide: https://docs.mattermost.com/install/desktop.html#desktop-app-constantly-asks-to-log-in-to-mattermost-server.

#3

Hi @ashblade, could you share how the Mattermost app was uninstalled? We have had cases where a regular uninstall may not fully remove the client. Could you try heading to could you try navigating to C:\Users<your username>\AppData\Local\Programs\mattermost-desktop, and try executing Uninstall Mattermost.exe from there?

#4

Thank you @amy.blais ; in my searching, I weirdly didn’t come across this doc. Much appreciated.

#5

Hi @joewai.tye, it was uninstalled via the “Apps and features” in Windows 10 Control Panel. One interesting thing that I found after I posted my original message, though, when I went back into “Apps and features”, I saw two installations, one was the current version 4.3.2, and the other was just listed as “Mattermost”, and after a little bit of digging, I discovered it was version 4.2.1. So there were effectively two Mattermost installations present.

I launched the 4.3.2 Mattermost client and it prompted me to re-authenticate due to session expiration. I quit without authenticating. Then I uninstalled both of them via the “Apps and features” interface and then re-installed 4.3.2. Once that completed, I launched 4.3.2 and it logged me straight in.

I restarted several times and each time was logged straight in without needing to authenticate each time.

So the issue may be addressed; time will tell. If I need to uninstall again, I will do it following your recommendation above instead of using the uninstall function of “Apps and features”.

Thanks!

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