php session is not stored in chrome

Question

I have not worked with php for some time and came back to one of my projects just to find out that the session variable is not stored. It came like a surprise, because the last time I checked, it worked and I have not used php (therefore has not changed the code or config).

The situation is as follows: session is not stored across the pages (I can save it and it shows the same on the page, but when I refresh - nothing changes).

I looked here PHP Session data not being saved and replicated the example:

<?php
session_start();
if(isset($_SESSION['views']))
    $_SESSION['views'] = $_SESSION['views']+ 1;
else
    $_SESSION['views'] = 1;

echo "views = ". $_SESSION['views'];
echo '<p><a href="page1.php">Refresh</a></p>';

but nothing changes: I still has views = 1.

Nevertheless I have not changed my config, but I still looked at phpinfo():

I checked my permissions to write to the folder /tmp - they are ok, moreover after each refresh a new file appears there.

Then I checked the work in other browsers: and to my surprise it works in firefox: the number correctly increases there.

So the situation: in chrome it does not work, in firefox it works. I use chrome as default. I also remember playing with chrome options when it switches to blink, but as far as I remember I changed back everything.

Any idea how I can fix php sessions in chrome?

P.S:

• cookies are enabled in chrome
• sessions files are in /tmp I tried to delete them all and when later I refresh the page in chrome - the new file appears
• in headers I am sending Cookie:PHPSESSID=mystring but no session id

Solution

This is a known issue in Chromium. Issue 114877

Place a favicon in the root folder, and this should correct your issue.

Comments

[nl-x]

@SalvadorDali Uhm, looking at your phpinfo... Should your session_cache_expire be 0 ?! Try putting it back to 180 (the default). You can try doing it in code, without editing php.ini , by placing session_cache_expire(180); before session_start();. The manual specified no default behaviour for setting session.cache_expire to 0, so it might really mean 0 minutes.

[nl-x]

@SalvadorDali But just to doublecheck: FireFox and IE do work ? And in the developer tools you see the page being loaded and getting a 200 - OK ? (Not that it is being served from the cache.)

[Nanne]

but the default should work, and to change to other storage just because this isn't working is a bit awkward...

[Nikola Petkanski]

I've mentioned a consideration based on my experience with using sessions. I think there is no experienced php developer who would prefer to save its sessions into the default tmp folder.

[Nikola Petkanski]

Note that this is just an advice - it won't fix the issue he complains about. The solution I gave is to try session_write_close().

[Nikola Petkanski]

How's that a fix for the question: Any idea how I can fix php sessions in chrome?

[Amir]

cokies send by the PHP server to the browser and it saves in session.save_path, but perhaps your browser chrome have not access to the path

[PeerBr]

The save_path relates to where the PHP stores the physical file for the session on the server. No browser will have access to that path.

[Amir]

@PeerBr, cookie (contain session_id) stores in client side and session data stores in server side at session.save_path. it is better to not change this path.

[Mehmet Soylu]

yes. unfortunately if you add favicon, you and your users have to visit website for favicon update. chrome history cannot resolve the new favicon from extension.