Stop Joomla (v2.5) from logging you out of the administrator interface

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

The Joomla v2.5 backend administrator interface by default will log you out after you’ve been inactive for 24 minutes (some on the internet claim it’s 15, others 30 minutes. For me, it seems it was 24). This is quite annoying, and usually easily fixed in most PHP applications by changing the session timeout. Joomla also requires that you modify some other parts. Here’s how I got it to work:

Summary

Summary for the lazy technical people. These are the steps to modify the session timeout:

1. In php.ini, find the session.gc_maxlifetime setting, and change it.
2. In Joomla Admin inteface, go to Site → Global Configuration → System and change the Session Lifetime value.
3. In Joomla’s root directory, open configuration.php and change public $lifetime = '1440'; to the number of seconds.

If this wasn’t enough information for you, read the following which explains more in-depth:

Steps

Step 1: Modify php.ini

Figure out which php.ini Joomla uses by creating the following “info.php” file in your Joomla directory:

Direct your browser to the file, for instance: http://mysite.example.com/info.php. You should see the purple/blue PHP info page. Locate the “Loaded Configuration File” setting. This is which php.ini file will be used. Make sure to delete the info.php file when you’re done!

Edit the file (for me its /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini) and find the following setting:

session.gc_maxlifetime = ....

Change the setting to however many seconds you want to remain logged in without activity, before being logged out automatically. I set mine to 8 hours (28800 seconds):

session.gc_maxlifetime = 28800

Step 2: Timeout in the Joomla interface

I’m not sure this step is required, but I changed it, so you may also have too.

Open the Joomla Adminisatror backend (http://mysite.example.com/administator/), login as a Super User (‘admin’ usually), and open Site → Global Configuration → System. On the right side, change Session Lifetime to the number of seconds you want to keep the session alive. For me, that’s 28000 seconds again.

Step 3: Joomla’s configuration.php

Final step. In the Joomla top directory, you’ll find a file called configuration.php. Open this file with your editor, and search for:

public $lifetime = '1440';

Change the number (1440) to the number of seconds you want the session to stay alive:

public $lifetime = '288000';

Save the file.

Step 4: Restart your webserver

As a final step, you may have to restart your webserver. How to do this depends on your installation.

Now your session should remain alive for the number of seconds specified, even if you’re not active.