Title: Automatic log out after inactivity time without using plugins Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # Automatic log out after inactivity time without using plugins * [wpreser](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpreser/) * (@wpreser) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-log-out-after-inactivity-time-without-using-plugins/) * Hi, * Could somebody tell me how to set an automatic sign out after a time of inactivity without using a plugin? * Thank you Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) * Moderator [Jan Dembowski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jdembowski/) * (@jdembowski) * Forum Moderator and Brute Squad * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-log-out-after-inactivity-time-without-using-plugins/#post-2789219) * Give [wp_set_auth_cookie()](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_set_auth_cookie) a read. Look at the `$remember` portion (I think). * You should be able to use that in a… _plugin_… 😉 or possibly your theme’s `functions. php` file. * Thread Starter [wpreser](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpreser/) * (@wpreser) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-log-out-after-inactivity-time-without-using-plugins/#post-2789230) * Cool! Thanks, Jan! I have it set up on false: `wp_set_auth_cookie($user_id, $remember = false, $secure = '')` Should I provide a value for the $secure ” ? If I do the following: `wp_set_auth_cookie($user_id, $remember = true, $secure = '30')` * I replaced “false” by “true” and set the value “30”! Will this work? * Thread Starter [wpreser](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpreser/) * (@wpreser) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-log-out-after-inactivity-time-without-using-plugins/#post-2789235) * Neppp! It didn’t work! I’ve already tried it but doesn’t work as I thought 🙁 * Thread Starter [wpreser](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpreser/) * (@wpreser) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-log-out-after-inactivity-time-without-using-plugins/#post-2789236) * For the plugin, I’d like to reduce using plugins at the minimum! * [michael.mariart](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelmariart/) * (@michaelmariart) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-log-out-after-inactivity-time-without-using-plugins/#post-2789248) * What exactly do you want to do with this? Do you want the user to be logged out after a certain amount of time so that they can’t access a page when they go to ir, or are you trying to re-direct users that have been inactive to long to a log in page? * If you just want to make sure that users that have bene inactive are not allowed to do anything, there’s no need to worry. PHP takes care of this with it’s own sessions, so it’s all taken care of already. The time out can vary depending on the server and it’s individual settings, so if the time out isn’t right you may be able to talk to your hosting company to change this. * If you want to re-direct users to a log in page if they have been inactive for to long, you can always try adding a meta redirect tag to your admin/site headers HTML. I’d set this to a big time out that’s higher then the session time out so that it would only hit that redirection timer after the users session would have expired anyway. This code would really work best being in a plugin. * Don’t worry to much about reducing plugin use. The overhead from having more plugins is not high compared to the benifits that you get form keeping things modular. You have to have the code set up somewhere anyway, and having it set up as a plugin just makes it easier to maintian and also lets you remember where it is rather then trying to search through the rest of your code base to find out where you put the code before. * Thread Starter [wpreser](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpreser/) * (@wpreser) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-log-out-after-inactivity-time-without-using-plugins/#post-2789253) * Thanks Michael. I’d just to finish the login session after inactivity time. For example after 30 minutes of inactivity, the logged member should re-login if he didn’t do anything! Or, if someone forgets to logout manually, this will compromise the website security! So, logout automatically after inactivity time is a good option isn’t it? Maybe I’ve to take a look at plugins. * [michael.mariart](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelmariart/) * (@michaelmariart) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-log-out-after-inactivity-time-without-using-plugins/#post-2789254) * Like I said, PHP takes care of this with sessions. Inactive users will loose their session details after the set time on the server without you doing anything. Users don’t just stay logged in forever. 🙂 * The onyl time that user logins won’t time out is if they select the ‘Remember Me’ check box on the login screen. * Thread Starter [wpreser](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpreser/) * (@wpreser) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-log-out-after-inactivity-time-without-using-plugins/#post-2789255) * Just to add that currently when I log into my localhost installation, I stay logged in forever! If for example I leave it overnight, I come the morning and find my session as logged in! So, I wish to automatically log out. Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) The topic ‘Automatic log out after inactivity time without using plugins’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 8 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [wpreser](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpreser/) * Last activity: [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-log-out-after-inactivity-time-without-using-plugins/#post-2789255) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics