Session_End does not fire?

Question

I want to sign out a user when his session times out. So used following code in Global.asax:

protected void Session_End(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    FormsAuthentication.SignOut();
}

But seems session_end never fires. Any idea how can fix it? I'm using ASP.NET with default settings.

Answer 1

You may set some Session data in Session_Start. Without this, Session_End will not be fired. see this

Also another very important thing to note here is that if you do not save anything in the session the Session_End event will not fire. There must be something saved in the session atleast once for the Session_End event to fire. This also means that if you save something in the session in the first request and abandon the session in the same request the Sesison_End event will not fire, as there was nothing saved in the session ever.

Answer 2

In your web.config you need to have the sessionState element as a child of the element

<configuration>
     <system.web>
          <sessionState mode="InProc" />
          .....
     </system.web>
</configuration>

Answer 3

I don't know if it is a feature or bug. Or may be I don't understand enough session managment in ASP.NET. But this is what I found.

Session_End does not fire in ASP.NET MVC 4 (with default settings for sessionState element in web.config) if Session_Start is not declared.

So you need declare Session_Start to catch Session_End :)

protected void Session_Start(Object sender, EventArgs e) { }

protected void Session_End(Object sender, EventArgs e) {
  Debug.WriteLine("End. " + Session.SessionID);
}

Answer 4

Are you sure that it never fires ?

As I understand it Session_End has nothing to do with the current request because ASP.NET session is terminated by the timeout AFTER the last request from the client has arrived. The call to FormsAuthenticaion.SignOut manipulates authentication cookies and therefore has no effect without any connectivity from the client (browser).

Take a look at this question (which has an answer) - the problem is more or less similar to yours so you might find a right solution:

Session_End in Global.asax.cs not firing using forms authentication

Hope this helps.