Why won't Devise allow unconfirmed users to login even when allow_unconfirmed_access_for is set?

Question

We have an existing user base and are adding email confirmation. Confirmation is optional but will allow additional features. Users are not required to confirm. I've added the confirmable module and ran migrations. Confirmation works as advertised.

But, users cannot log in since they are not confirmed. All current users have nil confirmation values, which is what we want (users can go back and confirm their email at any time). I've followed all the Devise wiki articles and set allow_unconfirmed_access_for in the initializer:

config.allow_unconfirmed_access_for = 10.years 

I've also tried setting it in our user model as well:

devise :confirmable, allow_unconfirmed_access_for: 10.years

I've also tried using other values (1.year, 500.days, etc.)

My SessionsController, which does not differ much from Devise's method (here on github)

class Users::SessionsController < Devise::SessionsController
  respond_to :json

  def new
    redirect_to "/#login"
  end

  def create
    resource = warden.authenticate(auth_options)
    if !resource
      render json: {error: "Invalid email or password" }, status: 401 and return
    end

    sign_in(resource_name, resource)
    render "sign_in", formats: [:json], locals: { object: resource }
  end
end

Devise's the response:

{"error": "You have to confirm your account before continuing."}

Devise 2.1.2 with Rails 3.2.9.

Answer 1

The Devise team have released a version (2.2.4) that supports nil as a valid value for allow_unconfirmed_access_for, meaning no limit. Issue: https://github.com/plataformatec/devise/issues/2275

You can now do:

config.allow_unconfirmed_access_for = nil 

Answer 2

I simply needed to do this in my User model, instead of using allow_unconfirmed_access_for:

  protected
    def confirmation_required?
      false
    end