Users not being removed from list if they don’t sign out

Hello!

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner. I haven’t been focusing on WordPress development at all for the last while, but I finally managed to set some time aside to add a new feature to the plugin.

The newly released version 1.1 of the “Who’s Logged In” plugin will automatically log users out of your site 15 minutes after they leave your sites browser tab or window(it’s usually safe to say a user is inactive after 15 minutes of not looking at your website), and the list of users displayed on the administrator dashboard will update to reflect that shortly after.

I hope this helps you out, and all the best!

List not updating whether logging out of forced logging out

@cbcbcb I’m not sure I understand you, please provide more details if you’re looking for help.

If the plugin isn’t working as expected for you, please let me know what version of WordPress you are using, what web browser you are using, what other plugins you have installed on your website, and please describe exactly what the problem is in as much detail as possible.

Thanks.

Same issue as previously reported by ochoppee.

WP Version 5.3.2
PHP version 7.3.14
Chrome

I should’ve asked which plugin version you are using too?

The original plugin was limited by WordPress’ functionality, and couldn’t include that type of feature back then. The latest plugin version has some extra javascript that modern web browsers can use to automatically log users out and remove them from the list if they haven’t visited the websites tab/window in 15 minutes, but that 15 minute timer resets every time they do view the site.

Assuming you and your users are not using an out of date web browser, and assuming you have the latest version of the plugin installed, I’ll still need all of the info I asked for originally to try and replicate the issue you seem to be experiencing.

Thanks.

I am using the latest version of the plugin. The list of users “”logged in does not remove them when they Logout. If I force a logout from within WordPress (logout everywhere) the list updates. Any ideas

@pmsoft85 Hello, I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble.

It could potentially be a conflict with another plugin that’s active on your website, but it’s impossible for me to say where the issue is coming from without more information and testing.

I am happy to help you try and figure out where the issue is coming from as I have time, but would you mind starting a new support thread with the same question so I can focus on resolving your specific issue please. In your new thread it would be great if you could provide me with a list of plugins you have active on your website, and the web browsers being used too.

Thanks!

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Ben HartLenn.

Hi apologies I have found a work around, I have installed another plugin.(Inactive Logout) and now you plugin works as expected as users are actually logged out.

@pmsoft85 No problem at all, that’s good news. I think when plugins work together it’s a lot better than when plugins conflict with each other! ??

I am having the same issue. There is now a list of about 510 users (out of possible 590) and I know that they are not all actively logged in (should be 2 or 3). Is there a way of purging the cache? I have now enabled the recently added logout user function after 30 minutes, but the original list is still there.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by joeramsay.

Yes since the latest update the list is not being purged. Even uninstalling the plugin does not clear the data. when reinstalled the ever growing list is still there.
I used to inactivate and reactivate the plugin to clear the list this no longer works.
Any ideas

@joeramsay, @pmsoft85 Sorry for the trouble, and I appreciate the heads up guys.

I’ll try to get a patch released for this within the next couple of days.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Ben HartLenn.

@joeramsay and @pmsoft85: As always, I appreciate your patience! I’d really like to get more feedback for coming up with a solution that works for you guys, more on that below.

In digging into the “bug” you told me about, I’ve come to realize that what I thought was a relatively small change to the main “feature” of the plugins functionality can actually result in quite a big change for people that have a lot of user accounts on their website. I believe this feature change is basically what you are experiencing as a bug, but do let me know if the below doesn’t sound like what’s happening on your website.

Since putting this plugin into the public WordPress plugin repository years ago, I’ve received a handful of messages pointing out how the plugins original purpose of building a list of users up from nothing over time is kind of out of line with what they expected the plugin to do. They thought it was going to show a list of all users that are currently logged in to a website, rather than building a list of users as they login and logout of the website over time. In most instances I have to agree that the built up list of users is going to be less useful feedback than a list of currently logged in users, so I made a change in the most recent update to show all users that are logged in with an active session token. Now these logged in session tokens last until well after a user has left the site without logging out, but the setting to have the plugin automatically log out users that have left your site and not come back for 30 minutes helps take care of that.

Now being perfectly honest, I have to admit that with no way of testing the plugin on a site with many many users, especially many hundreds, I did not foresee how the change I made would result in such a massive difference in the number of users shown by the plugin.

I hope you’ll still agree that the old list of users being built up as people log in and out of your website isn’t actually as useful as being able to see a list of the currently logged in with a session token users on your website, but I’m open to hearing opposing arguments, and use cases that call for needing the original built up type of user list of course.

If I keep the newer style list of currently logged in users going forward, it’s apparent to me now that I definitely need to shorten up that list of users somehow; especially for when there’s about 510 logged in users to display all in one list. NOTE: I believe the reason you’re not seeing users get removed from the list, is because the number of users being returned by the query is likely being limited by a server request time limit, or perhaps a memory shortage.

I’ve been working on options for how I could shorten up the list, and I think the most useful approach that I could provide fairly quickly would be making the plugin show something like 20 of the most recently logged in users, with the most recently logged in users added to the top of the list, down to the tenth most recently logged in user. Something close to that functionality anyways. If you think having the most recently logged in users added to the bottom of the list instead of the top is better, or you want 50 users instead of 20, or have any thoughts to add to this at all, please do let me know.

Someday I could be able to extend that kind of setup by making the limited logged in user results be paginated, and/or there could be an option for filtering users by role for example, but those are bigger projects that will take more time in my volunteer work pipeline.

I would really appreciate any and all of your feedback to help steer the direction of where this plugin is headed in the future, and I’m looking forward to your replies. Of course anyone else that wants to make their voice heard on the matter is more than welcome to do so too.

Thanks!

P.S. If this “feature” change isn’t sounding like the “bug” you’re experiencing, I will need more information as testing on a default WordPress install results in users being added and removed from the list as expected, including with the newer automatic logout setting on or off. So if something isn’t working for you it could be a conflict with another caching or membership plugin potentially. I’m happy to explore that possibility more, but I’ll at least need a list of your websites activated plugins to try and replicate the issue, plus any other relevant details about your WordPress installation that you can provide. If you don’t want to reply on the support forum here, please feel free to email me personally at: bhartlenn at gmail dot com.

Wow, thanks for the attention you are giving to this.

What I am looking for is quite simple (functionally). I run various learning sites using LearnDash as well as do occasional minor tweaks to sites without using the staging site. So what I need to know is whether there are any students/clients (out of hundreds) logged in and active on a site (or not) so that I can put it into maintenance mode for maybe 15 minutes without kicking them off in the middle of them writing an exam or making a purchase. So what I would like is a list of currently logged in and active users on the dashboard – not a list of everyone who logged in and left the site without logging out. It seems that currently on my installation no one gets dropped from the list.

I am willing to work with you with one of my sites (one with 700 active users) to beta test if you like.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by joeramsay.

I’ve been able to return to your post and give it some more thought. It sounds like when you created this, the “who’s” in the name meant “who HAS logged in” rather than meaning “who IS logged in.” There are other plugins out there that create a log of activities, including log ins and outs (activity Log, for example). What I was looking for was a way of knowing who is currently logged into the site.

I have now found a plugin that does pretty much what I was looking for. It is called WP-UserOnline and is in the repository. The info is displayed under the “at a glance” box on the admin dashboard, or you can create a page to display this. It can be shown in a widget also.

Thanks for your work and for your plugin. I may still use it for a simple of list of “who has logged in” – that is also useful, but I need it to show the list in chronological order (right now the list is alphabetical) and be able to limit the scope (say, to the last 24 hours).

All the best!

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by joeramsay.