I'm having the exact same problem. I had to find my 3.4.5 to 3.4.6 update and manually FTP everything to my site to fix the problem. If I upgrade to 3.4.7, it won't let me log into the backend. I get an invalid security token error message. No error log is being produced on the server either in the admin folder or the root directory.

Please test this:

Go to your database, select the x_session table (x -> your prefix), select all entries and delete them (not the table!). Then try to login as usual. Does it work again?

I have just tried it.. but nothing..

No, it did not work for me. And it took a very long time because there were literally thousands of entries.

Bootmaguy - TRUNCATE [TABLE] tbl_name

It still doesn't matter. Deleting all entries in sessions doesn't fix the problem. Uploading the 3.4.5 to 3.4.6 upgrade does. They should make that available for download since this problem appears endemic and most end users wouldn't know to come here regarding issues.

There is something very wrong if you have thousands of entries in the
session table.
On 22 Dec 2015 4:40 pm, "bostmaguy" notifications@github.com wrote:

It still doesn't matter. Deleting all entries in sessions doesn't fix the
problem. Uploading the 3.4.5 to 3.4.6 upgrade does. They should make that
available for download since this problem appears endemic and most end
users wouldn't know to come here regarding issues.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#8758 (comment).

It's never been purged since the site began life as Joomla 2.5. I also have no idea what "sessions" does but I'll give anything a try at least once.

So right after upgrade to 3.4.7 from 3.4.6 I got same problem after log out was not be able to login back to joomla . Front and back end no errors just login screen refresh that's it . After truncate sessions table nothing changed . The only thing that I see new session when try to log in , but anyway can't get in to website . So the only way what I was able to log in back to my website to put back /libraries/joomla/session/session.php file back from joomla 3.4.6 . Because it's a private website and I need login there every day . I hope someone will come with a real fix to this problem .

@benderis your session storage in Joomla global settings is set to database, file, or other storage engine?

instead of TRUNCATE i usually issue a REPAIR TABLE [prefix_session] to fix when session table with lot of entries get corrupted (it happened sometime)

There is something very wrong if you have thousands of entries in the
session table.

@brianteeman Joomla creates a session not just for logged in users, but also for guests (bots included). For a site with session lifetime of 30+ minutes and a bit of traffic is easy to have this table populated with thousands of entries, maybe he got it at 120 minutes or more.

I think this is another point to fix, i opened a ticked #8772

It's definitely the sessions.php file. If you upgrade to 3.4.7 and replace the sessions.php file with the 3.4.6 version, you can once again log into the admin section. Changing the settings of sessions in global configuration before upgrading doesn't make a difference.

@bostmaguy I if you aren't able to solve resetting cookies, then I suppose that the issue is that register_shutdown_function is not working well in your php so the session isn't persisted after user login, can you do a quick test to exclude this?

• restore the 3.4.7 session.php file
• edit plugins/user/joomla/joomla.php and add $session->close(); at line 236:

in this way, if the issue is what I suppose, it should work and let you log in in admin section, please let me know

We've just created a 3.4.8 Release Candidate Package (https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/releases/tag/3.4.8-rc). Some of these session issues are not reliable - so just give it a try and see if you come across any issues :)

Adding $session->close(); did not help.

Applying 3.4.8 RC Package did not help.

Truncating the table x_session did not help.

Workaround (until the fix will be available): replace the file /libraries/joomla/session/session.php by the file from version 3.4.6.

After that, you will be able to log in into backend again.

This can be closed now?

Please can you open your /configuration.php file and report here what the setting for

public $session_handler = 'database';

is on your site you cannot login with pleasE?

@fedeverdi are you still having issues after upgrade to Joomla 3.4.8 or can this now be closed?

Yes it is still here with 3.4.8, I had the same issue on a live site, i still don't know what happened that i could log in again. But i did not know of the session file. So i just turn everything off in the database that could cause me to fail logging in, Like: akeeb secure and IP block plugins. i could still not log in. After a while i could log in. Now just before that i made a backup of the whole site and want to test something locally. But placing the sesion file from 3.4.6 cause the next error : plugins\system\debug\debug.php on line 396. So is it just the file or should we downgrade to 3.4.6 ? Or any other real working solution? As i do not read a good solution yet, So please do not close this thread before a solution is available. Thanks.

It sounds to me like you have not had a sucessful update. Try replacing the file libraries/joomla/session/session.php with https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joomla/joomla-cms/3.4.8/libraries/joomla/session/session.php this one shipped in 3.4.8 and see if things improve.

Hi, I did but it did not help. same issue. Strange is that on the live site i did not change any files. I only disabled some things in the database, even then i could not log in. After a while i could, and i can't lay my hand on it what it could be why i suddenly could log in. So to make it clear what i'm testing now local is the copied live site when the fault is still in it. So i'm not really convinced that it is a file with an error in it.

of course i could download the whole site again and maybe the error is not there. But then i would not find the cause, on the other hand. I could see if is database related then or not. As i backed up the faulty site and database. If it still does not work, then after that i could make a backup of the live databse and use it. If it is then solved we know that is there were the fault is, we just do not know exactly the issue.

ok it must be 100% a file...but what? i donwloaded the website again (after the live one was working again), i used the database of the one which i could not log in, and now i can log in. so for me it is a mystery.

This will not be a Joomla problem.

Please send me your site details using the form at https://fix.myjoomla.com/now and I'll take a look FOR FREE for you so we can get to the bottom of this.

Kindest regards
Phil.

On 24 Jan 2016, at 18:48, jjsjjs notifications@github.com wrote:

ok it must be 100% a file...but what? i donwloaded the website again (after the live one was working again), i used the database of the one which i could not log in, and now i can log in. so for me it is a mystery.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #8758 (comment).

Can this be closed now?

I have not heard anything from @jjsjjs so I guess so...

Sorry had no time before to react on this issue, as the issue is no longer on the live site i guess this has no use. I can't re-call the fault as i donwloaded the site to local because now it is working. It is no database issue. Sorry I'm not allowed to give access as this site is not a personal site but for an Association of Dutch Veterans. I still have a 2nd copy locally which has still this issue. So i hope to find what it is by de-installing first the latest installed extensions.