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Fix Microsoft Edge not saving cookies or sign-in sessions across startups

Summary

This article helps you fix an issue in which cookies or sign-in sessions don't persist in Microsoft Edge across browser startups. After you close and reopen Edge, sites prompt you to sign in again, Remember me options have no effect, and cookies disappear when you close the page. Browser privacy settings, tracking prevention, site permissions, enterprise policies, system clock drift, extensions, or a corrupted profile can cause this behavior. Work through the following checks to identify the cause and restore persistent cookies and sessions.

Symptoms

You experience one or more of the following symptoms across multiple sites (not only one):

  • After you close and reopen Microsoft Edge, sites require you to sign in again.
  • Cookies that are set by a site disappear when you close the page.
  • Remember me options on sign-in pages have no effect.

Solution

Work through the following sections in the given order. After each section, restart Microsoft Edge, and check whether cookies persist before you continue to the next section.

Verify that Edge isn't set to clear data upon closing

This setting deletes cookies every time that Edge closes. Follow these steps:

  1. In Microsoft Edge, go to edge://settings/privacy/clearBrowsingData/clearOnClose.
  2. Turn off Cookies and other site data and any other items you don't want to clear automatically upon closing.

If your organization manages this behavior, the related policies are ClearBrowsingDataOnExit and SaveCookiesOnExit.

Check tracking prevention exceptions

Strict tracking prevention can block third-party authentication cookies. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to edge://settings/privacy/trackingPrevention.
  2. Temporarily change Tracking prevention to Basic, and then test the site.
  3. If the issue is fixed, revert the setting to Balanced, and then add the affected sign-in domain to the exceptions list at edge://settings/privacy/trackingPreventionExceptions.

For more information about tracking prevention, see Tracking prevention in Microsoft Edge.

Verify that the site isn't blocked from setting cookies

Follow these steps:

  1. Go to edge://settings/content/cookies.
  2. Turn on Allow sites to save and read cookie data.
  3. Review the Block and Clear on close lists, and remove the affected site, if it's listed.

Check enterprise policies

Enterprise policies can control cookie behavior. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to edge://policy.
  2. Look for the following policies:
  3. If these policies prevent persistence on the site that you need, contact your administrator.

Check the system clock and time zone

Authentication cookies often have short expiration periods. A clock skew of more than a few minutes might invalidate them.

  1. Open Settings > Time & language > Date & time.
  2. Turn on Set time automatically and Set time zone automatically.
  3. Select Sync now.

Disable extensions

A privacy or cookie-management extension can purge cookies in the background. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to edge://extensions/.
  2. Turn off all extensions, and then retest.
  3. Turn extensions back on one at a time to identify the one that causes the problem.

Test in a new profile

  1. Go to edge://settings/profiles, and then select Add profile.
  2. Reproduce the scenario in the new profile.
  3. If cookies persist in the new profile, the original profile is likely corrupted.

Data collection

If you have to contact Microsoft Support for more help, collect the following diagnostic information to include in your support request:

  • Microsoft Edge version: Go to edge://version, and note the full version number.
  • Active policies: Go to edge://policy, and export the policy list.
  • Network trace: Capture a network trace that includes a sign-in and an Edge restart. To capture the trace, go to edge://net-export/.

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