Logins on a PHP site I am working on are managed by session cookies which store the userid in the session. This works fine until the browser is closed, at which point the userid information seems to be being lost.
I've set the gc and the cookie keepalive time each to seven days, and the php session settings are as follows (set via .htaccess):
session.use_cookies On On
session.cookie_lifetime 604800 0
session.gc_divisor 1000 1000
session.gc_maxlifetime 604800 1440
session.gc_probability 0 0
I can verify with Chrome and Firebug that PHPSESSID does have a lifetime of seven days and that it is persisting between browser restarts. However, session variables such as the userid are definitely not being preserved (I can use var_dump on a separate page to verify this). What could be causing session variables to be deleted between browser restarts, if gc and cookie lifetimes are being set properly?
The problem ended up being with the hosting provider, Rackspace Cloud. Rackspace Cloud Sites saves $_SESSION information per-server by default but does not attempt to direct the same user to the same server between browser restarts. I'll have to set up a database-based session system or store the session files somewhere else.
My question might have been unclear because of the conflict between "session cookie" (a cookie that only lasts until browser restart) and the $_SESSION information which is supposed to persist until garbage collection.
By default session cookies are deleted when the browser is closed. You have to take other measures to persist - which is why you see "Remember me" as an option since it's not expected behavior.
Make sure you don't get "session" and "cookies" mixed up. A session will only persist while the browser remains open. Cookies will stay until they expire regardless of if the browser is closed.
Check out this page for some guidance: http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_cookies.asp or the official documentation at: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.setcookie.php