Where is Safari hiding its "logged in" information?

[stevey500]

In a quest to try and resolve why safari consistently signs me out of SOME websites/accounts but not others, I got all the way down to wiping out the /users/me/application support/'anything to do with safari' and /users/me/containers/'anything to do with safari' and /users/me/caches/'anything to do with safari' and naturally, safari then opened like it's absolutely brand new with zero bookmarks, preferences, cookies are gone, etc, it was a blank slate, OR SO I THOUGHT.

Upon accessing gmail.com, I was still signed into my personal email account but prompted to re-enter my password. I then tried a few other websites and some of them still had me immediately logged in, even macrumors forums as well as facebook.com.

How in the WORLD does safari store "logged in session" information?

 

[auxbuss]

Site login status is usually held in a session cookie (for the site). These are often deleted when you close your browser. Some sites configure them to persist, and sometimes this persistence is provided as an option via, say, a "Remember me" checkbox.

You can delete cookies selectively in Safari/Preferences/Privacy, or globally via History/Clear History…

 

[joevt]

I would say cookies. But if you removed cookies, then maybe keychain?

 

[auxbuss]

I would say cookies. But if you removed cookies, then maybe keychain?

Web-site login status is not held in the keychain. The thought of web-sites having access to keychain fills me with horror.

 

[joevt]

Web-site login status is not held in the keychain. The thought of web-sites having access to keychain fills me with horror.

Right. Keychain may have passwords but not login status.