Why won't my cookie delete?

Question

I have a cookie, that I set with the following command:

setcookie( 'auth', 'cookie data' , time() + 3600, '/', '.mydomain.com', true, true );

when I log out, I call a function to clear it, which does this:

setcookie( 'auth', "", time() - 3600, '/', '.mydomain.com', true, true );

However, if I then refresh the page, $_COOKIE['auth'] is still set, and returns the old 'cookie data' value that should be gone!

What am I missing?

is the time of the server or the client off ? They should be the same time — exussum, Feb 18 '14 at 20:36
You should probably choose a lower value than `time() - 3600`, since that might not work if the end-user lives in a different time zone. How about `1` instead? — Waleed Khan, Feb 18 '14 at 20:36
possible duplicate of [Remove a cookie](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/686155/remove-a-cookie) — markcial, Feb 18 '14 at 20:37
@WaleedKhan the time zone shouldnt matter. But the use of `1` should work — exussum, Feb 18 '14 at 20:37
Though [it is said elsewhere](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/686155/remove-a-cookie#comment501666_686166) that IE might ignore the cookie request if it's too far in the past. — eis, Feb 18 '14 at 20:40

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 18 '14 at 20:38

0

unset($_COOKIE['auth']);  
setcookie('auth', '');

answered Feb 18 '14 at 20:38

Jack

although I hate code-dumps too, unsetting the `$_COOKIE['auth']` global before doing the set in the past took care of the issue. – Greg Schoppe Feb 18 '14 at 20:51

troseman · Answer 2 · 2014-02-18T20:49:37.677

0

make sure you haven't already sent headers http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.headers-sent.php
make sure you are sending headers. Are you outputting anything else? If not, echo anything to make sure headers are sent before exit.
remove from cookie global array also

if(isset($_COOKIE['auth'])) { unset($_COOKIE['auth']); }
if your session name is 'auth', any change to session data may rewrite the session cookie

edited Feb 18 '14 at 20:49

answered Feb 18 '14 at 20:41

troseman

headers have not been sent at that point, but are sent before the script terminates – Greg Schoppe Feb 18 '14 at 20:45
try removing from cookie globals also, you haven't by any chance called your session 'auth'? because that might do it also if you change session data after deleting cookie – troseman Feb 18 '14 at 20:49

2 Answers2