Why is Microsoft Edge signing me out of websites automatically?

Microsoft Edge can sign you out of websites for several different reasons, and the first distinction to make is whether Edge is actually deleting the site's authentication information or whether the website itself is deliberately expiring your session. Some websites, particularly banking, financial, healthcare, government, and corporate sites, impose their own session-lifetime or inactivity limits. They may expire your login after a fixed period, after a period of inactivity, when you close the browser, or after a security event. In those cases, Edge cannot override the site's policy.

Start with Edge's cookie settings under Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site data. Make sure “Allow sites to save and read cookie data” is enabled. Then check “Clear browsing data on close.” If this is enabled, make sure “Cookies and other site data” is not selected. Otherwise, Edge will delete authentication cookies whenever you close the browser, which can make it appear that websites are randomly signing you out.

Also check the site's individual cookie permissions under Settings > Cookies and site data > See all site data and permissions. Find the affected website and verify that its stored data is actually being retained. If the site's cookies disappear when Edge closes, that points toward an Edge setting, extension, cleanup utility, or profile issue. If the cookies remain but the website requires you to authenticate again, the site's own authentication system is a more likely explanation.

Tracking Prevention is another setting worth checking. Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Tracking prevention. If it is set to Strict, test the affected site with Balanced. Strict tracking prevention can interfere with some authentication flows, particularly when a website relies on cross-site authentication. It is preferable to keep Balanced enabled rather than disabling tracking protection globally. If a particular site genuinely requires an exception, make the exception for that site rather than weakening protection for every website.

Pay particular attention to whether the website offers “Remember me,” “Keep me signed in,” “Stay signed in,” “Trust this device,” or a similar option. These options generally cause the site to issue a persistent authentication token instead of a temporary browser session. If you do not select the option, the site may intentionally require you to sign in again after closing the browser. Even when you select it, however, the site's security policy may still impose a maximum session lifetime.

A website can also enforce an idle timeout or maximum authentication lifetime on its server. For example, a site might allow you to remain signed in for 30 days but require reauthentication after 15 minutes of inactivity, or it might require a new login every few days regardless of activity. The exact behavior is controlled by the site's authentication system, not by Edge. Password changes, account-security events, signing out from another device, revoked refresh tokens, or detected suspicious activity can also invalidate an otherwise persistent login.

If the site uses a separate identity provider such as Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft account, Google, Okta, or another SSO service, the authentication provider can impose its own session and sign-in policies. For example, an organization can require periodic reauthentication or prevent persistent browser sessions. In that situation, Edge may be retaining everything correctly, but the identity provider is deliberately requiring another authentication.

Extensions should also be checked, particularly privacy, cookie-management, security, ad-blocking, and automatic-cleanup extensions. Temporarily disable those extensions and test the affected website. If the problem disappears, re-enable them individually to identify which one is deleting or interfering with the authentication data. Third-party cleanup applications can have the same effect.

Finally, make sure you are using the same Edge profile and are not accidentally opening the site in an InPrivate window. If the problem affects many unrelated websites after every Edge restart, investigate Edge's cookie deletion, extensions, profile, and privacy settings. If it affects only one or a few websites, and particularly if those sites are security-sensitive, the site's own “Remember me” behavior or session-expiration policy is much more likely to be the explanation.

For security, I would not recommend enabling unrestricted cookies, disabling Tracking Prevention globally, or using an extension designed to force persistent authentication. The safest approach is to allow normal cookie storage, prevent Edge from automatically deleting cookies, use Balanced Tracking Prevention, keep trusted extensions under control, and let individual websites enforce their intended session lifetime.

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hth

Marcin