Digging in to the Yii framework, it appears that they pull session.gc_maxlifetime from PHP and use that as their default timeout value. Setting that to 86400 does correctly reflect in the 'expire' column in the 'lime_sessions' table. So I have a workaround.

But that still means it isn't honoring the iSessionExpirationTime value from the Web UI.

https://forums.limesurvey.org/forum/installation-a-update-issues/125870-survey-session-timeout#222048

https://manual.limesurvey.org/Global_settings/en#General

Session lifetime (seconds) (only available with database sessions): Defines the time in seconds after which a survey session expires (provided there is no action from the participant). When using regular, file-based sessions, it is up to the system administrator to define the right values for 'session.gc_maxlifetime', 'session.save_path', etc., in the PHP configuration. Not only the web server settings but also the other similar settings of other applications may overwrite the setting for file-based sessions when editing it locally via the application. The maximum value that can be introduced is 65000 (seconds). It is recommendable to use a reasonable value. Bear in mind that, when using database sessions, check whether the MySQL setting called max_allowed_packet is set to a large value because some surveys generate over 2 MB of session data

Since session timeouts are a known problem, would it be easily possible to add a short note like "Your current session timeout is set to XXX seconds."? That way a user directly knows what the value used is and can double check if their adjsutments are taken into account.
This would be a really nice improvement since people are often having problems finding the currect setting or file to adjust the timeout details.

Not related here : DB session issue.

You can report file session information as a feature request maybe ?

Done: https://bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=17727

I have upgraded to 3.27.29+211214 and the behavior has not changed. I didn't think it would (I diff'd the source trees) but I figured it was worth getting to current while I had an opportunity.

As per the comments, I think this can closed, right?.
Please add any comments in case it should be reopened.
Thanks

Well, I have a workaround, but the underlying bug is still there. If you set your expiration time using the WebUI, it doesn't work. There doesn't seem to be any attempt in the code to take the value set and pass it to the Yii framework at all, so the implementation of the expiration time in the WebUI only did half the job.

Well, I have a workaround, but the underlying bug is still there. If you set your expiration time using the WebUI, it doesn't work. There doesn't seem to be any attempt in the code to take the value set and pass it to the Yii framework at all, so the implementation of the expiration time in the WebUI only did half the job.

You didn't see expiration time in GUI by default, It must be set to DB session. We hide it after make the decision to move it to only DB.

If it show : it's an issue

This entire issue is around database sessions. I switched to database sessions because they're actually reliable at session duration, where PHP sessions include a heap of randomness that annoys users. Once I switched, the session lifetime box appeared in the General tab of the Web UI, but no matter what you set it to it doesn't work. That value is not applied to the Yii framework at all. I specifically have it set to a value dramatically different from what I put in to my workaround (php.ini) so that if it were to take effect I would notice it without even checking in the DB by hand. ALSO, setting the value in the config.php for iSessionExpirationTime does not work, once again the value is not being passed to the Yii framework.

https://manual.limesurvey.org/Optional_settings#Resources makes it clear that this setting should work in the scenario I'm living in.

It's been a while since I did the digging to see how to pass this to the Yii framework so I'm a little rusty on the details, but when you instantiate a new sessions there's a way to pass in the preferred session lifetime. It's just not being done at all. So the framework is taking its default value and using that.

This entire issue is around database sessions. I switched to database sessions because they're actually reliable at session duration, where PHP sessions include a heap of randomness that annoys users. Once I switched, the session lifetime box appeared in the General tab of the Web UI, but no matter what you set it to it doesn't work.

It must work, if ,not it's an issue

That value is not applied to the Yii framework at all.

It's not related to Yii session or PHP.ini shown anymore, the only way to test is to set a ridiculous time on PHP.ini (default session) and a bigger one in GUI.

I reopen.

Confirmed :
PHP settings : session.cookie_lifetime + session.gc_maxlifetime to 60,
Set session to DB : unconnect, log again etc …

No change : 60 seconds : timeout …

PS : you can update the default lifetime via cookieParams
https://manual.limesurvey.org/Optional_settings/en#Other_sessions_update

https://github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/pull/2415

Don't replace existing lifetime if it's set in config.php

https://github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/pull/2416

Fix committed to 3.x-LTS branch: http://bugs.limesurvey.org/plugin.php?page=Source/view&id=33510

Fixed in Release 5.3.16+220523

Fix committed to 3.x-LTS branch: http://bugs.limesurvey.org/plugin.php?page=Source/view&id=34757