Friday, February 6, 2009

Log out Gmail sessions remotely


Little known fact: Gmail does NOT time out. Gmail sessions will stay open until you log out, even if you have another session open.

The problem:
Here's a scenario: you open your Google Mail and check your emails at a computer at work but forget to log out. Later at home, you check your Gmail again and log out.

The session at work is STILL OPEN. It will stay open until it is logged, even if that is years. If somebody doesn't delete or send anything, you will never know that the session is still open.

GMail does not have the option to set a time out. What Gmail has is a little-known ability to log out sessions remotely. That means, in the above scenario, you can go home and log out the session at work. You can also check to see what sessions have been opened and where. Learn how to keep safe online with these instructions.


How to log out Gmail remotely:
At the bottom of your list of emails is a line that says something like:
Last account activity: 1 minute ago at this IP (XX.XX.XX.XX) Details

Click on the word Details

You will be taken to a window that shows all your recent Google Mail activity. You can check to see if the IP address is all the same (and therefore from the same computer, as long as you have a static IP address).

To sign out remotely, click on the button Sign out all other sessions.


You can now breathe easily knowing the open Gmail session is the one in front of you.

3 comments:

  1. I HAVE OPEN SESSIONS CONTINEOUSLY UNDER MY DETAIL SECTION. HOWEVER I DO NOT HAVE ANOTHER COMPUTER ANYWHERE OR OTHER ACCOUNTS ANYWHERE. I HAVE AND USE ONE COMPUTER THE ONE I'AM TYPING THIS MESSAGE ON.
    THANK YOU

    ReplyDelete
  2. Toni, you should change your password immediately and force gmail setting for https connections only.
    If you have pop or imap, that could show multiple sessions also.
    I hope this may help.

    h.

    ReplyDelete