- Windows 10 May 2020 Update has an annoying bug that is logging people out of their Google accounts in Chrome every time they reboot their computers.
- Many Windows 10 users are reporting that they have to log in to Chrome every time they restart their PC, and that cookies aren’t being saved and extension data is being deleted.
- Google says that it is working on a fix, but Microsoft hasn’t acknowledged the issue.
Last month, Microsoft released the Windows 10 May 2020 Update to “seekers,” or those who manually checked for a Windows update to download the latest version of the operating system. As with any new release, the update had its share of bugs and issues, but, as noted by Windows Latest, there’s one especially frustrating problem with Windows 10 version 2004 (aka the May 2020 Update) that will make a bunch of users angry.
As Windows Latest notes, despite being tested for over a year, Windows 10 version 2004 has an undocumented bug that interferes with Chrome’s ability to authenticate users or let them sign in to their Google accounts. Many users are reporting that they are being logged out of Chrome every time they restart their computers and are forced to log back in when they open the browser again. Here’s one user’s complaint from Reddit:
I’ve been noticing this since the latest Windows update on Tuesday, but not sure if that’s what caused it: When I restart my computer, I’m not signed into my Google account when I start Chrome. All my website passwords are also forgotten. I also get the welcome page for one of my extensions (Adobe Acrobat extension for Google Chrome). This doesn’t happen when I restart just Chrome, but Windows + Chrome restart.
In addition to logging users out of their Google accounts — which is at least a relatively easy problem to fix — the Windows 10 update is also breaking Chrome’s ability to sync, causing cookies to go unsaved, and deleting extension data. At the time of writing, Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the issue, but Google appears to be working on a fix. In the meantime, Google security researcher Tavis Ormandy offered the following advice to those who are affected by the bug in the comment beneath one report on Google’s support site:
- Please verify this is only affecting Windows 10 2004? If you don’t know, press Win+R and type “winver”, and report the version number.
- If you look in Event Viewer, under Windows Logs > Applications and Services > Microsoft > Windows > Crypto-DPAPI > Operational, do you see any errors?
- If the answer is yes, try this:
- Close all Chrome Windows
- Lock (Press Win+L) your Workstation
- Unlock, then start Chrome, does it work then?
To be clear, this is not affecting all Windows 10 users who updated to version 2004. I applied the update earlier this week, and I have yet to experience anything like the issue described above, despite having restarted my computer at least a few times. Hopefully, a fix for those who are affected is rolled out soon, though.
