Some Chrome users are getting signed out automatically on Windows 10 version 2004

Some Google Chrome users who use the browser on a device running Windows 10 version 2004 are reporting that they are getting signed out of their Google account and other accounts automatically.

Microsoft released Windows 10 version 2004, also known as the May 2020 Update, last month to the public. The operating system is being rolled out over time to devices. The company published several issues when it released the update, some of which block the update from being offered to a device.

New issues have been acknowledged last week, and some old ones have been mitigated or fixed.

It appears that some Chrome installations don't play well with Windows 10 version 2004 either. Chrome users report on the official Help forum [see for example here and here] that they are getting signed out of accounts automatically after every restart of the operating system. Chrome pauses sync each time because of that and it also does not appear to store or use cookies after the restart of the system.

Common fixes such as reinstalling Chrome, clearing all cookies or site data, downloading a different Chrome version, don't fix the issue according to the reports.

I have recently just updated to windows update 2004 and I keep having issues with google signing me out of every account on my browser including forcing me to sign in again for sync. I have already uninstalled and reinstalled chrome to try fixing this. It's been starting to get really annoying having to resign into my accounts every time I use my pc.

I'm dealing with a problem where each time I close chrome, it pauses sync and doesn't seem to use stored cookies (meaning it logs me out of all websites, regardless of if the password is stored in sync or not).

Microsoft has not acknowledged the bug yet and Google has not replied to any of the threads either at the time of writing. The issue seems limited to Windows 10 version 2004 only.

Google security researcher Tavis Ormandy replied to one of the threads suggesting that it could have something to do with the dpapisrv master key cache. He suggests that affected users do the following to see if it resolves the situation for the session:

1. Close all Chrome windows / instances.
2. Use Windows-L to lock the computer.
3. Unlock the computer, and restart Chrome.

Closing Words

It may take some time before the issue is addressed. Considering that reports started to appear more than two weeks after initial release and that only some Chrome users appear to be affected, it is possible that last week's cumulative security updates introduced the bug and not the release of Windows 10 version 2004.