The devices: how many sessions an account can hold
One account, several devices, several live sessions. This page is about the limit on that number, the order in which the limit bites, and the one control that ends every session at once.
- sign-ins
- 5
- limit
- 3
- live
- 3
- ended by limit
- 2
An account normally allows a published number of sessions at the same time, and a new sign-in at the limit ends the oldest rather than being refused. On the samples a limit of three turned five sign-ins into three live sessions and two ended, oldest first. A single control signs out every session at once.
Five sign-ins against a limit of three
Sample C follows one invented account through a morning of sign-ins and records which sessions ended, at what time, and why.
| Sign-in | Time | Device | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 09:00 | laptop | live, then ended by the 4th sign-in |
| 2nd | 09:10 | phone | live, then ended by the 5th sign-in |
| 3rd | 09:20 | tablet | live |
| 4th | 09:30 | laptop again | live, and ends the 1st |
| 5th | 09:40 | phone again | live, and ends the 2nd |
| 5 sign-ins | 40 minutes | 4 devices | 3 live, 2 ended by the limit |
The two consequences of a limit
The first is that a new sign-in can end a session elsewhere without doing anything wrong and without warning the other screen, which is why an account can appear to sign itself out on a device nobody touched. The second is that the limit is what makes the sign-out-everywhere control necessary: with several sessions live, ending one at a time is slow, and the case the control exists for is a device you no longer have.
Re-signing in on the same device counts as a new session on the samples, which is why five sign-ins came from four devices. That detail matters when reading a session record: the same device name can appear more than once, and each line is a separate interval with its own clocks.
- Read the concurrency limit before assuming a device is broken; a new sign-in may have ended an older session.
- Expect the oldest session to end first, not the least used one.
- Use the sign-out-everywhere control when a device is lost, resold or borrowed, rather than changing one password in a hurry.
- Expect the same device to appear more than once in the record if it signed in twice; each line is a separate session.
- Sign out on the devices you are not using, so the limit is spent on the ones you are.