Game Crash "Login session has Expired"

[NBee]

Game crash and close down and i get the following message se picture.

I have seen it happen once before, just after a DCS update.

 

null

dcs.log debrief.log dcs.log.old

[silverdevil]

1 hour ago, NBee said:

Game crash and close down and i get the following message se picture.

I have seen it happen once before, just after a DCS update.

hello. i see in the log you are indeed disconnecting.

2025-05-31 15:25:49.931 INFO    ASYNCNET (16048): Login success.
2025-05-31 15:25:51.757 INFO    ASYNCNET (16048): Got auth data.
2025-05-31 15:25:51.874 INFO    ASYNCNET (Main): ProtocolVersion: 403
2025-05-31 15:25:51.874 INFO    ASYNCNET (Main): Adding LAN search interface 0: 127.0.0.1 "IPv4 Loopback"
2025-05-31 15:25:51.874 INFO    ASYNCNET (Main): Adding LAN search interface 0: 255.255.255.255 "IPv4 Broadcast"
2025-05-31 15:37:51.800 ERROR   ASYNCNET (16048): The session has expired (401). Exiting...
2025-05-31 15:37:53.346 ERROR   ASYNCNET (16048): The session has expired (401). Exiting...

there are other posts about this issue. on fixes i have seen are resetting home router and not have another computer using the creds for another session.

 

PS check time on the computer too.

Edited May 31 by silverdevil

[mcgen]

Just happened to me for the first time ever, after many years of using DCS. I made some hw changes yesterday, but had no problems playing, until a few minute ago:

2025-05-31 17:28:44.656 ERROR   ASYNCNET (7648): The session has expired (401). Exiting...

it seems I can go back on and continue playing normaly.

 

[NBee]

@silverdevil thanks for reading my log, and sorry for getting back to you so late, but work is interfering with my free time at the moment.
Is it normal for DCS to crash hard when the network connection disappears for a split second? I had an expectation that DCS could handle being offline for a short time in SP?

[Jayhawk1971]

Hi, I had the same problem during my last time playing:

2025-06-03 00:20:02.167 ERROR   ASYNCNET (7512): The session has expired (401). Exiting...

I ran the logfile through the Discord test-thingy, and it came up with a warning that my GPU driver was causing a problem, I have updated since but have not gotten around to play DCS yet.

Still, since others are having the same issue -at exactly the same time - all of a sudden (first time for me ever, and I've been playing DCS for years), and having completely different drivers than most (NVIDIA Quadro), I doubt that issue is driver related. Something must have changed recently that would cause this issue, I presume.

Edit: could this be system time related? CMOS battery could be out of juice maybe?

 

dcs.log

Edited June 5 by Jayhawk1971

[BIGNEWY]

Hi, 

401 session expired could be many things, frequent IP changes during a session, account logged into on another device, security / firewall blocking DCS and its connection to the master server. 

36 minutes ago, Jayhawk1971 said:

Edit: could this be system time related? CMOS battery could be out of juice maybe?

I dont think so, usually time and date issues give error 500 

[Jayhawk1971]

vor 33 Minuten schrieb BIGNEWY:

Hi, 

401 session expired could be many things, frequent IP changes during a session, account logged into on another device, security / firewall blocking DCS and its connection to the master server. 

 

I'm on my usual setup/ device, and I have created an exception for the DCS folder in my firewall.

I sometimes do experience a "connection hickup" on my DSL, though, for example websites not loading or YouTube videos getting "stuck" for a couple of seconds. Could that be a reason for a 401 error?

Edited June 5 by Jayhawk1971

[BIGNEWY]

2 minutes ago, Jayhawk1971 said:

I'm on my usual setup/ device, and I have created an exception for the DCS folder in my firewall.

I sometimes do experience a "connection hickup" on my DSL, though, for example websites not loading or YouTube videos getting "stuck" for a couple of seconds. Could that be a reason for a 401 error?

Its possible, but I would suggest contacting our support also if you continue to have issues 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/support/

[HR-Crumble]

I have had this since the last patch - mainly when using the mission editor. 
 

The internet connection is still up and everything else works fine - DCS has just started crashing due to the same login session has expired as mentioned above. 
 

[oz555]

Same here. Three times in past few weeks.  

dcs.log

[silverdevil]

20 hours ago, NBee said:

Is it normal for DCS to crash hard when the network connection disappears for a split second? I had an expectation that DCS could handle being offline for a short time in SP?

i suppose DCS could have problems with internet connection issues. i do not know for sure. you could try a test. just before playing, open a command prompt and do a continuous PING to something like 8.8.8.8. "ping 8.8.8.8 -t". then run the sim. if DCS boots you again, there will be evidence of packet loss. this will give you some evidence.

null

[NBee]

Hi All

I just tested if it is related to the internet connection.

I ran a saved track . and even though I turned the internet connection off and on several times to my PC, DCS continued to run without problems. So DCS can run SP without an internet connection, no problem here.

Regarding security/firewall, DCS is included in the exception rule in my win 11 firewall and scanning, and I only have one PC that is connected to the DCS user account. But as I said earlier, it has only been a problem at the first DCS startup after an update, after that it seems that the problem goes away by itself again.

A wild guess without any knowledge of DCS infrastructure: Maybe it's related to Load balance ”time out” requests against the DCS server when there are many people downloading the update and the infrastructure at the same time/  simultaneously is handling ” DCA startups/logon requests” from multiple users.

 

[Darcaem]

It just happened to me twice, yesterday and this morning (I haven't played since last weekend), never happened before. Just in case it can be useful I'm attaching the log from the last crash. DCS exception from antivirus is added and there is no other active session (I've check the devices tab on my DCS's webpage profile, since I did log in my account from my laptop some weeks ago)

2025-06-07 07:05:06.420 ERROR   ASYNCNET (7896): The session has expired (401). Exiting...

 

First time I was using the mission editor and happened almost inmediatelly after open it. The second one was a VR session around 10min after start.

 

EDIT: it did happened after last update, not that I think it is related though. And today's crash was in SP

dcs.log

Edited June 7 by Darcaem

[oz555]

31 minutes ago, Darcaem said:

First time I was using the mission editor and happened almost inmediatelly after open it. The second one was a VR session around 10min after start.

Similar for me. Launched VR session from ME then crashed soon after F18 startup.

[Jayhawk1971]

Now that you guys mention it, when it happened to me, I also had launched a VR session from the ME. Mission crashed after startup as well, but in the F-14, on the carrier.

[silverdevil]

as stated by bignewy, put in a trouble ticket with support. more people that put in tickets, there will be a better chance of a fix. they need empirical data to fix things. also i suggest restarting network devices. and it could be ISP issue. there are a lot of crappy ISPs out there.

Edited June 7 by silverdevil