Make my wordpress blog remember my login “forever”

Question

Is there a way to make Wordpress' "Remember Me" login checkbox work for a really long time, like a year? Currently I think it only works for a few days or a week max, usually I am not remembered.

Answer 1

I think I'll wait for such a plugin

Save this code in a file named set-cookie-expire.php and upload it your plugins folder.

The plugin will give you the ability to set a time (in days) that cookies expire within the WordPress Settings admin.

<?php

/**
 * Plugin Name: Set Cookie Expire
 * Version: 0.1
 * Description: Set the expire time for cookies in <a href="options-privacy.php">Settings &raquo; Privacy</a>.
 * Author: WordPress Answers
 * Author URI: http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/11979
 */

if ( is_admin() ) :

/**
 * Register settings.
 */
function __set_cookie_expire_admin()
{
    foreach ( array( 'normal' => 'Normal', 'remember' => 'Remember' ) as $type => $label ) {
        register_setting( 'privacy', "{$type}_cookie_expire", 'absint' );
        add_settings_field( "{$type}_cookie_expire", $label . ' cookie expire', '__set_cookie_expire_option', 'privacy', 'default', $type );
    }
}
add_action( 'admin_init', '__set_cookie_expire_admin' );

/**
 * Setting field callback.
 */
function __set_cookie_expire_option( $type )
{
    if ( !$expires = get_option("{$type}_cookie_expire") )
        $expires = $type === 'normal' ? 2 : 14;
    echo '<input type="text" name="' . $type . '_cookie_expire" value="' . intval( $expires ) . '" class="small-text" /> days';
}

endif;

/**
 * Filter in our user-specified expire times.
 */
function __set_cookie_expire_filter( $default, $user_ID, $remember )
{
    if ( !$expires = get_option( $remember ? 'remember_cookie_expire' : 'normal_cookie_expire' ) )
        $expires = 0;

    if ( $expires = ( intval( $expires ) * 86400 ) ) // get seconds
        $default = $expires;
    return $default;
}
add_filter( 'auth_cookie_expiration', '__set_cookie_expire_filter', 10, 3 );

?>

Also submitted on Pastie.

Answer 2

Wordpress versions great than 2.4 store two cookies that set to expire in two weeks according to the Codex. According to this blog post (linked in the Codex), you can edit the wp_set_auth_cookie function in the pluggable.php file in the wp-includes folder of Wordpress. The exact line will depend on which version of Wordpress you are using.

What is probably better is to write or use a plug-in to replace the wp_set_auth_cookie function instead. If you edit the Wordpress core files, they will be replaced if you use the auto-updater or do a manual installation of Wordpress and copy the files without preserving whatever changes you made.