Google investigates Chrome’s Sign out/Sync Issues on Windows 10 2004

After updating to Windows 10 May 2020 Update, some users noticed they’ve been signed out Chrome and sync has been paused whenever they restart Windows. Google is aware of this issue since Windows 10 2004 is in the insider stage and is currently investigating the root cause to fix the problem.

There are reports on Reddit and Chrome Help forum [1] [2] [3] from users saying they’ve been signed out all websites and Chrome no longer using the stored cookies, because of that, they need to sign in to websites whenever they start Chrome.

All the users complaining in the thread have one thing in common: they’re running recently released Windows 10 May 2020 Update.

On Reddit one user posted today, he is getting signed out of Chrome whenever he restarts Windows 10. He says, he is noticing this behavior since the latest Windows Update on Tuesday.

Another thread on Chrome help forum discusses the subject “Sync pauses Cookies seemingly aren’t saved after every time browser closes?.

ICYDK, these issues are under Google/Chromium team radar since this April when May 2020 update is still not released to the public.

One user running Windows 10 20H1 insider build 19041.172 created a bug named “Tokenservice fails to load, causing cookies and sync to reset”, saying, occasionally Chrome signs out all the sites once a day and says sync is paused.

The reported user himself figures out the Data Protection API (DPAPI) errors in Event viewer are not created when he did the following things

• created a new user account on Windows
• installed a non-insider build of windows 10.

At one stage, the issue has been marked as WontFix, but Google Security researcher Tavis Ormandy joined and said he too has the same bug since installing 2004.

Tavis has said he can’t do anything after trying everything. We expect Microsoft and Google to fix this issue together. Microsoft help is more needed in this bug than Chromium’s.

Meanwhile, if you’re affected, try the following workaround suggested by Tavis.

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?

I think locking flushes the dpapisrv master key cache, so if that workaround works that narrows down the problem.