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How to fix Chrome sync pausing and asking to sign in

Chrome’s sync feature can sync bookmarks, your browsing history, passwords, and it even lets you access the tabs you have open across other devices. It’s exceptionally useful and once you have it set up, you tend to get used to it always working and ensuring a seamless transition between different systems.

However, there’s an odd problem that some Chrome users are facing with the sync feature pausing intermittently.

Here’s how to fix Chrome sync pausing and repeatedly asking you to sign in.

Fix Chrome sync pausing

This appears to be an odd feature that’s enabled by default. You can turn it off from the Chrome Flags page. Open Chrome and enter the following in the URL bar. Tap enter.

chrome://flags
  1. On the Chrome Flags page, use the search bar and look for ‘account consistency’.
  2. This will bring up a flag called ‘Identity consistency between browser and cookie jar’.
  3. Open the dropdown next to it and select ‘Disabled’.
  4. Relaunch Chrome to apply this change and sync should no longer pause at random.

While this should work, there is one other fix that other Chrome users have been able to use to fix this problem.

The above solution is what works for most but in case it doesn’t do the trick for you, what you can do is, whitelist the following domain under Chrome’s cookies.

accounts.google.com

To do that, open a new tab and enter the following in the URL bar;

chrome://settings/content/cookies

On the Cookies window, click the Add button next to the Allow section and enter the domain mentioned earlier. Once it’s been added, Chrome will no longer pause syncing.

Multiple work stations

If you’re using Chrome sync on multiple work stations, you need to make the above two changes to all of them. This problem can appear on any one of the work stations that you’re using Chrome and Chrome sync on so it’s best to apply it on all systems that use the same Google account to sync.

This ‘bug’ surfaced towards the end of last year and it seems that sync is paused every two weeks on average. You might be signed out more often, or less often but two weeks is what most users note as an active sync period.

When syncing pauses, you’re unable to access open tabs, newly added bookmarks, and the browsing history on the Chrome browser you added them on. Fortunately, once sync is turned back on, everything syncs the way it normally should have.

Parting words

Here’s a video tutorial for those of you still needing help to fix Chrome sync pausing and asking for a new sign in.

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Fatima Wahab

Fatima has been writing for AddictiveTips for six years. She began as a junior writer and has been working as the Editor in Chief since 2014. Fatima gets an adrenaline rush from figuring out how technology works, and how to manipulate it. A well-designed app, something that solves a common everyday problem and looks

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51 Comments

  1. I cannot open my pictures on my download files on desk computer, the sync is paused please help me I am disabled senior and don’t have too much knowledge about computer, just using for basic

  3. Thanks a TON for the post…. this worked. I used both tricks together.

    Was bothered by this since more than one year. Every time I used to logoff the PC or PC went to sleep I had to sign in in chrome browser profile again. In fact was so pissed that I stopped using the google id.
    Thanks again. 🙂

  4. Just Disable “Clear cookies and site data when you quit Chrome” in chrome://settings/content/cookies

  8. thank you so much, i was suffered for weeks, the second tips works for me.. once again, thank you soo much !

  10. Hello,
    I am using the 87.0.4280.88 version of Google Chrome, and everytime I log off I’m loosing
    synchronization (sync paused). The solution above IS NOT WORKING with this version.
    Please help !!

    Thank you, Tuvia

    • Try signing in to Chrome, click settings>privacy and security>cookies and other site data then disable clear cookies and site data when you quit Chrome. I was having the same issue and the toggle had been enabled.

    • Easy Fix. Open Chrome
      Upper Right (three dots) Click on
      Scroll to Settings
      Go down to Advanced then Cookies
      Turn off Delete All Cookies when Closing Chrome
      ALL DONE!

    • I got it to work by changing a setting in Windows 10.
      Start > Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options
      under “Restart Apps” mine was disabled. Once I turned it on – no more Sync Paused by chrome when I log out of the station or even close the browser window.

  12. Thank you! I found
    “Multilogin endpoint.
    Use Gaia OAuth multilogin for identity consistency. – Mac, Windows, Linux
    #use-multilogin-endpoint”
    and “Enabled” it. 2020.12.11
    PS: I have been suffering with this problem for month; just now got around to fixing it.

  14. None of the recommendations above works
    1/ no such section (identity consistency…) on my chrome’s FLAG page
    2/ inserting “accounts.google.com” does not prevent google from signing me out

  16. There is here no such flag in my Chrome (‘Identity consistency between browser and cookie jar’)

    The expression “Identity consistency” appears only as follows below:

    “Use Multilogin endpoint.
    Use Gaia OAuth multilogin for identity consistency. – Mac, Windows, Linux
    #use-multilogin-endpoint”

  17. The “Identity consistency between browser and cookie jar” flag no longer exists, and whitelisting “accounts.google.com” doesn’t work, either.

    I guess Google didn’t like your fixes, so they nixed them both.

  18. still the problem is not solved ,tried both the trick first one is not available when i searched “account consistency” under search flag and the second one never works for me tried several times

  19. I do not have this have this flag. any other suggestions would be optimally acceptable. any solutions will be good…

    -schaun bishop

  21. The first option I couldn’t find the flag called ‘Identity consistency between browser and cookie jar’ and the second one didn’t work for me for some reason…..

  22. I’ve had this issue for about a month. Tried everything that I could find online to fix, including the suggestions on this webpage. Yesterday I saw a suggestion that said log into your google account on another computer. So I fired up my Dell 2-in-1 that I haven’t turned on since May and logged on to Google Chrome account. Since then I have had no issues with sync being paused or anything. Simple fix.

  23. Neither option worked. Any other suggestions? (This problem has gone beyond frustrating. I’ve even taken my computer in for service with no resolution.)

  24. I do not know what the google flags page is.

    Does not pause on my android phone.

    Is this google or windows issue? Just happens on pc whenever I shut it down
    Very annoying

  29. The fix for me was to to go into my google account and sign out ALL my devices. I signed back into Google on my computer and it stayed and it stayed signed in. Later my phone asked to sign into the play store. I don’t ever remember signing in or out before. My guess is it was the play store on my phone staying logged in day and night.

  30. I tried to stop the following option in cookies page and the problem solved
    “Clear cookies and site data when you quit chrome”

  33. Niether fix worked for me. Starting happening after I uninstalled Avast and tried to load Norton on my laptop. Also had to remove Mcaffe in order to install Norton.

    Any ideas?

  34. Hi!

    The first one didn’t appear and the second one did nothing, it continues to not syncing at all.

    Do you have anymore tricks please?

    Thanks

  35. The first one isn’t available on my chrome (I’m on OSX and up to date) and the second one doesn’t make any difference.
    Why oh why does Google do this to us?

  36. As of today May 10, 2020 (Chrome Version 81.0.4044.138 (Official Build) (64-bit) – Option number one is no longer available. I’ve tried option number two and it does not work!

  38. Thank you very much for your help. This problem just started a few weeks ago after I changed my Google password. it seemed that every time I turned around I was having to re-enter my password and it was driving me crazy. (On the upside, I did learn my password really well!).
    The first method you gave didn’t work for me. When I typed “account consistency” into the search box nothing matched. Nor could I find the heading it was supposed to be under. But the second method seems to have worked perfectly and I am very grateful. That’s one problem solved!

  39. ive tried every solution, this one still didnt work . this has been happening for about 2 months now and its really starting to drive me nuts .

  40. you’re offering a fix for a pretty old version… I’m having this problem in version 80.0.3987.149

  41. I wish this worked, but I didn’t have the setting for the first suggestion, and the second suggestion didn’t work. This is not helpful.

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