# Idle, disconnected user sessions

**URL:** <https://community.thinlinc.com/t/idle-disconnected-user-sessions/2033>\
**Category:** Community Support\
**Tags:** linux, thinlinc\
**Created:** [12 July 2026 22:46 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/idle-disconnected-user-sessions/2033 "2026-07-12T22:46:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Harj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3be4f8/32.png) [@Harj](https://community.thinlinc.com/u/Harj)\
**Post date:** [12 July 2026 22:46 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/idle-disconnected-user-sessions/2033/1 "2026-07-12T22:46:48Z")

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I have a question regarding user session idle, disconnect, and logoff timers in ThinLinc.

I’ve configured the session timeout settings according to the documentation, but during testing it appears that ThinLinc is ignoring the configured values.

For example, as a test I set:

IdleTimeout = 300  
MaxIdleTime = 1200  
MaxDisconnectionTime = 2400

However, the observed behaviour was:

- **Screen saver/screen lock:** Never activated
- **Session disconnected:** ~7 minutes.
- **Admin Console showed session as disconnected:** ~7 minutes.
- **Session logged off:** ~22 minutes.

Based on the configured values, I expected the following behaviour:

- Screen lock/screensaver to activate after **5 minutes** (300 seconds).
- Idle session to be disconnected after **20 minutes** (1,200 seconds)
- Disconnected session to be logged off after **40 minutes** (2,400 seconds).

Any pointers on getting the idle, disconnect, and logoff timers to honour the configured values would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Harj

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**Author:** ![aaron](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.thinlinc.com/aaron/32/13_2.png) [@aaron](https://community.thinlinc.com/u/aaron)\
**Post date:** [13 July 2026 02:58 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/idle-disconnected-user-sessions/2033/2 "2026-07-13T02:58:22Z")

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The results of your test appear to (roughly) match your configuration. ThinLinc has no control over the screensaver; this is configured/controlled entirely by the desktop environment running inside your session. The parameters you are using in your configuration above are described in the documentation here:

> **[Limiting lifetime of ThinLinc sessions — ThinLinc Administrator's Guide](https://www.cendio.com/resources/docs/tag/config_lifetime.html)**
>
> Learn how to control and limit the lifetime of ThinLinc sessions using Xserver options such as MaxDisconnectionTime, MaxConnectionTime, and MaxIdleTime to manage session duration and idle behavior.

Your configuration should give the following behaviour for an idle session:

- after 300 seconds, the client is disconnected (but session left running)
- after 1200 seconds, the session is killed
- `MaxDisconnectionTime` has no effect, since by this point the session has already been killed

Hope that clarifies things.

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**Author:** ![Harj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3be4f8/32.png) [@Harj](https://community.thinlinc.com/u/Harj)\
**Post date:** [14 July 2026 06:21 UTC](https://community.thinlinc.com/t/idle-disconnected-user-sessions/2033/3 "2026-07-14T06:21:10Z")

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Hi Aaron

Thanks for the reply and for clearing this up.

I had assumed the behaviour would work similarly to Windows RDS/Citrix session policies, where the workflow is typically:

- Idle session → session remains logged in but marked idle
- Disconnected session → session remains running but disconnected
- Disconnected timeout → session is logged off/terminated

Based on the parameter names, I had assumed the ThinLinc settings as:

- `IdleTimeout` → change the session state to idle
- `MaxIdleTime` → disconnect the session but leave it running
- `MaxDisconnectionTime` → terminate the disconnected session

The actual behaviour makes more sense now.

I will investigate the XFCE screensaver configuration as with the default configuration - its a bit random as to when it activates.

regards

Harj