Windows LiveID "Couldn't sign you out" error at sign-out

Question

I'm implementing LiveID authentication on my website. I've done it before, but not on this particular platform, MojoPortal.

The sign-in works properly, but when I attempt to sign-out, I get the error message quoted below. My browser is not blocking cookies.

I get the same message when logging in to and out of, say, MSDN with a LiveID too now. I can't figure out if there's something about my site's programming that is interfering with the sign-out process of LiveID (since I believe that all (recent?) websites get sent a sign-out command) OR if live.com is just having issues lately and this is a coincidence.

Couldn't sign you out

We couldn't sign you out because your browser is blocking cookies. To sign out, close all of your browser windows.

To keep this from happening again, change your browser's settings to allow cookies. If you don't know how to do that, see your browser's help.

Answer 1

Purge the browser's cookie cache. I seem to recall this error can come up if a corrupted cookie gets written to the local cache.

Answer 2

AFAICT if you block third party cookies — a not uncommon practice — then the Windows Live sign out routine presents a false alarm about signing out. In this situation the advice —

close all of your browser windows

— may be ignored. If you simply proceed to a page that requires a Windows Live ID, the prompt to sign in will appear.

Screen shots at http://www.wuala.com/grahamperrin/public/2010/09/27/a are from Chromium 6.0.443.0 (50323) after clearing all browsing data. I also tested Safari 5.0.2 in Mac OS X 10.6.x and again, found that the false alarm occurs only when third party cookies are blocked.

No mention of third party cookies at any of the following — 

• Haven't been able to sign out
• When I try to close my hotmail, this is what I get: Couldn't sign you out We couldn't sign you out because your browser is blocking cookies. To sign out, close all of your browser windows. …
• logout problem - says Couldn't sign you out We couldn't sign you out because your browser is blocking cookies. To sign out, close all of your browser windows. To keep this from happening again, change your browser's settings to allow cookies. If you don't know how to do that, see your browser's help. BUT COOKIES ARE ENABLED OR ELSE I COULDN'T HAVE SIGNED IN! (who can blame them for shouting? ;-)
• When signing out of Hotmail I am not being signed out of Windows Live Storage. Refer to displayed messages in the "Add details" section

— so I could be wrong …

Answer 3

This looks like a configuration problem with the rpsserver.xml in your machine