Cart / Sessions

Session lifetime, cart persistence, and cleanup.

Session settings

Session Expire

Cart session lifetime in seconds. PHP’s default is about 1440 (24 minutes). Blank uses server default.

Clear Session On Logout

Yes: clears the cart session record when a member logs out (not the same as clearing cart line items).

Session Use Fingerprint

Yes: ties sessions to browser/request fingerprinting (more secure). No: plain PHP sessions — use if customers lose carts (common with IE or changing IPs).

Session Fingerprint Method

Only applies when fingerprinting is on. Stricter methods (IP-based) reduce session hijacking but break more often for mobile/VPN users. Changing this wipes existing cart sessions — do not change in production.

Garbage Collection Cron

Yes: expired sessions are removed by CartThrob’s garbage-collection action (set up a cron hitting that URL). Required on busy sites to keep session tables small.

Cart settings

Clear Cart On Logout

Yes: empties cart contents when the member logs out.

Allow Empty Cart Checkout?

No (default): checkout_form rejects submission when the cart has no items.