The tab you loaded most recently is the one to believe. UNI works out whether you are signed in once, when a page loads, and holds that answer for as long as the tab stays open. Nothing pushes a change from one tab to another, so a tab that was open before your sign-in ended goes on presenting you as signed in.
Reload the tab that looks wrong. That settles it.
Each tab decides for itself, once
A page load asks the server who you are and remembers the reply. From then on the header, the menus and the buttons all read that remembered reply rather than checking again. Sign out in one tab, sign in as someone else, or let a sign-in end on its own, and the other open tabs learn nothing about it.
The reverse happens too. Sign in on one tab and a tab you opened before that keeps showing the signed-out view, with sign-in prompts on things you are now allowed to do.
The signed-in look outlives the sign-in
So that pages appear without a wait, your browser keeps a small copy of your name and avatar and draws it first, then confirms with the server. A tab can therefore look signed in for a moment when the sign-in behind it is already gone. Anything that changes data still fails, because the server decides, not the browser.
Two things end a sign-in while tabs are open
- It runs out. A sign-in made without Remember me ends when you close the browser. With it, the sign-in lasts a day and every page you open extends it by another day.
- You change your password. Every other browser and device is signed out at once, and their open tabs go on looking signed in until they are reloaded. The browser you made the change in keeps working. See Changing your password signs you out everywhere else.
What to do
- Reload the tab that disagrees, and read that one.
- Redo anything that failed while the tab was out of date.
- If two tabs still disagree after both are reloaded, sign out, sign in once, then reload the rest.