# Determine if refresh token has expired

**URL:** <https://community.auth0.com/t/determine-if-refresh-token-has-expired/198321>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** apis, application\
**Created:** [March 25, 2026, 3:45am UTC](https://community.auth0.com/t/determine-if-refresh-token-has-expired/198321 "2026-03-25T03:45:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![clairel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/auth0/user_avatar/community.auth0.com/clairel/32/71827_2.png) [@clairel](https://community.auth0.com/u/clairel)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 3:45am UTC](https://community.auth0.com/t/determine-if-refresh-token-has-expired/198321/1 "2026-03-25T03:45:56Z")

</div>

Hi auth0 team!

How can we determine if our stored credential’s refresh token has expired? I have found that `getCredentials` will throw the error `RENEW_FAILED: An error occurred while trying to use the Refresh Token to renew the Credentials` when the refresh token is expired; is that error specific to refresh token expiry?

We want to log and treat refresh token expiry separate to a legitimate error. From what I can tell the credentials `expiresAt` is for the access token, not the refresh token. If it helps this is a react native app using the `react-native-auth0` sdk.

Thanks in advance 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nik.baleca](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/auth0/user_avatar/community.auth0.com/nik.baleca/32/68749_2.png) [@nik.baleca](https://community.auth0.com/u/nik.baleca)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 6:37pm UTC](https://community.auth0.com/t/determine-if-refresh-token-has-expired/198321/3 "2026-03-27T18:37:44Z")

</div>

Hi @clairel

I am sorry about the delayed response to your inquiry!

`RENEW_FAILED` is a generic catch-all error which is thrown by the `react-native-auth0` SDK whenever the background attempt to get a new access token fails. This can happen if:

- The refresh token is expired
- It was manually revoked
- Arotated token was reused
- The user was deleted/blocked

As you have mentioned, the `expiresAt` property returned by `getCredentials` corresponds only to the short-lived Access Token, not the Refresh Token.

In order to separate a legitimate refresh token expiry from a transient error, you need to inspect the underlying payload of the error thrown by `getCredentials`.

When a refresh token is expired or revoked, the Auth0 server specifically returns an `invalid_grant` error, and the message usually containing the phrase `"Unknown or invalid refresh token"`.

An example on handling these specific errors as you have mentioned above would be:

```auto
const fetchValidCredentials = async () => {
  try {
    const credentials = await getCredentials();
    return credentials;
  } catch (error) {
    if (error.code === 'RENEW_FAILED') {
      
      const errorMessage = error.message?.toLowerCase() || '';
      
      if (
        errorMessage.includes('invalid_grant') || 
        errorMessage.includes('unknown or invalid refresh token')
      ) {
        console.warn('Refresh token has explicitly expired or been revoked.');
        
        await clearCredentials();
        return null; 
      }
      
      console.error('Credential renewal failed for another reason:', error);
    }
    
    throw error;
  }

```

Please bare in mind that some of the errors above can also be thrown by your application if there is a misconfiguration or other underlying causes(race conditions when using Refresh Token Rotation, malicious replay attempts. reuse of refresh tokens etc.)

If you have any other questions, let me know!

Kind Regards,  
Nik

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/auth0/original/3X/b/5/b560f266932fcce5d57f09a6595bd50518cae3f3.jpeg) [@system](https://community.auth0.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2026, 6:37pm UTC](https://community.auth0.com/t/determine-if-refresh-token-has-expired/198321/4 "2026-04-10T18:37:50Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.