Error "You were redirected too many times" during Authentication

Overview

After authenticating, the user sees multiple redirects until the browser shows the message:

You were redirected too many times.

Applies To

  • Authentication

Cause

This can be caused when an application triggers an automatic redirect to the /authorize endpoint on the tenant when no authentication is required.

For example, if the callback endpoint on the application is a protected page, a race condition can occur where the successful login response arrives at the callback endpoint, and the application automatically redirects the user to authenticate as they don’t currently have an application session, instead of processing the login response and creating a local session.

Solution

The callback endpoint on an application should not require authentication, as it will often receive requests from users who are not authenticated as part of the login flow. This is particularly true in SPA frameworks, where loading the page triggers lifecycles and can lead to race conditions.