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How to remove an automatic redirection to an authentification service?

  • 8 cavab
  • 3 have this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Hi everybody,

I have a problem: when I go on a scientific article (for example: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0191886984900709 ), I then get automatically redirected on an authentication page from my former university: ( https://auth.univ-lorraine.fr/login?service=https%3A%2F%2Fauth-bases-doc.univ-lorraine.fr%2Findex.php%3Furl%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.sciencedirect.com%252fscience%252farticle%252fpii%252f0191886984900709%26logup%3Dfalse )

How can I remove this automatic redirection?

Thank you !

Hi everybody, I have a problem: when I go on a scientific article (for example: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0191886984900709 ), I then get automatically redirected on an authentication page from my former university: ( https://auth.univ-lorraine.fr/login?service=https%3A%2F%2Fauth-bases-doc.univ-lorraine.fr%2Findex.php%3Furl%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.sciencedirect.com%252fscience%252farticle%252fpii%252f0191886984900709%26logup%3Dfalse ) How can I remove this automatic redirection? Thank you !

All Replies (8)

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If you right-click the link and choose Open Link in New Private Window, does it bypass the problem?

The site may remember your old affiliation from a previous visit. This might be stored in a cookie or in your account on the site. It's easy to clear cookies for a site, but for account settings, you need to get to the relevant page without getting redirected...


When you have a problem with one particular site, a good "first thing to try" is clearing your Firefox cache and deleting your saved cookies for the site.

(1) Clear Firefox's Cache

See: How to clear the Firefox cache

If you have a large hard drive, this might take a few minutes. If you do not see the number going down on the page, you can reload it using Ctrl+r to check progress.

(2) Remove the site's cookies (save any pending work first). While viewing a page on the site, try either:

  • right-click (on Mac Ctrl+click) a blank area of the page and choose View Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"
  • (menu bar) Tools > Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"
  • click the padlock or "i" icon in the address bar, then the ">" button, then More Information, and finally the "View Cookies" button

In the dialog that opens, the current site should be pre-filled in the search box at the top of the dialog so you can remove that site's cookies individually.

Then try reloading the page. Does that help?

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Thank you jscher2000 for your quick answer. But unfortunately, it does not resolve my problem.

I'm still redirected when I open a new Private Window.

I cleared the Firefox cache and the website cookies, but I am still redirected...

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If you go to the home page in a private window, are you already logged in?? https://www.sciencedirect.com/

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Yes, I'm still redirected... :'(

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Assuming this is due to some kind of data in Firefox for sciencedirect.com, one option would be to erase everything Firefox has stored for that site. This includes the cached pages and cookies you already deleted, plus history entries, bookmarks, and other forms of storage. If you can accept that, here's how you do it:

Open the Library dialog using either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+H
  • menu > History > Show All History

At the upper right, there should be a searchbox where you can type or paste sciencedirect.com to filter the list.

Right-click any history entry for the site and choose Forget About This Site. It may take a minute as Firefox churns through some large files. After that, you should be able to visit Science Direct without it having any knowledge of you. Does that work?

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Unfortunately, it does not work!

I suppose my last option is to remove Firefox and to install it again...

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I suggest this as the next step:

New Profile Test

This takes about 3 minutes, plus the time to test ScienceDirect.

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Click the Create a New Profile button, then click Next. Assign a name like Jan2017, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but I think those are still "under construction" so please ignore them.)

Firefox should exit and then start up using the new profile, which will just look brand new.

Can you avoid the redirect and check your account settings?

When you are done with the experiment, open the about:profiles page again, click the Set as default profile button for your normal profile, then click the Restart normally button to get back to it.

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You can also check the connection settings.

If you do not need to use a proxy to connect to internet then try to select "No Proxy" if "Use the system proxy settings" or one of the others do not work properly.

See "Firefox connection settings":