If you log in on your phone, read something, come back later and get asked to log in again, the problem usually isn't your account. It's where the page opened.

Tap a link inside Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, TikTok or your email app, and the page rarely opens in Safari or Chrome. It opens in a small browser built into that app. It looks close enough that most people never notice.

When you log in anywhere on the web, the site leaves a small file on your device called a cookie. Think of it as a stamp on your hand at a venue: next time you walk up to the door, the doorman sees the stamp and waves you through. That's how a site remembers you between visits.

The browsers built into apps keep their stamps somewhere completely separate from your normal browser, and many of them wipe that storage when you close the app or move on to something else. So two things happen.

Your existing login doesn't count. You may well be logged in in Safari or Chrome. The mini browser can't see any of that, so it shows you the login screen.

The login you just did is temporary. You log in inside the mini browser, read the article, and everything works. Then the app clears house, and the next link drops you straight back on the login screen.

Logging in with a code from your email doesn't get you around this. The code works, but it only logs you into the mini browser you happen to be standing in. Close the app or tap a link somewhere else, and that login goes with it.

The app makers decide how their built-in browsers behave. A website can't override it from its end, so the fix has to happen on your device.

Open the page in your real browser once, log in there, and get into the habit of opening links there.

In almost every app, the mini browser has a menu icon: three dots, or a share icon. Tap it and look for Open in browser, Open in Safari, Open in Chrome or Open in system browser. The wording changes between apps and between updates, but there's nearly always something along those lines.

If you can't find it, tap the share icon and choose Copy link, then open Safari or Chrome yourself and paste it into the address bar. Not elegant, but it works in every app including the stubborn ones. (Don't count on being able to select the address at the top of the screen. Several apps hide it or make it untappable.)

Once you're logged in in your normal browser, that login lasts. Bookmark the site or add it to your home screen and you can skip the app link entirely next time. On iPhone, a site added to the home screen keeps its own separate storage, so you'll be asked for a code once more the first time you open it from there. After that it stays.

Facebook on Android is the one app that lets you fix this permanently. Open the menu, go to Settings & privacy, then Settings, then tap the search icon at the top and search for "browser". The setting you want is about opening links externally. Facebook has moved it around between versions and has a habit of quietly switching it back off after updates, so it's worth checking now and then. On iPhone there's no equivalent, so you'll need the three-dot menu each time.

X has a setting on both platforms. Go to Settings and privacy, then Accessibility, display and languages, then Display and sound, and turn off "Use in-app browser". This one has appeared and disappeared between versions, so don't be surprised if it isn't there.

LinkedIn has had a toggle along the lines of "Open web links in app" in its account settings, though it isn't in every version. Have a look before falling back on the three-dot menu.

Instagram has no setting we've been able to find on either platform. The three-dot menu at the top of the in-app browser is the route.

TikTok sometimes offers an "Open in browser" option in the menu and sometimes doesn't, depending on the version. If it isn't there, copy and paste is the answer.

Gmail on Android hides it under the menu, then Settings, then General settings, where you can untick "Open web links in Gmail". On iPhone, open Gmail's own settings rather than the phone's, go to Default apps, and pick your browser there.

Outlook has an "Open links with" setting in its own settings, where you can choose your normal browser. If your email is a work or school account, your IT department may have locked this and the option won't appear at all.

Changing your phone's default browser doesn't stop apps from using their own built-in one. It only changes where links go when an app hands them over in the first place. The same goes for the "Open supported links" setting on Android, which decides whether an instagram.com link opens in the Instagram app. Neither touches the mini browser.

Turning off privacy features, like Safari's cross-site tracking protection, gets suggested for this fairly often. Don't. The mini browser is a separate mechanism entirely, so you'd be giving up a protection and still getting logged out.

If you've opened the page in Safari or Chrome, logged in there, and you're still asked to log in on every visit, something else is going on. Get in touch and tell us which phone you have, which browser you used, and which app you tapped the link in. That last one is usually what cracks it.