This step-by-step article demonstrates how to disable
session state in ASP.NET.
When session state is enabled, ASP.NET
creates a session for every user who accesses the application, which is used to
identify the user across pages within the application. When session state is
disabled, user data is not tracked, and you cannot store information in the
Session object or use the
Session_OnStart or
Session_OnEnd events. By disabling session state, you can increase performance
if the application or the page does not require session state to enable
it.
In ASP.NET, if you do not use the
Session object to store any data or if any of the Session events (
Session_OnStart or
Session_OnEnd) is handled, session state is disabled. A new
Session.SessionID is created every time a single page is refreshed in one browser
session.
Disable Session State at the Application Level
The following steps demonstrate how to disable session state at
the Application level, which affects all pages in the application:
- Start Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, and create a new
ASP.NET Web Application.
- In Solution Explorer, double-click Web.config to view the contents of this file.
- Locate the <sessionState> section, and set the mode value to Off.
- Save the file and/or the project to disable session state
throughout all pages in the application.
Disable Session State at the Page Level
The following steps demonstrate how to disable session state at
the Page level, which affects only the specific pages that enable these
changes:
- Start Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, and create a new
ASP.NET Web Application.
- In Solution Explorer, double-click the Web Form for which
you want to disable session state.
- Click the HTML tab.
- At the top of the page, add EnableSessionState="false" in the @ Page directive. The modified attribute should appear similar to the
following:
<%@ Page language="c#" Codebehind="WebForm1.aspx.cs"
AutoEventWireup="false" Inherits="WebApplication1.WebForm1"
EnableSessionState="false" %>
- Save the file and/or project to disable session state
throughout all pages in the application.
Troubleshooting
If you try to set or retrieve information when session state is
disabled, you receive the following error message:
Session state can only be used when enableSessionState is set to true, either
in a configuration file or in the Page directive
For more information about session state, refer to the
following topics in the .NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK)
documentation: