I’m having a weird issue with Laravel Passport. I can get an access token and refresh token from a backend request to /oauth/token, but it doesn’t work for API authentication. Strangely, tokens from frontend requests (like Postman) work fine.
I’ve been stuck on this for months and tried everything:
- Added Passport config in AppServiceProvider
- Switched User model from Sanctum to Passport
- Updated config files for Passport
- Tested manual token creation in Postman
The Passport docs are pretty confusing for newbies like me. I get the basics of OAuth2, but I’m lost here.
I could create tokens manually in the login process, but that doesn’t give me refresh tokens. We need those for our mobile app to improve user experience.
Any ideas why backend-generated tokens aren’t working? Is this normal for Passport or am I missing something obvious? Thanks for any help!
i had similar issues with passport. have u checked ur token scopes? sometimes backend-generated tokens have different scopes than frontend ones. try dumping the token payload to see whats different. also, double-check ur middleware setup for api routes. good luck troubleshooting!
Have you verified the OAuth client you’re using for backend requests? Sometimes the issue lies in mismatched client_id or client_secret. Check your .env file and ensure these match the values in your oauth_clients table.
Another thing to consider is token signing. Passport uses different keys for signing tokens. Make sure your public and private keys in the storage folder are correctly generated and have proper permissions.
If all else fails, try clearing your config cache and re-running your migrations. I’ve seen cases where stale configurations caused similar issues.
Lastly, enable debug mode and check your logs. Often, Passport will log detailed error messages that can point you in the right direction. Good luck!
I’ve been down this road before, and it can be frustrating. One thing that helped me was ensuring the client credentials in my backend request matched exactly with what’s in the database. Sometimes, even a slight mismatch can cause issues.
Another aspect to consider is the token expiration time. If it’s set too short, you might think the token isn’t working when it’s just expired. I’d suggest temporarily increasing the expiration time for testing.
Also, check your API routes. Make sure they’re all properly protected with the ‘auth:api’ middleware. I once spent hours debugging only to realize I’d missed applying the middleware to one route.
Lastly, have you tried using Laravel Telescope? It’s a fantastic tool for debugging API requests and can give you insights into what’s happening behind the scenes. It might help pinpoint where the authentication is failing.