Express-session mongodb session not persisting - node.js

Question

I am new to sessions and this is my first serious coding project. I've tried a million things and I can't figure out why the session isn't persisting through different routes. When I log req.session.id from two routes, it gives me two different ids when it should be the same one.
const express = require('express');
const cors = require('cors');
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const session = require('express-session');
const bcrypt = require('bcrypt');
let User = require('./models/user.model');
const MongoStore = require('connect-mongo')(session);
require('dotenv').config();
const app = express();
const port = process.env.PORT || 5000;
app.set('trustproxy', true);
app.use(cors(corsOptions));
app.use(cors());
app.use(express.json());
const uri = process.env.ATLAS_URI;
mongoose.connect(uri, { useNewUrlParser: true, useCreateIndex: true, useUnifiedTopology: true });
const connection = mongoose.connection;
connection.once('open', () => {
console.log("MongoDB database connection established successfully")
})
app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Server is running on port: ${port}`);
});
const SESS_NAME = 'session';
const SESS_SECRET = 'youshouldchangethis'
const IN_PROD = false;
app.use(session({
name: SESS_NAME,
resave: false,
store: new MongoStore({ mongooseConnection: mongoose.connection }),
saveUninitialized: true,
secret: SESS_SECRET,
proxy: true,
cookie: {
sameSite: true,
secure: IN_PROD,
}
}));
The login route creates the session (the session is stored inside Mongodb just fine at this point), then react redirects to dashboard, where req.session comes back undefined and I'm unable to access that session. Here's the login and dashboard routes. Any help is greatly appreciated!
app.post('/login', (req, res) => {
console.log("in login post");
User.findOne({ email: req.body.email })
.then(user => {
bcrypt.compare(req.body.password, user.password, function (err, result) {
if(result == true){
req.session.userId = user._id;
console.log(req.session.id);
res.send(user);
} else {
res.send('Authentication Failed');
}
})
})
.catch(err => res.send('Authentication Failed'));
});
// Dashboard Router
app.get('/dashboard', (req, res) => {
if (req.session.userId){
User.findOne({ email: req.session.user.email }) // FIX: not able to find session / user
.then(user => {
console.log("found user")
// req.session.user = user;
res.send(user);
})
.catch(err => {
//req.session.reset();
res.send(err);
})
} else {
console.log(req.session.id);
}
});

Answer 1

I found this in express-session docs, maybe this is what you are looking for :
Session.save(callback)
....
There are some cases where it is useful to call this method, for example, redirects, long-lived requests or in WebSockets.
req.session.save(function(err) {
// session saved
})