How often do you need to reconnect your broker to Autoview?
Short answer: it depends entirely on which broker, not on Autoview. TradeStation's refresh token is valid indefinitely by default. Charles Schwab's expires exactly 7 days after you last connected, whether you traded once or a thousand times in between. Same OAuth2 mechanism on Autoview's side, two very different clocks underneath it.
The real difference: TradeStation vs. Schwab
Both brokers connect to Autoview the same way: you sign in once through OAuth2, Autoview gets an access token plus a longer-lived refresh token, and Autoview uses the refresh token to keep renewing access without asking you to sign in again every time the access token itself expires. Where they diverge is what happens to that refresh token, and the two brokers are different enough that it's worth looking at them separately rather than as one blended comparison.
TradeStation
| Token | Lifetime |
|---|---|
| Access token | 20 minutes, renewed automatically by Autoview |
| Refresh token | Valid indefinitely by default |
TradeStation states plainly in its own API documentation: "By default, Refresh Tokens of TradeStation API Keys will be valid indefinitely." Access tokens last 20 minutes, but Autoview renews those silently in the background. Left alone, a TradeStation connection just keeps working, with no fixed wall forcing a reconnect.
Charles Schwab
| Token | Lifetime |
|---|---|
| Access token | Short-lived, renewed automatically by Autoview |
| Refresh token | Approximately 7 days, per third-party observation, not Schwab's official published number |
Charles Schwab does the opposite by design. Autoview's own connection code sets a 7-day refresh-token expiry for Schwab, a fixed wall that doesn't reset just because you kept trading. Schwab's own developer portal was unreachable when this page was checked (a 403 on a direct fetch), so that number isn't pulled from Schwab's live docs. It comes from Autoview's own code plus an independent, third-party client-library report (schwab-py's docs) landing on the same figure, so treat "approximately 7 days" as a well-corroborated observation, not a number Schwab itself has published.
Practically: connect TradeStation once and it tends to stay connected. Connect Schwab, and plan on signing back in roughly once a week, sooner if you go a full week without touching Autoview at all.
Why this is Autoview's architecture to explain
Autoview holds both brokers' OAuth tokens server-side, not in your browser. That means the reconnect cadence a Schwab trader feels isn't just "how Schwab works" in the abstract -- it's a property of how Autoview's own credential storage is built, and Autoview is the party with visibility into exactly when that wall is coming, not the trader guessing from a support forum.
What Autoview does for you automatically
None of this requires a script or a calendar reminder on your end. Autoview's credential-refresh process runs on a schedule and does three things without you asking:
- Renews access tokens before they expire. Both brokers' access tokens get refreshed automatically, well ahead of their own short lifetimes, so a trading session never drops mid-command over an access token alone.
- Warns you before the Schwab wall lapses. About one day before a Schwab connection's 7-day refresh token expires, Autoview emails you so reconnecting is a two-minute task instead of a surprise the next time an alert tries to fire.
- Flags a broken connection instead of failing silently. If a refresh attempt is rejected because the token has genuinely expired, Autoview marks that connection as needing reconnection and emails you directly, rather than quietly dropping orders.
TradeStation doesn't get the expiry-warning email, because TradeStation has no fixed wall to warn you about in the first place -- there's nothing pending to flag.
One thing worth being direct about: while a connection sits in that "needs reconnection" state, Autoview isn't sending orders to that broker at all. Alerts still arrive, but nothing reaches TradeStation or Schwab until you sign back in. The email is meant to catch this before it matters, but don't assume silent continuity, check for that email (or the account's connection status) rather than assuming an automation that was working last week is still placing orders today.
If you're already seeing "Disconnected"
This page is about the OAuth2 reconnect cadence specifically -- Schwab's 7-day wall and TradeStation's lack of one. If you're on the Chrome extension and seeing a "Disconnected" status, that's a different, extension-specific sync state, not the broker-side token expiry this page covers; the Disconnected guide walks through that case, including exchange IP-allowlist errors. If you haven't set up Schwab or TradeStation yet, start with Getting Started with Charles Schwab or Getting Started with TradeStation.