Laravel 5.3 auth check in constructor returning false

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you can't access the session or authenticated user in your controller's constructor because the middleware has not run yet.

As an alternative, you may define a Closure based middleware directly in your controller's constructor. Before using this feature, make sure that your application is running Laravel 5.3.4 or above:

class ProjectController extends Controller{    /**     * All of the current user's projects.     */    protected $projects;    /**     * Create a new controller instance.     *     * @return void     */    public function __construct()    {        $this->middleware(function ($request, $next) {            $this->projects = Auth::user()->projects;            return $next($request);        });    }}

Since 5.3 Auth::check will not work in a controller's construtor, it's one of undocumented changes. So, you need to move it to middleware or do check in controller methods instead or move project to 5.2.x.

It fails because you call $this->middleware('auth'); after parent::__construct();. It means that you auth middleware is not loaded properly.