Cakephp $this->Auth->loggedIn() doesnt always work - cakephp-2.1

Question

I am using cakephps Auth Component to login to my site. When I correctly enter in my username and password, it will log me in. Then when I use loggedIn() to check that I am logged in, it is very inconsistent in returning true.
This is my AppController where I set loggedIn() to a variable to use later:
<?php
App::uses('Controller', 'Controller');
App::uses('File', 'Utility');
App::uses('AuthComponent', 'Component');
class AppController extends Controller {
public $components = array(
'Session',
'Auth'=>array(
'loginRedirect'=> array('controller'=>'users', 'action'=>'index'),
'logoutRedirect'=> array('controller'=>'users', 'action'=>'index'),
'authError' =>"You can't access that page",
'authorize'=> array('Controller')
)
);
//determines what logged in users have access to
public function isAuthorized($user){
return true;
}
//determines what non-logged in users have access to
public function beforeFilter(){
$this->Auth->allow('index','view');
$this->set('logged_in', $this->Auth->loggedIn());
$this->set('current_user', $this->Auth->user());
}
}
And here is a bit of my code where I use 'logged_in'
<?php if($logged_in): ?> //this only returns true some of the time
Welcome <?php echo $current_user['username']; ?>. <?php echo $this->Html->link('Logout', array('controller'=>'users', 'action'=>'login')); ?>
<?php else: ?>
<?php echo $this->Html->link('Login', array('controller'=>'users', 'action'=>'logout')); ?>
<?php endif; ?>
And here is my login():
public function login(){
if($this->request->is('post')){
if($this->Auth->login()){ //this returns true every time
$this->redirect($this->Auth->redirect());
}else{
$this->Session->setFlash('Your username and/or password is incorrect');
}
}
}
I have tried calling $this->Auth->loggedIn() instead of using $logged_in but I get the error that the Auth Helper cannot be found.
Please let me know if there is any more information needed to answer my question.

Answer 1

Move these lines to beforeRender()
$this->set('logged_in', $this->Auth->loggedIn());
$this->set('current_user', $this->Auth->user());
Besides that, nothing seems wrong with your code.
The comment that Auth->login() would always return true only happens when you pass any argument to the login() method, which the code you show doesnt have though.