passport.js passport.initialize() middleware not in use

Follow the example to avoid the out-of-order middleware hell that express makes it so easy to enter. Straight from the docs. Note how yours does not match this exactly.

var app = express();
app.use(require('serve-static')(__dirname + '/../../public'));
app.use(require('cookie-parser')());
app.use(require('body-parser').urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(require('express-session')({
  secret: 'keyboard cat',
  resave: true,
  saveUninitialized: true
}));
app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());

Docs

1. cookieParser
2. session
3. passport.initialize
4. passport.session
5. app.router

You

1. passport.initialize
2. passport.session
3. cookieParser
4. session
5. app.router

In my case the error was because I was trying to promisify req.login without binding this to req, so when the function was called it could not find passport settings. The solution is binding req.login.bind(req) before passing it to promisify if you are using Node v8.

In my case (same error message) I've forgotten to add the passport initializations at all:

app.configure(function () {
    ...
    app.use(passport.initialize());
    app.use(passport.session());
});

UPDATE: Only working up to express version 3, version 4 does not support app.configure() anymore