 <p>Is your routes inside the <code>web</code> middleware ? Laravel 5.2 has a new feature called middleware groups. In order to use session, your route should be inside the <code>web</code> middleware. If you check your <code>Kernel.php</code>, you will get a clear idea about the middlewares inside the <code>web</code> middleware group</p> <pre><code> 'web' =&gt; [ \App\Http\Middleware\EncryptCookies::class, \Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse::class, \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class, \Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession::class, \App\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken::class, ], </code></pre>