diff --git a/libraries/Config.class.php b/libraries/Config.class.php
index 17c1a831db..aa3ef66a48 100644
--- a/libraries/Config.class.php
+++ b/libraries/Config.class.php
@@ -753,9 +753,17 @@ class PMA_Config
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 5);
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'phpMyAdmin/' . PMA_VERSION);
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 5);
-        session_write_close();
+        if (! defined('TESTSUITE')) {
+            session_write_close();
+        }
         $data = @curl_exec($ch);
-        session_start();
+        if (! defined('TESTSUITE')) {
+            ini_set('session.use_only_cookies', false);
+            ini_set('session.use_cookies', false);
+            ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', false);
+            ini_set('session.cache_limiter', null);
+            session_start();
+        }
         if ($data === false) {
             return null;
         }
diff --git a/libraries/Util.class.php b/libraries/Util.class.php
index b46511382c..ed84618479 100644
--- a/libraries/Util.class.php
+++ b/libraries/Util.class.php
@@ -4237,7 +4237,9 @@ class PMA_Util
                     )
                 );
                 $context = PMA_Util::handleContext($context);
-                session_write_close();
+                if (! defined('TESTSUITE')) {
+                    session_write_close();
+                }
                 $response = file_get_contents(
                     $file,
                     false,
@@ -4261,7 +4263,9 @@ class PMA_Util
                     CURLOPT_TIMEOUT,
                     $connection_timeout
                 );
-                session_write_close();
+                if (! defined('TESTSUITE')) {
+                    session_write_close();
+                }
                 $response = curl_exec($curl_handle);
             }
         }
@@ -4272,13 +4276,18 @@ class PMA_Util
             && strlen($data->date)
             && $save
         ) {
-            session_start();
+            if (! isset($_SESSION) && ! defined('TESTSUITE')) {
+                ini_set('session.use_only_cookies', false);
+                ini_set('session.use_cookies', false);
+                ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', false);
+                ini_set('session.cache_limiter', null);
+                session_start();
+            }
             $_SESSION['cache']['version_check'] = array(
                 'response' => $response,
                 'timestamp' => time()
             );
         }
-
         return $data;
     }