Patent attributes
Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for authenticating a user account with a synchronized content management system are disclosed. A synchronized online content management system may receive a request from a client device to access content in the content management system via a web browser that is running on the client device. The system may identify that a client-side application for the content management system has been installed on the client device and that the client-side application is already logged into a user account with the content management system. The system can cause the web browser to open a local host connection to the client-side application such that the web browser may be able to obtain from the client application some user account identifying information for the user account. The system can then cause the web browser to log into the user account by using the user account identifying information.