diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.ArticleTarget.js b/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.ArticleTarget.js
index 3929f88c5d..54be7def4c 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.ArticleTarget.js
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.ArticleTarget.js
@@ -784,33 +784,48 @@ ve.init.mw.ArticleTarget.prototype.saveErrorHookAborted = function ( data ) {
 };
 
 /**
- * Handle assert error indicating another user is logged in, and token fetch errors.
+ * Handle assert error indicating another user is logged in.
  *
  * @param {string|null} username Name of newly logged-in user, or null if anonymous
- * @param {boolean} [error=false] Whether this is a token fetch error
- * @fires saveErrorBadToken
  * @fires saveErrorNewUser
  */
-ve.init.mw.ArticleTarget.prototype.saveErrorBadTokenOrNewUser = function ( username, error ) {
-	var $msg = $( document.createTextNode( mw.msg( 'visualeditor-savedialog-error-badtoken' ) + ' ' ) );
+ve.init.mw.ArticleTarget.prototype.saveErrorNewUser = function ( username ) {
+	var $msg;
+
+	this.emit( 'saveErrorNewUser' );
+
+	// TODO: Improve this message, concatenating it this way is a bad practice.
+	// This should read more like 'session_fail_preview' in MediaWiki core
+	// (but with the caveat that we know already whether you're logged in or not).
+	$msg = $( document.createTextNode( mw.msg( 'visualeditor-savedialog-error-badtoken' ) + ' ' ) ).add(
+		mw.message(
+			username === null ?
+				'visualeditor-savedialog-identify-anon' :
+				'visualeditor-savedialog-identify-user',
+			username
+		).parseDom()
+	);
 
-	if ( error ) {
-		this.emit( 'saveErrorBadToken', false );
-		$msg = $msg.add( document.createTextNode( mw.msg( 'visualeditor-savedialog-identify-trylogin' ) ) );
-	} else {
-		this.emit( 'saveErrorNewUser' );
-		$msg = $msg.add(
-			mw.message(
-				username === null ?
-					'visualeditor-savedialog-identify-anon' :
-					'visualeditor-savedialog-identify-user',
-				username
-			).parseDom()
-		);
-	}
 	this.showSaveError( $msg );
 };
 
+/**
+ * Handle token fetch errors.
+ *
+ * @fires saveErrorBadToken
+ */
+ve.init.mw.ArticleTarget.prototype.saveErrorBadToken = function () {
+	this.emit( 'saveErrorBadToken', false );
+
+	// TODO: Improve this message, concatenating it this way is a bad practice.
+	// Also, it's not always true that you're "no longer logged in".
+	// This should read more like 'session_fail_preview' in MediaWiki core.
+	this.showSaveError(
+		mw.msg( 'visualeditor-savedialog-error-badtoken' ) + ' ' +
+		mw.msg( 'visualeditor-savedialog-identify-trylogin' )
+	);
+};
+
 /**
  * Handle unknown save error
  *
@@ -1264,10 +1279,8 @@ ve.init.mw.ArticleTarget.prototype.clearPreparedCacheKey = function () {
  * HTML directly if there is no cache key present or pending, or if the request for the cache key
  * fails, or if using the cache key fails with a badcachekey error.
  *
- * If extraData.token is set, this function will use mw.Api#post and let the caller handle badtoken
- * errors. If extraData.token is not set, this function will use mw.Api#postWithToken which retries
- * automatically when encountering a badtoken error. If you do not want the automatic retry behavior
- * and want to control badtoken retries, you have to set extradata.token.
+ * This function will use mw.Api#postWithToken to retry automatically when encountering a 'badtoken'
+ * error.
  *
  * @param {HTMLDocument|string} doc Document to submit or string in source mode
  * @param {Object} extraData POST parameters to send. Do not include 'html', 'cachekey' or 'format'.
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.Target.js b/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.Target.js
index fc55c3fd38..4a8eb14bee 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.Target.js
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.Target.js
@@ -461,51 +461,35 @@ ve.init.mw.Target.prototype.teardown = function () {
  * @return {jQuery.Promise} Promise resolved with new username, or null if anonymous
  */
 ve.init.mw.Target.prototype.refreshUser = function ( doc ) {
-	var api = this.getContentApi( doc ),
-		deferred = ve.createDeferred();
-	api.get( {
+	return this.getContentApi( doc ).get( {
 		action: 'query',
 		meta: 'userinfo'
-	} )
-		.done( function ( data ) {
-			var
-				userInfo = data.query && data.query.userinfo,
-				isAnon = mw.user.isAnon();
+	} ).then( function ( data ) {
+		var userInfo = data.query && data.query.userinfo;
 
-			if ( userInfo ) {
-				if (
-					( isAnon && userInfo.anon !== undefined ) ||
-						// Comparing id instead of name to protect against possible
-						// normalisation and against case where the user got renamed.
-						mw.config.get( 'wgUserId' ) === userInfo.id
-				) {
-					// New session is the same user still
-					deferred.resolve( mw.user.getName() );
-				} else {
-					// The now current session is a different user
-					if ( userInfo.anon !== undefined ) {
-						// New session is an anonymous user
-						mw.config.set( {
-							// wgUserId is unset for anonymous users, not set to null
-							wgUserId: undefined,
-							// wgUserName is explicitly set to null for anonymous users,
-							// functions like mw.user.isAnon rely on this.
-							wgUserName: null
-						} );
-					} else {
-						// New session is a different user
-						mw.config.set( { wgUserId: userInfo.id, wgUserName: userInfo.name } );
-					}
-					deferred.resolve( mw.user.getName() );
-				}
-			} else {
-				deferred.reject();
-			}
-		} )
-		.fail( function () {
-			deferred.reject();
-		} );
-	return deferred.promise();
+		if ( !userInfo ) {
+			return ve.createDeferred().reject();
+		}
+
+		if ( userInfo.anon !== undefined ) {
+			// New session is an anonymous user
+			mw.config.set( {
+				// wgUserId is unset for anonymous users, not set to null
+				wgUserId: undefined,
+				// wgUserName is explicitly set to null for anonymous users,
+				// functions like mw.user.isAnon rely on this.
+				wgUserName: null
+			} );
+		} else {
+			// New session is a logged in user
+			mw.config.set( {
+				wgUserId: userInfo.id,
+				wgUserName: userInfo.name
+			} );
+		}
+
+		return mw.user.getName();
+	} );
 };
 
 /**
@@ -516,7 +500,7 @@ ve.init.mw.Target.prototype.refreshUser = function ( doc ) {
  * @return {jQuery.Promise} Abortable promise which resolves with a wikitext string
  */
 ve.init.mw.Target.prototype.getWikitextFragment = function ( doc, useRevision ) {
-	var promise, xhr,
+	var xhr,
 		params = {
 			action: 'visualeditoredit',
 			paction: 'serialize',
@@ -539,18 +523,12 @@ ve.init.mw.Target.prototype.getWikitextFragment = function ( doc, useRevision )
 		{ contentType: 'multipart/form-data' }
 	);
 
-	promise = xhr.then( function ( response ) {
+	return xhr.then( function ( response ) {
 		if ( response.visualeditoredit ) {
 			return response.visualeditoredit.content;
 		}
 		return ve.createDeferred().reject();
-	} );
-
-	promise.abort = function () {
-		xhr.abort();
-	};
-
-	return promise;
+	} ).promise( { abort: xhr.abort } );
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/preinit/ve.init.mw.ArticleTargetSaver.js b/modules/ve-mw/preinit/ve.init.mw.ArticleTargetSaver.js
index 147fca9505..d4d35073d3 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/preinit/ve.init.mw.ArticleTargetSaver.js
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/preinit/ve.init.mw.ArticleTargetSaver.js
@@ -195,7 +195,8 @@
 		},
 
 		/**
-		 * Post content to the API.
+		 * Post content to the API, using mw.Api#postWithToken to retry automatically when encountering
+		 * a 'badtoken' error.
 		 *
 		 * By default uses action=visualeditoredit, paction=save.
 		 *
@@ -230,11 +231,8 @@
 				data
 			);
 
-			if ( data.token ) {
-				request = api.post( data, { contentType: 'multipart/form-data' } );
-			} else {
-				request = api.postWithToken( 'csrf', data, { contentType: 'multipart/form-data' } );
-			}
+			request = api.postWithToken( 'csrf', data, { contentType: 'multipart/form-data' } );
+
 			return request.then(
 				function ( response, jqxhr ) {
 					var eventData, fullEventName, error,