All Collections
Member Signup & Member Compass
User Accounts
Send Users a Password Reset (from Admin)
Send Users a Password Reset (from Admin)

Learn how to help users reset their passwords from the backend, and what to do if they do not receive the password reset email.

Pete Zimek, CAE avatar
Written by Pete Zimek, CAE
Updated over a week ago

Quick Links:


Send a password reset email from the backend: 

  1. Navigate to the person's record.

  2. Click on the Settings tab.

  3. In the Account Details section, make sure the correct email address is visible.

  4. Click the Send Password Reset button.

Keep in mind, your website users with accounts have access to request this themselves on the frontend. Learn more about what they will see when a password reset email is sent.

***

Password Reset Status Messages

After clicking the Send Password Reset button in the admin (above) OR when a user requests a password reset from the frontend, a message will be visible on their Settings tab so that staff can see that a password reset email has been sent.

The user has 7 days to reset their password before the link (also known as a token) in the email expires. 

The message will continue to display on the record's settings for 16 hours, even after the profile or tab is closed. Within this 16 hours, re-sending a password reset will email the user the same token.

After 16 hours has passed, the message will no longer appear and the user has 8 remaining hours to reset their password. Clicking on Send Password Reset again in this final 8 hour window or afterward will send the user a new token, making the previous email link invalid.

When a user attempts to use an expired token, they will be taken to a page with a message that the password reset link has expired. In the message is a link to request another password reset.


There are two types of messages that will display for password resets:

1. Password reset is automatically sent when creating a new user account (Clicking the Create User button)

"Account successfully created and reset password email sent."

2. Password reset for an existing user account (Clicking the Send Password Reset button)

"Reset password email sent."

Notice that in both cases, the link is included along with the message, so that if the user does not receive the email for any reason, you can give them the direct password reset link (more info on this below).

***

Send Users A Manual Password Reset Link

Getting your users logged in to your website is important for many reasons, and sometimes they need help - especially if the password reset email is not being delivered. Email deliverability issues are most often out of our hands and it comes down to your member's IT settings.

To circumvent this, you may prefer to copy/paste and send a password reset link directly to the member, separate from the transactional email from the site.

  • Once a password reset link has been sent to a member (#1 in the screenshot below), that unique URL will now be displayed on the Settings tab of the person's record (#2 below). This applies to password resets from the backend by an admin or requested from the frontend by the user.

  • Simply click the Copy Link button to copy the URL to your clipboard (#3 below). Then you can paste it into an email or even in a live chat - wherever you want!

Important note: Keep in mind that while this will solve the immediate issue and allow the user to get logged in, if this is also the main email address on the record, the user will likely still have issues receiving other transactional emails from the site, such as event confirmation emails. If emails aren't being delivered, the user should still get with their IT department to whitelist your domain or use a different email address. Learn more about email deliverability here.

Steps Outlined in Screenshot Below:

  1. Click the Send Password Reset button if it has not already been clicked (if clicked, number 2 on the screenshot below will be visible).

  2. Check that the password reset link is visible.

  3. Click the Copy Link button and paste the link into an email to send directly to the user.

***

Related Articles

Did this answer your question?