How to help someone who can't log in

“I can’t log in” is probably the most common message a church administrator receives. The good news: every version of the problem has a quick fix, and the normal route never involves anyone knowing anyone else’s password.

Working through the fixes

1. First, let them try self-service: the login box has a reset password link that emails them immediately. Two things catch people out: passwords are case-sensitive (check Caps Lock), and the reset email sometimes lands in junk, so ask them to check there and add your site’s email address to their safe senders.
2. To reset it for them, open their record in the web office (the quick find is fastest) and use the task to ‘Reset this person’s password’. Leave it on the option to send a link and they’re emailed one, so they choose their own new password.
3. If the person has no email address, or you’d rather hand the link over yourself, untick the option to send it by email. The button then reads ‘Generate Link’ and the link appears on screen for you to pass on in person or by phone. It expires after a set number of hours, so give it to them promptly.
4. If they’ve never had a login, open their record and use the task to ‘Enable website login access for this person’, set their membership and involvement in the pop-up, and approve it. They’re emailed their login details; if there’s no email address on the record, the details appear on screen for you to pass on.
5. For lots of people at once, the Members tab has a task to ‘Send Login Details to Unused Accounts’, which covers both people who’ve never had a login and anyone who hasn’t logged in within the last year. It emails everyone you’ve selected, so check the list before you send.

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Good to know

• The link route is the one to reach for, and the one to describe to anxious callers: they set their own password and nobody else needs to see it. Neither we nor anyone at your church can look up an existing password; they aren’t stored in a readable form.
• Resetting someone’s password needs the Edit Members Details permission. You can send a reset link to anyone who has an email address on their record, whatever permissions they hold. The extra options in that dialog are the ones restricted to administrators who hold all of the target person’s own permissions. The Permissions guides explain the permission levels.
• Login access can also be switched on at the moment you create the record, which saves the follow-up.