What to do if your forum login/password stops working

Use this forum to ask questions about how to use this website, or to make any general comments about how it works
Post Reply
User avatar
Martell
Posts: 2045
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: SW Portland

What to do if your forum login/password stops working

Post by Martell » June 28th, 2011, 10:09 am

Logging in when your account is locked out
We've had a few people report that their login and password "stopped working". I've been able to verify that the login and password were working in these cases, but the PHPBB login process when you get locked out is a bit confusing.

If you get locked out, you need to make sure you type in three things *each time* when logging in:
1. User Name
2. Password
3. Captcha Code (anti-bot code)

The Captcha code part appears down below, so it is a bit confusing. I could see how someone would be entering in just the captcha code, submitting, and then trying to log in- but you need to type all three things in a single request.

After a successful login, your account will no longer be locked, so you won't need to keep typing the captcha code.

Requesting a password reset
This is another one people are having trouble with. Again, in each case I have been able to verify that the password reset is working fine, but PHPBB is a bit confusing and it leads to user error.

If you reset your password, read the email with the new password carefully. You can't just take the password it gives you and log in with it, that won't work. You need to make sure to click the link to activate the new password first. Then log in. If you are resetting your password and your account is locked out, when you try to log in with the new password, you may need to type it a second time along with the Captcha (anti-bot code): see above.


Note: I'm not sure why accounts get randomly locked out. It is supposed to happen after five login failures. My guess is that a spam bot is trying to guess your password and it locks the account. We had one user with about five posts whose account was hijacked by a spammer, so it could be this.
-Dan
Site Tech Helper

Lurch
Posts: 1270
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: Aurora
Contact:

Re: What to do if your forum login/password stops working

Post by Lurch » June 13th, 2012, 2:43 pm

Except in my case the CAPTCHA doesn't display... It's not cause of my adblock either, I've tried it with, without, and on different browsers/computers.
Screenshot_2012-06-13-15-35-29.jpg
Correct me if I'm wrong but the lockdown still shouldn't change your password...

Between work, home, and mobile I've got 3-4 "systems" that log into the board, and any one of them seems to drop but the others (with saved passwords) still continue working..

Glad I'm not the only one having issues, it was messing with my mind making me think I forgot my password!

User avatar
Martell
Posts: 2045
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: SW Portland

Re: What to do if your forum login/password stops working

Post by Martell » June 13th, 2012, 3:07 pm

Can you give it a shot now?
-Dan
Site Tech Helper

Lurch
Posts: 1270
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: Aurora
Contact:

Re: What to do if your forum login/password stops working

Post by Lurch » June 13th, 2012, 3:12 pm

Hooray that one displayed and works :D

User avatar
Martell
Posts: 2045
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: SW Portland

Re: What to do if your forum login/password stops working

Post by Martell » April 16th, 2018, 10:19 pm

This topic is 6 years old, and less relevant, so I'm going to unsticky it.
-Dan
Site Tech Helper

User avatar
adamschneider
Posts: 3711
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm
Location: SE Portland
Contact:

Re: What to do if your forum login/password stops working

Post by adamschneider » April 16th, 2018, 11:19 pm

Martell wrote:
April 16th, 2018, 10:19 pm
This topic is 6 years old, and less relevant, so I'm going to unsticky it.
Unsticky the two 2017 threads in the general forum while you're at it!

Webfoot
Posts: 1759
Joined: November 25th, 2015, 11:06 am
Location: Troutdale

Re: What to do if your forum login/password stops working

Post by Webfoot » April 18th, 2018, 7:33 am

And that one with the dogs... :)

Post Reply