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