Help talk:Logging in

Adapted from en:Wikipedia:How to log in. page history --Maveric149 03:05, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)

To meet Wikimedia's quality standards and make it more accessible, this article or section needs a better explanation of technical details or more context regarding applications or importance to make it more accessible to a general audience, or at least to technical readers outside this specialty. Please help expand it without removing the technical details. Additional rationale may be on this talk page.

138.88.19.65 06:06, 16 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Login Problems[edit]

Moving a page[edit]

When trying to move a page, I get a login error as if I were not logged in -- yet I am. It doesn't seem to be a cookie problem (I have the site listed in my trusted domains, I don't get the login error on any other page except when I try to move, I can see the cookies in my settings directory just fine, and I can see that I'm logged in with the top panel.)--Wclark 14:16, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Forgotten password[edit]

I FORGOT MY PASSWORD : how about a link to the page that will let me retrieve it? - Geekster, hopelessly logged out... :( ( geekster@gmail )

There is a button "mail me a new password" on the login page, which should work fine if you have a registered e-mail address in your preferences. If you do not, then, well... your mistake, how do you expect us to solve that? Anyway, you might try to contact a developer (e.g. on irc://irc.freenode.net/#wikimedia-tech) and ask them for help, they might help you. --Mormegil 10:35, 1 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

That's not very friendly Mormegil. I am an enterprise Wiki admin with exactly this issue - we do not hold email addresses in our accounts, so it is very surprising that the official response is 'create another account'. This is not acceptable as we use real names as user names. Under MediaWiki, the solution is to ask an admin to reset your password. 203.52.130.137 05:09, 6 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

May want to include following text from "how to logon" here: "Logging in and setting preferences are done separately on each wiki (for a proposal to change this see Single login specifications). You may find like to maintain a cross-wiki identity by using the same username on each wiki that you use, if that name is still free."

because password or username issues {forgotton password) may be inadvertently created by users who (like myself) who created a username on one Wiki (WikiSource) and did not realize they were not valid on other Wikimedia Wikis (such as WikiPedia). This can be especially confusing if the username is already in use (by another person) on the second Wiki -- the login to the second Wiki fails with an invalid password. To a user who doesn't know the usernames are specific to each Wiki, the failed login looks like a forgotten password. To make matters worse the iphone photography logged out user may press "mail me a new password" which could be an inconvenience to the logged in user (sorry).

BTW I am user "Dem" on WikiSource, I don't know who "Dem" is on WikiPedia.

Also may want to provide a link to this help page from the logon screen.

i might be blind (I'm not) but I don't see a "mail me a new password" button on the login page...

There are two buttons at the bottom of special:userlogin, on the left is "log-in" and the right is "email-new-password", best regards, --birdy geimfyglið _(:> )=| 18:21, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Just spotted it, guess I am blind after all. I think I somehow tend to not read the buttons as they mostly are a 'confirm' and a 'cancel' action.

No problem :) Hehe, I understand that, people might be tired of these <ok> <cancel> things from installations, where one has to press <ok> <proceed> <I accept> <ok> <ok> <stop asking me> <ok> ... a million times, thus the brain blends out the right part :o)

Best regards, --birdy geimfyglið _(:> )=| 18:28, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

PHP versus "Problems logging in"[edit]

The following sentences do not IMHO belong to this help page:

In addition to these steps, check to make sure PHP's directory for storing session data is writable. This directory can be found in the php.ini file under the session.save_path setting.

AFAICS the help page is intended for MediaWiki users, not administrators; this information (however valuable for some novice admins) will only confuse normal users ("I do not have any php.ini on my system..." etc.). --Mormegil 16:46, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

This note should be somewhere much more prominently under "troubleshooting". However, it should not be removed here unless it's listed somewhere else. I just spent more than an hour trying to find out what broke, and the mentioning here is the only place where the problem is described and solved, and that includes 30 minutes of Google and other searching around. Keep the paragraph, it is vital. It could be placed in a better place, though. --213.191.86.35 10:58, 26 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Note another symptom of this variable not being set (or the variable is set, but the directory does not exist): You cannot edit pages when logged in, as the mechanism to prevent user's login credentials being hijacked with a foreign form submission doesn't work (the 'edit token' is lost between submissions). --rich(at)fluffy-spikey(dot)com 18.35, 7 Nov 2005 (UTC+11)

Wikimedia commons bug?[edit]

The string "[[en:Wikipedia:Username|username]]" doesn't appear correctly on the wikimedia commons' help page - it doesn't display the word 'username' making the sentence non-sensical.

The links to Wikipedia need w: prefix exactly for that reason – en:Foobar makes that an interlanguage link that is moved to the sidebar, the link must be w:en:Foobar. I fixed the username link, if you see the same problem anywhere else, you know what to do. ;-) --Mormegil 09:49, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)

How to edit the Special:Userlogin page[edit]

I'd like the userlogin page to include an email field (just like on Meta, Wikipedia). My MediaWiki (1.5.1) installation's login page doesn't have the email field. I'd also like to modify it so there is more information regarding the reason for requiring an email address and a brief privacy policy.
I can't seem to find any information on how I can edit the Special:Userlogin page (or any Special pages) to include this functionality. What changes need to be made and where?
Also, I can't send emails to another user. Are these two issues related?

I've figured it out, I think. The $wgEnableEmail variable (and others) in defaultsettings.php was being overridden in LocalSettings.php. Setting it to true allows emails to be sent, though I still haven't received any for watched pages. Also one can edit includes/SpecialUserlogin.php to change Special:Userlogin page. Am looking into adding my own specialpage.php, then adding an include statement in LocalSettings and a switch in index.php. -OP

Specials have now moved to the includes/specials, so that would be includes/specials/SpecialUserlogin.php on current MediaWiki. -Elvis

Login typo[edit]

I have noticed on Wikipedia that on the "login screen", there is a message above the "username" and "password" fields stating "Need a login?-Create account" where it should say "Need an account- Create account"

Just something many people must have missed Link9er 13:53, 11 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Users who can't read captchas contacting administrators[edit]

Some wikis require a visual captcha (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart). Users with text, speech, or legacy browsers will be unable to create an account if they can not view this image. If you are unable to view capthcas, contact an administrator.

If someone contacted me saying they couldn't read the captcha, and asking me how they could create an account, I wouldn't have a clue what to do for them. (Except maybe creating an account for them and giving them the password, which sounds iffy and doesn't need admin rights anyway.) Is this really the right course of action for a user? --en:Sam Blanning 22:53, 2 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I did see some odd things in the en.wikipedia new user log, such as this. I know admins can create accounts for other users in default Mediawiki, but I didn't think this was enabled on the Wikimedia projects. Anyone know anything about this? (P.S. the users making accounts were only regular users, not admins, but I can't figure out how to replicate this) Prodego ^Talk 02:28, 3 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My [Special:Userlogin] link become [:Userlogin][edit]

I have no idea why all the word "Special" is gone in the wiki I just setup at http://wiki.vnforge.net.

When I click "Log in / create new account" it always comes to the pages with "title=:Userlogin". It should be "title=Special:Userlogin" as I understand.

I have been searching around on the mediawiki site and also google but not find any clue yet. Any hint?

Thank you and regards, Quynh

Wiki says "cookies aren't enabled" when they are[edit]

I have prevented anonymous edits using:

$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;

When users try to login and edit, they get the error message that cookies aren't enabled in their browser (even if they are). The users seem to be logged in OK, but the error message comes up anyway. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Kim.

Cookie problem[edit]

I am unable to log in at all: I keep getting a message that cookies must be enabled, which they are. I am the only Sysop/Beaurocrat and can't log in at all, though I've been able to log in by setting up other accounts..... 64.180.86.225 16:01, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

moemoeyar419@gmail.com Moemoeyar (talk) 12:50, 21 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Log in loop[edit]

I can't edit a page because each time I try it sends me to the password form again and drops my changes. If I check "remember me" then I get the error:

Database error From Nelsonlab Jump to: navigation, search A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was:

   (SQL query hidden)

from within function "Block::load". MySQL returned error "1030: Got error 28 from storage engine (localhost)".

When I check mysql I find the following error in the log:

071120 15:20:31 [Warning] Can't open and lock time zone table: Table 'mysql.time_zone_leap_second' doesn't exist trying to live without them /usr/libexec/mysqld: ready for connections.

I have synchronized the system clock times and checked the file permissions in the mysql data dir.

Error from unified login mechanism[edit]

I tried to create an account with the name that I use in the (german) WP already - and get the error message:

"Cannot create account: the requested username is already taken in the unified login system."

Great, so there is some kind of idea to unify the logins - but no hints are given at the create page nor in the help here...?! --92.195.162.251 11:15, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, the help page exists: Unified login - how about linking it at the relevant places? --92.195.162.251 11:16, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Can't log into English Wiktionary.[edit]

This problem occurs not on the English Wikibooks, not on the French Wiktionary, but on the English Wiktionary. I have a unified login under the name 'Mahir256', which appears to work on all other sites (at the moment around 25). Strangely enough, it won't work on there. I have cookies and JavaScript enabled. Could there be a problem with the server, or should I create a new account under the same name? Mahir256 22:15, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Unable to LogIn to Wp.com![edit]

Hi,

Problems associating Jetpack Plugin to my Website. The process requires associating the plugin to WP.com Wp.com does not seem to have my details and is asking for information about registration for which I have no information or emails at all!

Also, does one get registered to WP.com or Wp.org and/or do we have to register into both!! Slightly confusing if one is not already struggling!!

Appreciate any help or advice please. Thank you guys! NS

I cant log in with http:// and I'm forced to use SSL. Fix?

Central logIn does not work on some projects[edit]

As I frequently jump from one Wikimedia to another, it is very troublesome to fulfill again and again the pasword if I jump to some of many projects. E. g. I 'm logged without problems to @cs.wikt, to@lt.wikt., meta, and some 2 or 3 other projects, but if I jump to @cs.wikipedia (my home) I must logIn again, then jump to @en.wikipedia and must logIn AGAIN. As I use very complex password it needs lot of time. So problem is that I'm logged automaticaly only to several projects, while to all other I must all the time log on so there is not central log. Why? --Kusurija (talk) 08:45, 11 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]