Are you wondering how to create a temporary login for WordPress that will automatically expire after a given time?
Sometimes you may need to give someone temporary access to your WordPress admin area. For example, you might have a developer working on your website.
In this article, we will show you how to create temporary logins for WordPress without passwords.
When You May Need Temporary Login Accounts for WordPress
Beginners often hire developers to perform small tweaks on their WordPress websites. These developers may ask for admin access to your site in order to edit or check something.
If you trust the developer, then you can create an administrator account for them and later delete it when they have done their job. Similarly, you can add new users and authors in WordPress and later block the user without deleting their account.
However, sometimes you may forget that you added someone with privileges to make changes to your website. This leaves your website open to possible security threats and data safety issues.
An alternative is to create a temporary account that is automatically disabled after a given time and doesn’t need a password.
Having said that, let’s see how to easily create a temporary login in WordPress that doesn’t require a password.
Video Tutorial
If you prefer written instructions, then continue reading.
Adding Temporary Login Accounts in WordPress
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Temporary Login Without Password plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Users » Temporary Logins page and click the ‘Create New’ button to add a new temporary login account.
This will show a form where you can enter information for the new temporary login.
First, you need to provide an email address for the user and then their first and last name.
Next, you need to select a user role. You should do this with care.
If you are unsure about which user role to assign, then take a look at our beginner’s guide to WordPress user roles and permissions.
You will also need to choose the expiry duration for this temporary account. This is the period after which the account will automatically expire, such as ‘one week’.
Lastly, you can also select the language for the new user. This language will be used when the user accesses the WordPress dashboard.
Once you click the ‘Submit’ button, you will see a success message and a URL that anyone can use to log in to the temporary account you just added.
Now you can click the ‘Click to Copy’ button to copy the URL and share it with anyone you want to have access.
The temporary account will automatically expire after the time period you selected.
Managing Temporary Logins
The plugin also makes it easy for you to manage temporary logins. Simply visit Users » Temporary Logins to see the list of temporary logins you have added to your site.
For each account, you will be able to see the user’s name and email address. You will also be able to see the role assigned to them, their last login date, and the time remaining until the account expires.
In the Actions column, you can expire a login before its expiry, delete an account, edit the user, and email or copy the temporary login URL.
Once a temporary account is permanently deleted, all the content created by that user, such as posts and pages, will now show the administrator account as the author.
We hope this article helped you learn how to create a temporary login for WordPress with no passwords. You may also want to see our guide on how to monitor user activity in WordPress with security audit logs or our expert picks for social proof plugins for WordPress and WooCommerce.
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RoseMary says
Thank you for such an easy to follow article! I need temp admin access for a tech person–this is perfect.
Brenda Nicholas says
Hi, I set up a temporary login account for help with my wordpress site. I want to now delete the user account but there is not option to delete it – just the option to “view” and “edit”. I have searched and searched but cannot find out how to delete that account. Can you help please?
WPBeginner Support says
If created using the plugin, ensure you’re checking under Users>Temporary Logins on an admin user for your site.
Admin
iKomrad says
Actually, i need the same for wordpress.org. When I am on computer that isn’t mine but want to leave a comment on a wordpress.org integrated comment section, it detects my email address has an account of forces me to the wordpress login screen,
But I make really complex password that I store in a password safe which I cannot use when on a work or other computer that isn’t mine. Any ideas on how to have an easy to remember, read only wordpress.org login?
Tan says
thanks for developing this useful plugin.
Raul Neumann says
Hello.
Thank you very much, instructions were useful, you people are great help, I’m grateful.
Malay Ladu says
Hello Jason,
We have noted down your request. It will be incorporated in future release.
Just want to update you that now you can also create a temporary login with custom expiry date.
Hope that helps.
If you like this plugin, please consider giving us 5 star ratings on WordPress.
Thanks!
:Malay
Jason Rhodes says
Need to be able to extend and existing temporary login. Can you please add this feature.
At the moment the only way is to delete and reset up with new date.
Malay Ladu says
Hi Jason.
It’s already implemented into latest version of Temporary Login Without Password plugin.
You can update the plugin from WordPress installation or download the latest version.
Hope that helps!
Nirav Mehta says
Thanks for the detailed guide about the plugin. We developed it because we wanted to create a safe way for our clients to give us access to their WordPress admin for trouble shooting.
Hope many others find it useful!
sarah says
This seems great.
Do you know a plugin for multi user registration for buddypress?
Thanks!