Activating Omeka User Without Password Reset Email

When adding new users to an Omeka site, Omeka sends a password reset email to the user's email where they can reset their password. But what happens when the new user doesn't receive the email? Sometimes these password reset emails can be sent straight to spam folders and/or even filtered out of the inbox completely. 

This guide will cover how to activate new Omeka users in the event that they cannot receive the password reset email. 

Requesting a Password Reset

Once you've added the user to the Omeka database following these steps, you'll want to request a password reset.

This generates a user activation link that we'll need to get to the password reset screen. Once you have the login email, you'll want to move to the database in PHPMyAdmin.

Copying info from the database

1. In PHPMyAdmin, you'll want to navigate to the om_users table. We'll need to get the user ID of the current user you just requested the password reset for.
   
   
2. In this case, it's user ID 1, but it may be different for your install.
   
   
3. Next, navigate to the users_activations table. This table holds all the active password resets for each user.
   
   
4. You'll want to copy the text in the URL field next to the corresponding user_id we got from the users table (step 2). Make sure you're looking at the user_id section on this table as the id might be the same.

Crafting the Activation URL in the Browser

After copying that URL snippet, you'll want to move back into the browser. We'll need to craft out the URL from the Omeka site.

1. First, navigate to the site's admin login screen. For this example, we'll use the following URL: https://reclaimtest.meredithfierro.com/admin
   
   
2. Next you'll want to add the following to the end of the URL: /users/activate/u
   
   
3. Lastly, paste the text from step 4 above (URL field in the users_activations table)

When all is said and done, the full URL structure should look something like this:

https://reclaimtest.meredithfierro.com/admin/users/activate/u/1140c618248acc34c9bdb924eafae99b62622b80

Now, load the page of the URL you've just created in your browser and you should be prompted for a password reset: