Cannot invite users to a specific blog
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Just in last week we have been unable to ad/invite new users to one of our blogs. It simply says: “Sorry, we couldn’t process your invitations. Please try again later.“
Multiple admins have tried and we can invite the same user to other blogs, so seems specific to this one. Can you advise?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there! Since this is only happening on professionalizemetrics.wordpress.com and your admins can successfully invite users elsewhere, it suggests a specific restriction or a ‘glitch’ attached to that single blog. Usually, a generic ‘couldn’t process’ message appears if the site has reached a temporary invitation limit (meant to prevent spam) or if there is a conflict with a specific security setting on that site’s dashboard. Because your site is on a .wordpress.com subdomain, I would first check to see if you have any ‘Pending’ invites that haven’t been accepted yet; sometimes clearing out old, unaccepted invitations can unblock the system. If that doesn’t work, I recommend contacting WordPress.com support directly via your dashboard, as they can look at the backend of that specific site to see if a ‘spam flag’ was accidentally triggered, which is something only they can clear for you!
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Hey James, unfortunately the support options from the dashboard are what led me to this forum, as it is just a free site we do not appear to be able to contact a human at WordPress.
I’ll try some more things to see if I can resolve it and report back here if we get a solution.
Thanks again for your response!
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it can definitely feel like you’re on your own when the automated tools don’t cooperate. Since you can’t reach a human at support right now, one ‘hidden’ trick you might try before you dive back in is to check the ‘Invite by Username’ option instead of using an email address, if the person you’re inviting already has a WordPress.com account. Sometimes the email invitation system hits a block that the internal username system bypasses. If that still fails, it’s often just a matter of waiting 24–48 hours for any temporary automated security flags to reset themselves. I’ll keep an eye on this thread, so please do let me know if you find a workaround or if the ‘Invite by Username’ trick does the job!
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Nice suggestion but we typically invite by username already – we’ve tried email as well but same result every time. We’ve also tried using the API and switching to the “classic” admin section mode etc, but nothing has worked. It’s been 9 days since the issue was first noticed.
Hopefully someone from WordPress support may see this and help out! :) Otherwise we’ll wait and see if it resets at some point.
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Nine days is definitely beyond the typical ‘temporary’ window for a simple automated flag, especially if you’ve already tried the Classic dashboard and the API. Since you’ve exhausted all the self-service tricks—including inviting by username—it’s clear that there is a deeper database or synchronization hang-up specifically tied to professionalizemetrics.wordpress.com.I have added the ‘modlook’ tag to this thread, which alerts the WordPress.com staff that a site requires their direct intervention. While you’re on a free plan, they do still monitor these forums for technical bugs that users can’t resolve themselves. When a staff member arrives, they’ll be able to check the internal ‘invite log’ for your site to see if there is a specific restriction or a stuck process on their end that is causing that ‘couldn’t process’ error.
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We are still having this issue and not sure what to do next. Just reaching out in case any WordPress staff can assist?
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when a blog won’t accept invitations it often isn’t about the email or username you’re entering, but something specific to that site’s invite system (like a stuck pending invite or a temporary spam‑filter/limit). On WordPress.com you can only invite users who have accepted previous invites, and there’s a cap on how many are pending at once, so clearing out old ones sometimes helps. If you’ve already tried both email and username invites with no luck, unfortunately it might just be a backend glitch on that one blog and waiting a bit or getting a WordPress.com staff member to look at the invite logs may be the only way forward.
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