Passwords not working for some users

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  flutefishy · Member · May 14, 2015 at 4:12 pm

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  I have a number of password-protected pages on my site–just using the default password protection setting on the page–and have a user who is unable to access the pages; it simply asks for the password repeatedly. This happens in both Firefox and IE.

  I am unable to replicate the problem, but am reasonably certain that she is entering the correct password. My guess is that there is some setting on her end that is causing the problem, rather than a problem with the site. Does anyone have any insight on what setting might be causing the issue?

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  lizthefair · Member · May 14, 2015 at 8:12 pm

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  Does the user happen to be using a mobile device? This sounds silly, but some mobile browsers auto capitalize first letters and some don’t. We find that differing behavior is enough to cause problems. If you could have her double check the capitalization that would be great.

  It that’s not it, please find out what operating system and browser version she’s using.

  Thanks!

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  flutefishy · Member · May 15, 2015 at 8:23 pm

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  She’s been using her desktop, and she’s also tried just copying and pasting the password. She’s using Windows 7 and Firefox 37.0.2.

  Thanks so much for your help!

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  lizthefair · Member · May 16, 2015 at 5:49 pm

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  Thanks for the extra info. Could you send me a link to one of the protected pages? You don’t need to send me the password.

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  flutefishy · Member · May 16, 2015 at 11:16 pm

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  The page she’s having trouble with is http://www.classiccityband.org/membersonly/piccolo/
  I’m happy to provide the password if needed.
  Thanks!

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  alexjgustafson · Member · May 17, 2015 at 8:53 pm

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  Since that’s a self hosted site we’re not able to check on any settings specific to that page. Since this a feature of core WordPress, you may want to also start a thread for help on the WordPress.org forums and the volunteers there may have a better idea of troubleshooting the password protection code:

  https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting

  One thing that WordPress does do with password-protected pages is install a cookie in the user’s browser so that they don’t have to re-enter the password multiple times:

  https://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Password_Protection#Password_Protecting_Many_Posts_and_Pages

  It’s possible that their browser is configured to reject the cookie, and it’s basically logging her out as soon as they log in. Have them go to this page using the same browser and see if it’s setup to allow third party cookies:

  Preview Problems and Third-Party Cookies

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  flutefishy · Member · May 19, 2015 at 1:39 pm

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  Rejecting cookies doesn’t seem to be the problem, so I’ll try the other forum. Thanks for your help!