Wikipedia talk:How to log in

Can't Log In, Not Even with Temporary Password

I had to log in recently, but the temporary password they sent me didn't work, so I am currently logged out. Are they doing some kind of maintenance on Wikipedia?

Login Username Doesn't Go Away

"Returning users only need to fill in their username and password.

I thought that when I first signed up, that this would be the case; be each time I come back to the same public computer, there's my username.

I've done "autocomplete", I've cleared "history", and I've even cleared ALL "cookies" in the temporary internet file; I but still keep getting my username automatically coming up in the login textarea.

I know you use the IP, but why does everyone else need to know that user "so-and-so" has been using this computer?

[This msg originally posted 21 Apr 2005] [By salim] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 197.243.194.254 (talk) 22:32, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

--WB2 04:53, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I agree, this is EXTREMELY annoying. WHere does wikipedia store that name? I want to cripple that. --65.183.218.42 23:05, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

I presume you are using Micro$oft Internet Exploiter? Clicking the "Delete Cookies" button, did delete my Wikipedia cookies, when I tried it. But the copy of Exploiter you are using, may be set up differently as far as the security settings are concerned. You may have better luck with this: click on the "Delete Files" button (to the right of "Delete Cookies"), and select "Delete all offline content" in the dialog that pops up. This will take a minute or two, but should get rid of all the cookies. — SWWright^Talk 18:27, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Getting logged out whilst editing

Sometimes after logging in and taking awhile to edit a page I'll click on save, the page is saved under my ip address and I get a message saying I should log in in order to change my watch list. I would like to have the option of logging in before the page is saved. Gbleem 21:03 Jan 20, 2003 (UTC)

What browser are you using? And are you checking the box saying something to the effect of "remain logged in across sessions"? Typically users are logged out after a few months, not minutes, so it may be a browser or cookie problem. Koyaanis Qatsi

I like being logged out after a few minutes in case I access the site from somewhere public. I wish it worked like on Yahoo where is asks for your password before saving if you have been logged out. Gbleem 21:36 Jan 20, 2003 (UTC)

I've noticed that the sessions do expire uncomfortably quickly when the save password option isn't used. To be safe, always hit 'preview' before 'save'. Check the upper-right corner to make sure you're still logged in; if you're not, open a login in a separate window (right-click 'Log in' and hit 'Open link in new window' or similar). Log in, then go back to your editing and hit 'preview' again to make sure all is well. Note that this will clear the minor edit and watch checkboxes, so make sure they're set appropriately again before you finally save the page. --Brion 21:48 Jan 20, 2003 (UTC)

Software suggestion. The problem with the short cookie expiry, for people who do not want to remain logged in across sessions is that some people (like me :) may add unneeded server load because they will click preview every few minutes to avoid being logged out. Would it be difficult to add some options to the login page where the user can select one of e.g. three expiry periods for the cookie? E.g. 15 min or 1 hour or 24 hours? Personally, i'm not sure i want the cookie to remain across sessions, and the present delay really is too short IMHO. 15min (is it really 30min? to me it seems more like 15min, but i haven't measured...) certainly sounds right for internet cafes, but for more personal modes of internet access, a 1 hour delay would be much more reasonable IMHO. Boud 13:59, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Is this an issue that has been ignored to death? I'm pretty new here, got bit by it practically immediately (longish edit with longerish pauses while I researched various points on other pages, silently logged out long before I saved). --Swwright 22:51, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Similar discussions:

• Wikipedia_talk:How_to_log_in#Log_in_expires
• Wikipedia_talk:How_to_log_in#Getting_logged_off

Use of Cookies

I think somebody should briefly explain the use of HTTP cookies in the process of logging in to Wikipedia. I don't know much about that.-- mace

Security

New user here. Sorry if this has been covered before but I can't find it anywhere. I'd like to set up a user profile and so forth, but the impression I get is that during the login process passwords are sent over the Internet unencrypted. Is this true? This makes me very uncomfortable. Plain text sent over the Internet can be read by any man-in-the-middle. Are there any plans to have passwords encrypted during the login process?

In general, identity theft is not an issue that has worried us up until now. Don't use the password you give for Wikipedia for anything important! --Robert Merkel 01:15 Dec 13, 2002 (UTC)

What like having a sysop account isn't important? Just think of the damage a bot using a hijacked sysop, or worse developer, account could do in a very, and I mean very, short amount of time. This really should be encrypted. Also, the vast majority of net users have a limited set of passwords that they use for almost everything. I'm certain many of our users do in fact use sensitive passwords for Wikipedia. --mav

I'll see about setting up https... --Brion 04:38 Dec 15, 2002 (UTC)

You're on a roll tonight Brion. Thank you! --mav

Hmm, going through the mod_ssl docs, it seems that it won't work with our virtual server configuration. I'll see if I can work something out though. --Brion

Is this ever going to happen? 68.40.198.96 03:14, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Is this ever going to happen? --Swwright 21:31, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

seriously now, is there something anyone in charge at wikipedia would like any of us out here to do, to help speed up the implementation of SSL security on the wikipedia.org website -- at minimum, for the user login screens? surely you could re-prioritize this task nearer to the top of the 'to-do list' to help better protect against situations like the impersonation of wikipedia users, who have had their account password sniffed from an unsecured network. university dorm and internet cafe networks are frequently run in an insecure manner, to give two examples, and i would argue such places are (a) prime examples of where wikipedia editing is likely to be occurring from, and (b) places you are most likely to have your access information stolen. wikipedia has grown immensely in importance on the world stage now, making security in general a more important point of late, in my opinion. please make this secure login happen as soon as possible -- and ask for help if you need it! ;-) yossman (talk) 02:44, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Log in bug

Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump on Tuesday, July 8 2003.

Hm. I'd love to log in as KF but I can't. Looking at Recent Changes, no one else seems to have that problem. Could someone tell me what is wrong?

Hm, I'd love to help you, but you've given absolutely no information that could be used to do so. What, exactly, is the procedure you're following and what, exactly, is the wiki doing in response? Are there error messages? Are cookies enabled in your browser? Are you in fact KF? ;) --Brion 22:11 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

If all else fails, try Mozilla temporarily. It does miracles. --Menchi 22:26 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Okay, sorry for the lack of information. I'm using Internet Explorer (and have been doing so all the time, and haven't changed any of the settings disabling cookies or whatever). When I click on Wikipedia (any page) I'm told that I'm not logged in. The spaces for my username and my password are empty. I type in both and get the message "Log in successful". Whatever page I choose next I'm again "not logged in". And there is no way I can prove who I am.

From that description, it's almost certainly a (no-)cookie problem. Sad to say, we don't actually do a double-check that the cookies were received and saved by your computer: so if the login goes okay, it says "success!" and tells your browser to save id cookies, but the next page you go to, there's no cookie returned to identify you, so you're not logged in. If all is well, you should have a PHPSESSID cookie, a wcUserID cookie, and a wcUserName cookie from www.wikipedia.org. If you don't have these, make sure you haven't accidentally set it to not accept cookies or something. (Check also if you're behind some kind of proxy that's meant to strip out advertisements; sometimes these may go for cookies too.) --Brion 22:52 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Thanks an awful lot. I'm impressed. Someone else seems to have changed my cookie settings. Something still seems to be wrong here, but at least I can log in again. Thanks again, and enjoy your Saturday night! KF 23:09 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Log in expires

Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump on Saturday, August 2nd, 02003.

For some reason, I keep being logged out every so often. Is anyone else having this problem today? Angela 19:36 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

LOL, this happens to me everyday. Your login cookie expires I believe. MB 20:13 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Moving page to meta soon

We need one place to develop MediaWiki documentation so I'm starting a project-neutral MediaWiki User's Guide in meta and think it would be a good idea to cross wiki redirect this page to meta:MediaWiki User's Guide: Logging-in as soon as I'm done with the conversion. --mav 03:10, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)

My Watch List?

Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump on Saturday, September 13th, 02003.

'Discovered' Wikipedia about 3 weeks ago, registered, studied, wrote a few articles. Built up a Watch List, but after week-long work-absence, find that it is now empty. Am I doing something wrong? I'm successfully logged in... Thanks! Ted Clayton

Hi Ted, it seems you are not logged in. Your contributions to this page are showing up as two IP numbers in the 65.193 range. Check you have cookies enabled and try logging in again. Have a look at Wikipedia:How to log in for more instructions. Angela 15:18, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Mozilla Firebird compatible with Wikipedia log-in?

Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump on Thursday, September 18th,2003]]. Hi,

I normally like to use Mozilla Firebird, on my Microsoft Windows 98 operating system.

However, whenever I try to login to Wikipedia using Mozilla Firebird, I momentarily succeed and then have to re-login again. Essentially, I cannot conduct Wiki-business as an identified user.

So now I must use MS Explorer for the Wikipedia, even though I prefer Mozilla Firebird. Any solutions, ideas, suggestions?

Thanks, Guppy

Most likely you're blocking cookies from the site. It will report a successful login (your password matched) but with no way to track your login session, the next page you visit will lose the login. --Brion 22:49, 17 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I can't speak for firebird, but mozilla browser works fine with wikipedia, and the two are (essentially) the same thing. Finlay McWalter 22:50, 17 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I've used Firebird 0.6.1 on FreeBSD and Windows XP with no trouble. --Brion

Ditto. CGS 23:25, 17 Sep 2003 (UTC).

thanks Brion, Finlay, and CGS...*sheepish grin* i had turned on the cookies, but did not delete the list of previously-banned cookie sites on my browser. *scratches head and looks around* ...can we delete this exchange now? - Guppy

Oh no :) Your name must live forever in shame, and all those who commit the same crime in future shall be known as "guppies" :) -- Finlay McWalter 01:36, 18 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Sure you can delete it. Keep your Village Pump Clean! But you might want to add a short FAQ entry on this. :) -- Tarquin 08:33, 18 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Getting logged off

Why do I keep finding myself involuntarily logged off when I am about to post my article? Is there a time limit? Or is there some bug that logs me off when I press "save page"? Dr Adam Carr 12:12, 19 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Probably a cookie issue. See wikipedia:how to log in. Martin 12:22, 19 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Well, I find it happening often enough: not that I don't get logged in properly, but that it times out much sooner than I'd like: often enough, during some long edit, so that when I check the stuff in, it's attributed to my IP address, not my name. Which was the complaint above.

When I'm doing postings regularly, I generally remember to check my login just before hitting Save Page. Other times, I forget. Is there a fix for this? Would anyone consider assigning the cookie a longer lifespan, if that's where the problem is? Dandrake 04:09, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Jump me if I'm wrong, but if (during long edits) you regularly do a "Show Preview" that should tell the server you are still alive and working (restart the time-out timer). nicht var? - Marshman 04:53, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

The time limit is half an hour. Yes, clicking preview regularly will restart the timer, but I got frustrated with such things long ago and decided that the security problems with associated "remember password" weren't really that bad. Do you think it would help if it were, say, an hour? There's a trade-off between convenience and security -- perhaps half an hour is a bit too far to the security end for our case. -- Tim Starling 10:59, Sep 20, 2003 (UTC)

[Hoping to write this fast enough to avoid a check-in conflict] Yes, I'd like the full hour, though it's hard to believe I'd go a half hour without doing a Preview, but time flies when you're at a keyboard. Time to enable auto-login anyway. Dandrake 20:24, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Hasn't this recently changed? I'm sure that until a couple of days ago I could stay logged in for days on end, and I can't see how that could be much of a security risk when I can do anonymously any editing I can do logged in. The hassle of trying to stay logged in now outweighs the convenience of getting a watchlist etc. -- pm67nz 00:21, 23 Sep, 2003 (UTC)

No, nothing's changed; the session timeout's always been relatively short, and the session cookie always expires at the end of your browser session (or before). If you logged in with 'remember my password' checked, it will store an additional cookie which silently logs you back in. This cookie expires after a month, so it may have simply run out. Click it again, you should be good to go for another month. --Brion 00:36, 23 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Yup, that's it, thanks. -- pm67nz 03:20, 23 Sep, 2003 (UTC)

I too experience this problem. I'm using Internet Explorer 6.0.2800. I log in, get the successful log on page, then I get a page without my username. After three or four times doing this, I finally get my username to stick. But just to make sure I don't get kicked out without realizing it, I check the "watch this page" box before clicking save, so that if I do get kicked off, the edit fails because an anonymous user can't have a watch page. Then I try to remember to remove the page from my watchlist. It's a small nuisance but I do wish it was fixed. PrimeFan 14:27, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Backdating attribution on changes before I registered

I contributed a couple of minor edits before I created my account. Is it possible to edit the attributions so they show up as "mine" rather than the IP Number? Phil 15:32, Oct 2, 2003 (UTC)

I think it is possible for a developer to do this, but it would be a lot of work for them if everyone started asking for this to be done to their initial edits. Therefore, it is probably best if you just make a note on the article's talk page stating that you made the edit. Angela 17:04, Oct 2, 2003 (UTC)

See the newly-created Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit -- Tim Starling 03:11, Oct 15, 2003 (UTC)

Login problems in Mac OS X 10.2 with Mozilla 1.3b

Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump/March 2003 archive 4 on Tuesday, November 4th, 02003.

I'm using Mozilla 1.3B on a Mac with OS 10.2 and, for the last two weeks or so, Wikipedia has been sporadically forgetting my login. I've never had a problem before, and have always been automatically logged in as soon as I came to wikipedia, but maybe a dozen times in the last few weeks, I've had to re-log in. I can't detect any pattern to when (and clicking on the box to be automatically logged-in doesn't prevent) being logged-out. Am I alone? Tuf-Kat

Just so no one gives it as an answer, I've checked my cookies and Wikipedia is allowed to give them to me. I have four from Wikipedia; they are called "User Password", "User Name", "User ID" and "PHPSESSID". Tuf-Kat

I had a similar problem with Chimera, but it seems fine now I've upgraded to 0.7 (now Camino) :-) -- Tarquin 09:14 Mar 30, 2003 (UTC)

Linking to Meta

I changed the link from the help page from pointing to Meta to pointing to this page. I strongly feel that pointing users to meta for help is a bad idea. Users wanting to know how to log in are almost by definition likely to be new to Wikipedia, and will have no idea about what "Meta" or "MediaWiki" is - all they want to know how to do is to log in to Wikipedia. After being directed to Meta they may well find themselves logging in to Meta rather than Wikipedia, or just giving up in confusion.

I agree it's a bit more effort for contributors to keep separate help pages updated, rather than having all the help centralised at Meta. However, I think the effort is worth it, because in return for making a bit more work for contributors, it makes the page more helpful to newcomers. And that's what a help page should be all about.

Enchanter 22:26, Aug 18, 2004 (UTC)

It's planned for a future release of MediaWiki to be able to include a non-editable version of the Meta Help namespace. It would appear on this Wikipedia, but you'd need to go to Meta to edit it, which solves the problem of taking people to a separate site when they just want to read the page, whilst preventing the need to keep two copies synchronised. Angela.

Multilanguage account support

I found that I can't use my account on other languages of Wikipedia... I think it would be better if accounts are interlingual.

Patrickov 17:01, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

This is being planned, but there's no consensus yet on the best way to do it. See meta:Single signon transition for some of the possibilities. Angela.

I can't log in

my username is Brianboru and i was able get onto the site with my password already remembered. Now, though i have to log in again and again. Also i forget my password. I can't login — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.213.127.36 (talk) 21:32, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

Cookies

When I try to log in, I'm told that I need to enable cookies. I've enabled cookies, in both browser and firewall settings. It's still giving me the same message. -Variable

Lost Passwords

Just interested.. is there a way to get back a lost password by email or somehow..? --Gxojo 21:02, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

It's been long enough since I've logged in that I'm not even sure I remember my un properly. Will I have to create a new one, or is it possible on some page that I've not yet seen a link to to have my un mailed to the email address I used when I created the account?

A function for this would be much appreciated. I looked through all the login-related stuff I could find and this is the only mention of it. 80.65.252.206 18:31, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Also true for me...thought I knew my pw, thought I had an email address tagged to me...but I couldn't log in, and when I tried the "email new password" button, I never got a password. --Spinn

It worked! Yay! Got my main account back, thanks. (Posting this to encourage anyone else with password-sending problems to try again.) -- Spinn 23:56, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

Shortcut Key

Is there any shortcut key in the keyboard to access Log In instead of clicking the same by the mouse? 61.0.164.174 13:04, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

For the link at the top of the page that takes you to the login page: try Alt-O or Control-O (Edit: Alt-Shift-O for Firefox on Windows). For the button on the login page that you click after you type your password: Return/Enter. User:chridd (User_talk, Special:Contributions) 19:29, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Can't log in no matter what I do!

I go by the nome de wiki PainMan. Until today, I was able to log in with no issues whatsoever. Now I am completely unable to log in. I've have had TWO new passwords emailed to me and neither has worked.

If I'm not getting bounced because the system doesn't like my password, it's telling me cookies aren't enabled. This is manifestly NOT the case. I've checked ZoneAlarm and NONE of the settings have changed; it's set up exactly the same way it was when I was able to log in (last time a few days back).

I also tried creating a new account, PainMain2 (I know, amazingly creative). It told me the account had been created but then started the alternating dances of "this password's no good"/"cookies are not enabled."

I assure you that I'm an "intermediate" level PC user (somewhere between newbie and programmer, rather closer to the latter than the former). I've done tech support for D**l. If you can't do tech support for that outfit, you can do it anywhere, to mangle a line from a Frank Sinatra song.

Needless to say, I'm very frustrated. Were it not for prescription Valium, inanimate objects would be in danger for their "lives." As it is, I'm still irked.

I've deleted the cookies in all browsers. I've made sure the URLs were added to the "allow" category in both Firefox (my primary browser, 99% of the time) and IE. I even "removed" the entries for wikipedia in ZoneAlarm's Privacy Tab (those who use it know what it means). This allowed new entries to be created, following the my customized defaults.

I also used Steganos Net Trace Eraser to clean the caches of FF and IE (including index.dat and the Internet Temp folders). I even configured ZA (the firewall) to accept third party cookies (this has helped particularly with webmail sites that were giving me headaches). Again, zip, zilch, nada.

Zip, zilch, nada. Can't get into me account. It's really annoying that the system refuses to accept the password IT has generated! Imagine getting a PIN for your debit card from your bank and then having your ATM eat it after using it with no problems for weeks! That's kind of how I feel.

I looked for the webmaster, but was unable to find his or her address. I'm looking for anykind of tech support and can't find anything. In despair, I finally found this page.

An extremely frustrated wikipedian. I don't want to be known as an IP address. I enjoy the fray. But it seems as though the wiki gods are annoyed. If I knew the correct propitiation, I'd make it. But no matter the sacrifice, the Wikivinities are stubbornly refusing me access.

HELP!!!!

Send help to newsjunkie356 (at) cox )dot) net.

New Passwords not being sent

I've asked for a new password repeatedly from the server but I have recieved no emails. I'm unsure what email address I've registered for my account, Aznph8playa, but I only use three email addresses and I've repeatedly checked each one of them. If someone would be kind enough to lend me a hand please email me at aznph8playa@gmail.com

Email server might be down. Christopher Mahan 21:59, 14 August 2005 (UTC)

Also true for me...if the email server has been down, it's been down for at least 10 days. Spinn2 16:21, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

• Edit*

I had to create this new account and I had forgotten the password for it, but the password was sent to me. What should I do to find out the password for my old account? I'm not sure I had put my email address on the account information. Aznph8playa2 23:27, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

HELP

I also asked for a new password, got the email but the email message was blank. I will hold off creating a new user for a few days, could you also put an email where problems like this could be sent even if the user has to jump through several hoops before a real person looks at it. Know that this would be a problem with bots and web-fools out there. 2005-09-12. bobwinmill

Help! Maybe I'm being horribly impatient, but how long should I expect to wait to receive a password as a new user? Signed up for username "maryr" and have yet to receive a password, though it's only been 20 min. or so. Like I said, perhaps I'm simply not waiting long enough. Earlier comments on this page, however, make me wonder if the email server is working? I can be reached @ maryr(shift+2)alumdotmitdotedu. 11.21.2005

If you're truly a new user, you create an account and you supply the password at the same time. No one has created a user Maryr in the last day or so. Please go to Special:Userlogin and try again (click "create account", not "e-mail new password"). The messages above are about requesting a new password via email after registering an account (for folks who've already created an account, provided an email address, and forgot their password). -- Rick Block (talk) 21:33, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Cookie directory is mandatory

Spent some time today wrestling with cookie persistence, which effectively prevented logging me in when the "Remember my password across sessions" was turned off, and failed to save preferences when the option was turned on.

It turns out there was no /tmp directory at the root of the new site I was installing, and hence no disk location to save cookie data. Once the directory was created, all problems subsided. Just thought I'd mention it. - Eric

question about "Keeping your account secure" - moved from page

[What if someone forgets their password for their primary login and the 'retrieve via email' tool doesnt appear to do anything? (May have not specified an email address?) - How does one go about getting the password reset? ZL1VMF 18:51, 4 October 2005 (UTC)] -- Addendum: Appears to be related to the above issue about password resets not being sent. Anyone got an answer? ZL1VMF 09:18, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Case insensitive logins

Well, I can understand the rule of mandatory capital letter of the login. While I would prefer no such rule.

But what I could not figure out is why logins are case sensitive. I had to register 3 logins just to make sure no one will be able to write under my name (I know that 3 are not all variations but anyways). And for names consisting of 5 or more letters situation is even worse. You have to change just one letter to capital / lower-case to copy someone's login name.

I think the best solution is: 1. Login names must be case insensitive. 2. The style you type your name while logging in is the one your login name appears on the screen after you logged in. Whether or not the style of login name writing has to be saved on WM pages where user left traces of activity is to be discussed and depends heavily on WM's technical abilities. Anyways the whole style thing will be almost senseless if it wouldn't be saved for others to see.

"by email" on Special:Userlogin

Anyone know what "by email" does (next to "create account" in the classic skin)? I suppose I could look it up in the code, but shouldn't this form be entirely obvious? -- Rick Block (talk) 21:49, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Create new Account

Hi, Any who know why i Get an error saying "You have created 10 accounts, which exceeds the maximum allowable limit. As a result, you cannot create any more accounts at the moment."?? Honestly i have newer tried to create an account here, so am quite surprised to see that error. Is there any support/sysop that i can mail to on this issue??

Cheers, Ronni