LLAR blocks all new users after creation

After the WP upgrade to 5.2.2, we now have a difficult problem which seems to be caused by Limit Login Attempts Reloaded.

The user record is created as usual via the chain to wp_insert_user(), and that all succeeds, and the database entry appears normal.

However when trying to login for that user, it gets rejected by LLAR with “Too many unsuccessful attempts” – this is on the first login attempt and using the correct password.

This is my first time looking into how LLAR works in detail and I’m struggling to find out what is causing this. If I whitelist the user then it can login. But if you have any advice on how to correct this it would be appreciated.

Many thanks ??