WordPress user verification email – issue with Wordfence

  • Resolved midvith

    (@midvith)


    2 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hello there, Wordfence. Since years I’m using your plugin, but in last few months I’ve reccuring issue. Sometimes when I’ve to log in again as an admin I’ve to first change name of directory (FTP) for Wordfence, so I can log in again. Why? Reason is simple. WordPress asks every user that want to log in for additional email verification. This email never comes, so the only way is to temporarily rename the Wordfence folder to ihj128097y9hu1a (example ofc ?? ). Then the verification requirement disappears and I can log in. After that I can simply rename folder in plugins back to Wordfence and it works fine, again, of course to another moment when I’ve to log in. It also blocks new users from logging in at all, because all of them needs this “magical verification email”.
    So, if Wordfance is not running as it should – folder name is changed – log in page is not asking for email verification, but it Wordfrence is working, it’s “bugged” and users are stuck on email verification, as they don’t get any.
    Let me make a short trouble-shooting for you.

    Am I using GoogleRecaptcha?
    Yes. I was trying to disable it and use both 0,0 and 1,0 settings. No effect. WP still wants to verify through email again.

    So if verification email never comes… other WP emails do?
    Yes. Every other kind of email is working fine – registration, forgotten password, etc.

    Did I check out Please read this before making your post? Yes.
    So… short, but also detailed ??

    Any plugins that alter/change log in page?
    No.

    Have I disabled the cache plugin or added wp-login to the no-cache list?
    Yes. No effect.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
  • Plugin Support wfmargaret

    (@wfmargaret)

    Hi @midvith,

    Thanks for reaching out and for the detailed information!

    The verification emails are sent when someone fails the reCAPTCHA verification. They come from your website and not our servers, and are sent using the default WordPress mail send functions so should behave the same way as any other emails on your site. If you aren’t getting them, then you might want to check the following:

    • The emails (they come [email protected]) are getting sent to your junk mail folder by your email client or provider. Make sure and allowlist or add your website to the list of safe domains so you get emails consistently.
    • Your web server is having a problem with the email software on it. This isn’t like regular emails you send and receive, but rather server alert messages. Usually, a restart of postfix or sendmail (whichever is installed) can fix it. Your hosting provider may need to help with this.
    • Your hosting provider has disabled SMTP from the server for some reason like preventing the server from being used to spam people.
    • You have a third-party plugin for sending emails with another service, like Gmail, which isn’t working. Reaching out to the plugin author for support can help.

    Given that other emails are working normally, I suspect the verification emails may be going to spam. If you have access to email delivery logs on the server, it’s a good idea to review those. The subject on the verification emails is “Login Verification Required”.

    Having said that, you mentioned these emails were still being sent even with reCAPTCHA disabled or set to 0.1, is that accurate? Disabling reCAPTCHA or enabling test mode should allow users to log in without needing to verify at all, and a threshold of 0.1 should allow any visitors who aren’t clearly bots access to the site.

    In Login Security > Settings > reCAPTCHA, what sort of statistics do you see in the Score Statistics chart? If the chart is empty, or if the majority of scores are 0, there may be a conflict or an issue with the current reCAPTCHA key in use.

    Let me know what you find!

    Thanks,
    Margaret

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
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