How to Create a Temporary Login Without a Password in WordPress

A problem I had recently was that I needed to give a support agent from a plugin company Admin-level access to a WordPress site. The cause was an obscure bug they couldn’t help with any other way. But I was left with two not-great options:

• Give them access to an existing account, and change the password to that account later
• Create a new account for them, and then remember to delete it later

What I wished I had was a way to give them a new account for a limited time, and not need to remember to remove it later. I ended up putting a calendar reminder for myself to make sure the account was gone if the support conversation failed to prompt me to do it.

Later, I found out there’s a better option to handle exactly this situation. And that is the Temporary Login Without Password plugin.

The plugin does what you’d expect. First, it creates a temporary account you can give to someone who needs access to your site for a short time. Better (or worse, depending on your preferences) is that temporary access can be granted without them needing to create or remember the username and password.

Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Temporary WordPress Account

1. Install and activate Temporary Login Without Password
2. Go to Users > Temporary Logins on the left-side menu
3. Click Create New
4. Add the email address for the account, as well as the “Role” (make that the low as your use case allows) and the expiry (favor as short as possible)
5. Click Submit

You’ll now have a temporary account. You can use the plugin to email the login link to the user, or submit it to them through some more secure communication channel.

Security Considerations

The security implications of this whole arrangement are worth considering.

If your WordPress site holds government secrets, sharing access is always a bad idea. Period.

If you’re comfortable emailing a username and password to someone, emailing this link has the exact same effect. If you’re not comfortable emailing a username and password, probably don’t use this plugin.

But for most people this is a reasonable way to get ease-of-transfer-of-access and does come with the benefit that the account will have some expiration date. That’s better than leaving any unneeded account open for no useful purpose.