If you’ve ever needed to see your WordPress site through another user’s eyes, you know how frustrating it can be to constantly log out and back in with different accounts.
One the most common features that makes living with a membership site easier is the ability to quickly see what a given user is seeing. This can be a hard to do if you’re make a web app yourself, but if you’re using WordPress, there’s a plugin for that. 🙂
The plugin we’re talking about is called User Switching, by John Blackbourn. What’s great about it is that it makes it as easy as going into a user list and clicking “Switch To” under their name. No need to know their password, or create a new account with a given level and log in to that one. Instead, you can use your existing WordPress Admin account and simply take on any other role you want in seconds.
And if text is more your speed, here’s how to do it in a few simple steps…
And if text is more your speed, here’s how to do it in a few simple steps…
How to Quickly Log In To Other WordPress User Accounts and Roles
- Install and activate the User Switching plugin by going to Plugins > Add New
- Once you’ve installed and activated, you’ll simply go to Users in your admin area while logged in as an Admin.
- There, under each user, you’ll see a Switch To link in the menu that appears when you hover over a user. Click that link under the user you want to switch to.
To switch back to your Admin user account, you’ll have two options:
- “Switch back to…” link will be displayed in the bottom left corner of your website. But if you don’t see it for any reason there are two more ways to switch back.
- If the user you switched to can see the Admin Bar, you’ll be able to find a “Switch back to…” link in the profile dropdown in the top right of the Admin Bar.
- If the user you switched to can’t see the Admin Bar, you’ll see the option to switch back if you go to your WordPress login screen. It’ll be above the login box on the page.
When You’ll Find User Switching Most Helpful
This simple plugin becomes invaluable when you’re troubleshooting customer support issues and need to see exactly what a member is experiencing, testing how different membership levels interact with your content, debugging e-commerce checkout processes from a customer’s perspective, or simply making sure that your content looks like it should for various user roles before going live.
Once you start using User Switching, you’ll wonder how you ever managed a multi-user WordPress site without it.
