Cannot delete default admin user in multisite

  • Resolved rhdesign

    (@rhdesign)


    11 years, 2 months ago

    Im going to start off by saying that I did a ton of searching on this and according to everything I have read, deleting the default admin user should be possible and should be done to enhance security; however it is not allowing me to delete it. I have a multisite install with 8 different sites running WP 3.5 and I ran into a multitude of issues while attempting to delete the default admin user:

    1. With the original “admin” super admin, I created 4 new users and assigned them all “super admin” privileges. For some reason, even though I assigned them super admin privileges, I still had to go through each of my 8 sites and add all four users and set them as admins for them to see the sites in their “my sites” drop-down (which this seems like a bug or a much needed enhancement; all “super admins” should have access to the entire network as an admin by default).

    2. I also went into each site and removed the default “admin” user leaving only my 4 new admin users. It is here I found another issue in that it never asked me if i wanted to transfer posts when i removed the admin user from each individual site. The user is no longer in the table (in the visual table, not referring to database table) however the posts still show as being written by admin.

    3. I also noticed that when i was looking at all users for a specific site, the categorization links at the top listed “Administrator (4) | Super Administrator (1)” event though when looking at the network admin panel for all users, my four new users are all set as “super admins”. Once I deleted the default admin user from the individual sites, the categorization links just show “Administrator (4)” now

    I also set the network admin email to one of the new super admins I had created, as well as went into each site and through the settings I set the main email to the same new super admin user.

    After doing all of this, I am still not able to remove the admin user from the Network users. Am I missing something in this process or did I just happen to find 3 different multisite wordpress bugs in doing this?

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  • Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years, 2 months ago

    Are you trying to remove an admin from a site or the SUPER admin (aka network admin) from the network?

    You have to have at least one super admin to do anything.

    Thread Starter rhdesign

    (@rhdesign)

    11 years, 2 months ago

    I am trying to remove the username “admin” from the network; I was able to remove the user from the individual sites but not from the network…as I said in my original posting, I have already assigned 4 other network super admins.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years, 2 months ago

    You said a lot of things, much of which was confusing 🙂

    Go to /wp-admin/network/users.php

    Edit the admin.

    UNCHECK the box for super-admin.

    Now you should be able to delete them from there.

    Thread Starter rhdesign

    (@rhdesign)

    11 years, 2 months ago

    Sorry, i tried to make it as clear as possible while still getting all the information across, I know it was a lot to take in 🙂

    I have already unchecked the “super admin” box for the admin user in the network

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years, 2 months ago

    Okay, uncheck and save. The box remains unchecked so go back to /wp-admin/network/users.php and dlete them.

    What happens then?

    Thread Starter rhdesign

    (@rhdesign)

    11 years, 2 months ago

    Yes I saved afterwards and no, it does not change anything; I still cannot delete that user.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years, 2 months ago

    You mean the box remains checked after you uncheck and save?

    Thread Starter rhdesign

    (@rhdesign)

    11 years, 2 months ago

    no, the box is unchecked and the account no longer shows up as a super admin account, but I cannot delete it

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years, 2 months ago

    Are you trying to delete them from /wp-admin/network/users.php ?

    Thread Starter rhdesign

    (@rhdesign)

    11 years, 2 months ago

    yes

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years, 2 months ago

    And what error does it throw when you delete? Or is the link just not there?

    Thread Starter rhdesign

    (@rhdesign)

    11 years, 2 months ago

    there is no error. The “Delete” link does show but when i click it, it looks like the user table just refreshes but nothing has changed…”admin” user is still there and no error message or anything appears. It really seems like a bug.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years, 2 months ago

    Go to /wp-admin/network/settings.php

    What’s the email there? Is it the admin you can’t delete?

    Thread Starter rhdesign

    (@rhdesign)

    11 years, 2 months ago

    I addressed that in my initial post; No, it is not the email of the admin i can’t delete, I went in and changed it because i knew that is one thing that needs to be done before you delete a user.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years, 2 months ago

    Well… the only thing left is SQL.

    Go into wp_sitemeta and look for site_admins

    In there you will see something like this: a:1:{i:0;s:7:"Ipstenu";} (though I bet yours is more like a:3:{i:0;s:5:"liono";i:1;s:8:"thundera";i:2;s:11:"swordofomens";} instead)

    You should make yours a:1:{i:0;s:8:"rhdesign";} to ONLY allow your ID to be super admin.

    However if you wanted to add WileyKit instead it would be a:1:{i:0;s:8:"WileyKit";}

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