Title: Using User Search Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Using User Search * Resolved [letsserveit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/letsserveit/) * (@letsserveit) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/) * Just updated to the latest version of wordpress, and not too happy with the results. * I use the search function on the users superadmin tab a few times a week, to search for email domains such as 163.com who has signed up, as these users are generally spam, i look for domains that has come up a few times, and then search for the domain name in search users – the previously version used to bring up the results of any users using a email address matching the search string, and then I would just select all and mark as spam. * This no longer works! * does anyone have any ideas? Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 22 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/page/2/?output_format=md) * [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/) * (@andrea_r) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1941889) * Wildcard in the front of the string will not work. niether will partials, actually. * Myna* will work. * Thread Starter [letsserveit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/letsserveit/) * (@letsserveit) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1941909) * This is not good, particles worked before and dealt with the situation fine for me! * How can I change this back??! * it was really handy when I had loads of signups from the same spammy domain to find them all in a search to group them, and then mark as spam!! * If i had known the search function had changed in 3.1, I wouldn’t have bothered upgrading!! * [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/) * (@andrea_r) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1941931) * > it was really handy when I had loads of signups from the same spammy domain > to find them all in a search to group them, and then mark as spam!! * Then go BLOCK THEM in the moderation list. Save yourself some work, you;re doing this the long way around. * Did the search change? Yes. Is it different? Yep Does it still work? Yes, but differently than you are used to. * the point is – rather than downgrading (which you can do) I’m suggesting you fix the other issue. You won’t *have to* keep searching like that if you were blocking them properly in the first place. * Also, you can zip to the end of the list without searching. * (Yes, I run my own networks. I rarely have to search for spam signup and when I do, I don;t do it like that.) * Thread Starter [letsserveit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/letsserveit/) * (@letsserveit) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1941937) * > Then go BLOCK THEM in the moderation list. Save yourself some work, you;re > doing this the long way around. * i DO block the domains in the moderation list, I just had to search for domains again when a new domain gets added with loads of spam blogs, hence why I have to do another user search, and they’re not always on the very last page. * > Did the search change? Yes. > Is it different? Yep Does it still work? Yes, > but differently than you are used to. * No it doesn’t work – not in the way that I preferred/wanted it to work in the past * > the point is – rather than downgrading (which you can do) I’m suggesting you > fix the other issue. You won’t *have to* keep searching like that if you were > blocking them properly in the first place. * As mentioned before, I do add domains to the blocked domains list, but when new domain have come through the net, they are added as I go along. * > Also, you can zip to the end of the list without searching. * Yes, fair enough you can, but I want to use the search to bring up all the same signup email domain so that i can do the click all, and mark as spam – simples. * > (Yes, I run my own networks. I rarely have to search for spam signup and when > I do, I don;t do it like that.) * Whats your secret to a no spam signup, everything I have tried has slipped throuh the net and spam signups still exists. yesterday alone, I got 100 spam signups!! * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942077) * The change was made to match the STANDARD way searches work in most apps, actually. Sorry you don’t like it, but don’t expect it to change. It was done to meet web standards. * I get next to no spam sign ups as well: I use Akismet, Bad Behavior, Cookies for Comments (with the .htaccess tweak for blocking users from my signup page) and this: [http://wpmututorials.com/how-to/spam-blogs-and-buddypress/](http://wpmututorials.com/how-to/spam-blogs-and-buddypress/) * [Pete Mall](https://wordpress.org/support/users/petemall/) * (@petemall) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942088) * Search was changed because it doesn’t scale well. * > With regards to leading wildcards, that is something we considered, but decided > against straight-up implementing it. Trailing wildcards are okay on performance > cause it can search the start of the field, but leading definitely hurt the > DB. (I actually think that leading is just as bad as both leading and trailing, > but I haven’t confirmed.) * –Andrew Nacin * If you understand the performance impact and want to change this then you can write a plugin and hook into WP_User_Query to change the behavior. * [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/) * (@andrea_r) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942113) * > Whats your secret to a no spam signup, everything I have tried has slipped > throuh the net and spam signups still exists. yesterday alone, I got 100 spam > signups!! * I’ve covered it literally hundreds of times here in the forums and in the old mu forums and in my blog (wpmututorials,com) * Biggest thing you can do: go to Network Admin -> Options. UNCHECK the box that says “Allow users to add other users” * that means spammers let their spammy little friends in. * [wphreditor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wphreditor/) * (@wphreditor) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942234) * Does anyone know of a plugin that can do the search like letsserveit described? * In my case, I use my WP for a class I help staff and we have hundreds of students that sign up for user accounts, I need to be able to search based on their email address so I can give them the access they need and put them in the right user group. * This is really bad. I too would have skipped the upgrade had I known. At this point, if the students don’t use their real name as part of their user account, I have no way to find them. * Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get back the “search for users by email domain/whatever” functionality? * Thank you, Markus * Thread Starter [letsserveit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/letsserveit/) * (@letsserveit) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942235) * Maybe not a true secure solution, but what I did was just uploaded the old wp- admin/ms-users.php file and directly call it in the browser, You get the search option back to how it was before, but you will need to go to the address manually each time that you want to do a search. * You’ll also need to upload the old wp-admin/ms-edit.php, as it calls onto this if you edit/change anything * [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/) * (@andrea_r) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942236) * > I need to be able to search based on their email address so I can give them > the access they need and put them in the right user group. > This is really bad. I too would have skipped the upgrade had I known. At this > point, if the students don’t use their real name as part of their user account, > I have no way to find them. * if you know their full email address, it shoudl still find them. * [wphreditor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wphreditor/) * (@wphreditor) * [15 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942242) * Yes that worked(searching by full email) – thank you all very much! * [ivantus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ivantus/) * (@ivantus) * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942349) * I’ve read the whole discussion and I do not agree with some comments here. Someone want to tell me that excluding the option to search the users table by email is a step forward? Come on – I have 90k users, almost NO spam registrations, but many many dumb users who doesn’t know how to behave or who can’t learn how to use the option to reset their password and I need to find them by email address since they contact us via the contact form, using some other name and their active email address. I tried to search for myself using the full email address but with no success so it doesn’t work – definitely. Yes, I’m used to the way that I used for many years, I liked the way better and the most important thing – it was MUCH MUCH easier before the new option. Using wildcards is ok, but together with the option to search the users by email. And now – how shell I find the users that forgot their username AND password? Definitely a step backwards! * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942350) * FYI, posting the same question multiple times does not endear you to the mods 🙂 * As I said [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/31-upgrade-now-user-and-site-search-not-working?replies=24#post-2098845](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/31-upgrade-now-user-and-site-search-not-working?replies=24#post-2098845) * You CAN search by [email@domain.com](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/email@domain.com?output_format=md)– I do it every day for the exact same reason (I have a numbnut user who is incapable of remembering her password). And you know what? I was wrong about something. You can search for *@domain.com too! * You can’t do wildcards in front from the network admin, but it works fine from the per-site users, and you CAN search for the full email address on the network admin. * [ivantus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ivantus/) * (@ivantus) * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942351) * i do not have the intention to draw attention of the mods but since there are two similar topics, i wanted to share my opinion on both. Unfortunately in my wp installation 3.1.1 search using users emails doesn’t return any results even when i type my own email address. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/#post-1942352) * Upgrade to 3.1.2 – Works perfectly for me so either it was fixed in the latest version, or you have a plugin conflict. Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 22 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘Using User Search’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [user search](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/user-search/) * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/) * 22 replies * 8 participants * Last reply from: [Brayne](https://wordpress.org/support/users/brayne/) * Last activity: [14 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-user-search/page/2/#post-1942370) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics