Title: $wpdb->prepare error Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # $wpdb->prepare error * Resolved [David Cavins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dcavins/) * (@dcavins) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpdb-prepare-error/) * Hi Rich- * With 3.5, `prepare` expects an additional argument, so it issues a warning for line 18 of `function etivite_bp_pending_activations_users_count()`. It doesn’t look like you need `prepare` anyway (since the query isn’t using any variables), so I’ve updated the statement to * `$count = $wpdb->get_var( "SELECT COUNT(u.ID) FROM $wpdb->usermeta m1, $wpdb- >users u WHERE u.ID = m1.user_id AND u.user_status = 2 AND m1.meta_key = 'activation_key' ORDER BY u.user_registered ASC" );` * It works fine for me on two test installations. * -David * [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-pending-activations/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-pending-activations/) Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) * [Norm](https://wordpress.org/support/users/casualmagic/) * (@casualmagic) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpdb-prepare-error/#post-3266376) * David, * I’m trying to migrate users into a buddypress environment and need to activate all the existing users in bp. * This plugin would be very helpful but I’m not sure where I would take your code and apply it to the existing plugin. Could you post the file you modified somewhere? * Thanks. * Thread Starter [David Cavins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dcavins/) * (@dcavins) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpdb-prepare-error/#post-3266377) * Hi Norm- * You can make the necessary change pretty easily. Within the plugin folder buddypress- pending-activations, open the file `bp-pending-activations.php` and find this line (it’s not a long file): * `$count = $wpdb->get_var( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT COUNT(u.ID) FROM $wpdb->usermeta m1, $wpdb->users u WHERE u.ID = m1.user_id AND u.user_status = 2 AND m1.meta_key = 'activation_key' ORDER BY u.user_registered ASC" ) );` * Replace it with my correction in the post above and you should be set. (You could actually do this via WordPress’ built-in plugin editor, too.) Let me know if you could use more advice. * [Norm](https://wordpress.org/support/users/casualmagic/) * (@casualmagic) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpdb-prepare-error/#post-3266378) * Thanks that seemed to do half the trick. I’m getting this error on the plugin admin page. It’s showing no users as pending but that is clearly not the case. * Any thoughts? * Warning: Missing argument 2 for wpdb::prepare(), called in …/wp-content/plugins/ buddypress-pending-activations/admin/bp-pending-activations-admin.php on line 6 and defined in …/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 990 * Thread Starter [David Cavins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dcavins/) * (@dcavins) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpdb-prepare-error/#post-3266379) * Yep, you’re right, there are several more prepares in the admin interface code.( But they don’t actually prevent the plugin from working.) * Can you explain your problem a little further? Are you transitioning to BuddyPress from WordPress (and your users already exist) or are you bulk adding users and wanting to activate their accounts? * Do you have access to your database? The reason I ask is that the BP Pending Activations plugin will only find users that have a user_status of 2 (unverified, basically) AND an activation key associated with their account in the `wp_usermeta` table. (It only finds users that signed up using the BP system.) If you do have access to your db, search the usermeta table for the `meta_key` with the value of `activation_key`. * [Norm](https://wordpress.org/support/users/casualmagic/) * (@casualmagic) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpdb-prepare-error/#post-3266380) * I’m moving users from Joomla to WordPress. I do have access to the database. * I’ve been able to move the users into wordpress without buddypress where they can login after going through the password reset process. When I brought buddypress into the mix I could still go through the password reset process but then unable to login because the account isn’t activated. * The user status for the imported users is 2 in the wp_user table. There isn’t a an activation_key associated with those useres in the wp_usermeta table. Just wp_user_level and wp_capabilities. * When I look a the Pending Activation plugin admin I see zero users in the list. I assumed it is because I’m still seeing that error message and it can’t properly call the users. * What I gather from what you are saying is that I need to add a row for each user to the wp_usermeta table with the right data that implies activated user. * Thread Starter [David Cavins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dcavins/) * (@dcavins) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpdb-prepare-error/#post-3266381) * Hi Norm- * If you’re comfortable making changes in the db, make a backup of the `wp_users` table, than change each user’s user_status from 2 to 0. And they will be seen as “activated” users, and allowed to log in. * The normal BuddyPress registration process is like this: 1. User signs up via BP form. (At this point, the user is created in the wp_users table and given the user_status of 2. BP also creates the activation_key entry in the usermeta db.) 2. WP/BP sends the user an e-mail with the activation key in it. 3. User clicks on the link in the e-mail, telling WP/BP that the e-mail address was legitimate. (BP sets the user_status to 0 in the db and deletes the activation_key entry in the usermeta db.) * I wouldn’t worry about the plugin at this point. It’s meant to help activate users who signed up in the “normal” BuddyPress way, but didn’t respond to the verification e-mail (usually because it got marked as spam). * [Norm](https://wordpress.org/support/users/casualmagic/) * (@casualmagic) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpdb-prepare-error/#post-3266382) * That is the solution! * Changing the user_status to “0” in wp_users did the trick. * Thanks for your help. I can see how the plugin will be helpful moving forward and keeping an eye on inactive registrations. * Plugin Author [baldgoat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/baldgoat/) * (@baldgoat) * [12 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpdb-prepare-error/#post-3266424) * This should be fixed in the latest release. Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) The topic ‘$wpdb->prepare error’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/buddypress-pending-activations.svg) * [BuddyPress Pending Activations](https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress-pending-activations/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress-pending-activations/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/buddypress-pending-activations/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/buddypress-pending-activations/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/buddypress-pending-activations/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/buddypress-pending-activations/reviews/) ## Tags * [prepare](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/prepare/) * 8 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [baldgoat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/baldgoat/) * Last activity: [12 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wpdb-prepare-error/#post-3266424) * Status: resolved