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How to Grant Temporary Access to WordPress Dashboard and Protected Content without Passwords

Website management and maintenance requires you to remove unwanted users from your website constantly. This process will take you a lot of time and effort if there are dozens of such accounts. That’s why creating and revoking these accounts automatically via a temporary access could be a more efficient solution. Better yet, your users don’t even have to manage their account passwords. 

In this article, we will explain what temporary access without passwords is and why you need it. Then we will show you how to create temporary passwordless accounts to log in to your WordPress dashboard or access your password protected content automatically.

What Is Temporary Access without Passwords?

Temporary access without passwords, also known as one-click access, allows users to access your WordPress dashboard or protected content in a given time automatically.
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Instead of having to enter passwords manually, users can click on a special link that grants protected content access or logs them into your WordPress dashboard automatically. This link will become invalid after a certain period of time. After that, users have to log in or enter passwords again to gain back access to your WordPress dashboard and protected content.

Why Allowing Temporary Access without Password?

You might wonder when to give users temporary access to your WordPress dashboard. Here are the 2 most common scenarios:

Grant WordPress admin temporary access to specific users

We all need a helping hand sometimes. It could be a freelance developer to assist with coding or a web designer to upgrade your website design. In order to do so, they would need access to your WordPress admin dashboard.

Since these jobs are short-term, you should provide them with temporary accounts that stop them from accessing your WordePress dashboard after a period of time.

Allows users to access protected content temporarily

Let’s say, you’re offering a 3-month online course. It’s certain that you want your paid students to view the learning materials in that period of time only. After that, they won’t be able to log in, access, or download your course materials. Temporary access without passwords will come in handy in such cases.

There are 2 main benefits of using passwordless temporary access for both website owners and their users.

Get rid of manual account management

It takes a lot of time to create and manage such temporary accounts manually. What’s more, you must always remember to go back and disable these freelance users’ accounts once their work has been done. These users also have to get and remember the credential information to login.

Temporary passwordless access solves these issues with ease. Simply create a temporary access link with an expiry time. These links and corresponding accounts will automatically become invalid after the period. 

You don’t have to manage these accounts manually anymore. Neither your users have to remember their passwords. 

Maintain high-security for your site

If you have to create many temporary accounts, chances are you will forget to remove some. This will open doors for unwanted users to hack into your website and data.

Besides, when being asked for a password, users often use the same or think of a easy-to-remember-but-weak password. It can be their own birthday, their name, and the variations of the word “password” such as “passw0rd” or “p4ssw0rd”. Ofcom organization identifies in the “Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes Report 2013” report that 55% of 1,805 internet users aged-16-and-over use only one password for most websites. Consequently, hackers can easily guess these passwords and access your website. . 

Providing passwordless access temporarily will stop users from creating weak passwords and helps increase your site security.

Now you understand the benefits and common cases when you should provide temporary access to your WordPress dashboard and protected content. It’s time to discover the how-to. 

How to Create Temporary Login Accounts 

Temporary Login Without Password free plugin, as its name suggests, allows site owners to create temporary accounts for different user roles, including Admin, Developer, Subscriber, Editor, and more. You don’t have to worry about the security vulnerability of generating a lot of new accounts since they will be disabled after a certain time period.

The 3 following steps show you how to install and use the plugin to create and manage temporary access to your WordPress dashboard.

Step 1: Install Temporary Login Without Password plugin

Quickly add the plugin to your WordPress dashboard by:

Heading to Plugin in your WordPress navigation menu and click Add New

Add New WordPress Plugin

Search for Temporary Login Without Password in the Keyword box

Temporary WordPress Login

Hit Install and Activate buttons 

Temporary Login Without Password

Step 2: Create login links 

Upon activation, the plugin will be inserted directly to your WordPress dashboard sidebar, under the Users section. Click Create New to add a new temporary login account. 

temporary

You need to fill out the form with the information of the new temporary account: 

  • Enter the email, the first and last name of the user
  • Choose a role for that user. There are different roles you can select such as Admin, Subscriber, Editor, etc.
  • Set the expiration time. After this duration, the account won’t be valid anymore. The default time period is one week from the date you create that temporary account. You can choose a custom date too.

Once providing all the information, remember to hit the Submit button to save your changes.

After you’ve done creating a temporary login account, let’s see how to share it with others as well as check the login information in the Manage temporary logins step below. 

Step 3: Manage temporary logins

Temporary Login Without Password makes it really easy for you to manage the temporary accounts. You can go to the Temporary Logins page under Users in your WordPress navigation menu.

Manage WordPress Account

There, you can see a list of temporary accounts with their details. Each column presents an element of the login information, from the username, role, the last logged in time to the time the account will expire.

There are different icons in the Actions column that enables you to:

  • Disable the account with the lock icon
  • Delete the account through the cross (x) icon
  • Edit the account information via the pencil icon
  • Send the login links to users embedded in emails by clicking on the mail icon
  • Copy the login URL with the hyperlink icon

Keep in mind that if you delete a temporary account, the author’s name of the content created by that user will be replaced by the admin account.

What If You Want to Provide Temporary Access to Password Protected Content?

Password protected pages and posts require users to enter the correct password to view the content. Generating passwordless access link allowing users to view the locked content without filling the password form.

Password Protect WordPress Pro offers a great solution that authorizes your users to access the locked pages and posts without filling in the password form. Instead, you can send them a custom link embedded the password.

To install the plugin, you need to download the plugin zip file. Unzip the file and upload it to your WordPress dashboard by clicking on Plugin →  Add NewUpload Plugin.

Add new plugin

add plugins

After installing, you can start password protecting your content with passwords and generate password embedded custom links immediately.

Create temporary access to protected pages with PPWP Pro

There are 2 main steps that need taking to create temporary access to your protected pages and posts. You firstly lock the content with a password, then generate temporary access links that allow users to view the hidden content without entering the password.

Step 1: Password protect the content

To create a password to protect the content, follow these 4 steps:

  1. Head over Posts or Pages section and find your desired post/page

Click on the Password protect link next to the Date column

wordpress password protect

Hit the Password protect this page button on the Password Protect pop up

wordpress password protect

Your page/post is locked with a random password generated by the plugin now. You can add your own passwords by clicking on the New Password tab.

new wordpress password

Step 2: Generate temporary access links to the protected content

Once a page is protected, its passwords and access links will be managed on the pop-up screen. Simply click on the Copy access link icon in the Action column to get the access link of the post.

wordpress password protection

Now, users can see the hidden content in 2 ways, either accessing the content directly with the temporary access link or entering the correct password to the password form.

Ready to Grant Passwordless Temporary Access to WordPress Dashboard and Protected Content?

Providing users temporary access to both WordPress dashboard and protected content proves useful in many cases. Not only can you increase the site security but you’re also able to improve the user experience. Your users don’t have to remember the password or spend time filling in the login and password form.

 

If you’re looking for a free solution to create and manage temporary login accounts easily, just install Temporary Login Without Password. To allow users to freely access the protected pages or posts in a short period of time, get Password Protect WordPress Pro.

Any concerns about generating temporary access to the WordPress dashboard and protected pages and posts without passwords? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!

  1. ปั้มไลค์ July 21, 2020 at 3:58 pm

    Like!! I blog frequently and I really thank you for your content. The article has truly peaked my interest.

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