Passwords

To log in to your WildApricot website – as an administrator, member, or other contact – you enter your email address and password. Passwords are automatically generated and emailed by the system when someone creates a WildApricot account, or they can be set by an administrator.

Note: Forgot your password? See Password reset for even more detailed instructions on resetting a forgotten password.

Password requirements

• 12 characters or more
• both upper and lower case letters
• at least one number
• at least one of the following special characters: #?!@$%^&*- 
• no spaces

Note: WildApricot passwords are case-sensitive.

Changing a password

A member or other contact can change their own password by clicking the Change password link, located near their profile information, after they log in.

The user is then directed to a page where they change their password.

Note: You can customize the appearance of this screen by modifying the Change password system page.

Resetting a password

If a member or other contact forgets their password, they can click the Forgot password link that appears on your website login page.

On the Reset password page, the user enters the email address associated with their WildApricot account, completes the reCAPTCHA, and clicks Submit. 

The user will receive an email with a link to reset their password. This email can sometimes take several minutes to appear.

Note: For security reasons, the emailed link will expire 72 hours after you request a password reset. If you make multiple requests to reset your password within the same 72-hour period, the emails you receive to make password changes will contain the same active link.

Automatic password email

By default, passwords are automatically emailed when new contacts and members are added to your database by the system. 

To disable the automatic email, in the admin view, navigate to Settings > Global settings > Emailing and click the link for Password email. 

In the Password email view, click Edit in the top left corner of the screen.

In the editor view, uncheck the box that indicates a password email should be automatically sent, then click Save in the top left corner of the screen.

With this option unchecked, contacts will only receive a password email if you send it manually.

Emailing passwords

When you add a contact manually, you can generate and email a new password to the contact by clicking the Email new password button from within the Contact details tab for an individual contact.

Customizing the password email

To customize the contents of the automated password email:

1. Select Settings from the admin sidebar menu.
2. Click Password email in Global settings > Emailing.
3. Click Edit at the top of the screen.
4. Make changes in the editor, then click Save at the top of the screen.

Password reset macro for manual emails

To manually send an email with instructions for resetting passwords, include the {Contact_Password_Reset_URL} macro in your message. Email recipients can then click the link to reset their password on your website.

Changing a contact's password as an admin

An administrator can change the password for an individual within the Contact details tab, or they can change passwords in bulk through an import.

Changing an individual password manually

For security reasons, a contact's existing password is not visible to admins, but admins can reset the password for any contact.

To manually change a contact's password:

1. Navigate to Contacts > List and select the contact. 

2. In the Contact details tab, locate the Login details and click Edit.

3. Enter and confirm the new password then click Save at the top right corner of the screen.

Changing passwords in bulk through import

You can import existing passwords by including them in a column on a spreadsheet with Password as the column header. Be sure to select Password as the Map to data field during the import process. For more information, see our Importing checklist.

Troubleshooting

I submitted a password reset request but I did not receive an email

If you don't receive the password reset email:

• Check your email spam folder
• If you set up your WildApricot website to use a custom domain name, make sure it is set up with the correct SPF record and SPF settings.

When I click on the reset link, I get a "404 - Page not found" error

This problem is related to an incorrect custom domain setup. Make sure that it is set up as described on our Custom domain setup help page.

When I click on the reset link, a message says that it is expired

For security reasons, the password reset link is only valid for 72 hours. After this, you will need to use the Forgot password link again to generate a new email with a new reset link.