Log in to the admin panel

The admin panel is where you change everything about your site. Only admins can open it. This page is for anyone who has been made an admin and needs to get in.

Admins are separate from choir members: being a member of the choir does not let you into the admin panel, and members log in somewhere else. See How members log in.

Find the admin login

Do either of these:

• Go to your site's address followed by /admin, for example https://www.example.org/admin.
• Scroll to the bottom of any page of your public site and follow the Admin link in the footer.

If you are already logged in, you go straight to the dashboard. Otherwise you see a page headed Admin with your choir's name under it.

The footer link can be hidden or given a different name. See The footer. The address ending in /admin always works.

Which form will I see?

There are two ways to log in, and your site uses one or both.

On a site we host

You always log in by emailed link. There is no username or password.

On a self-hosted site

Whoever runs the server chooses, with the ADMIN_AUTH setting.

• With ADMIN_AUTH=env, which is the default, there is one shared username and password, and you see the username and password form.
• With ADMIN_AUTH=table, each admin logs in by emailed link, and the server's username and password remain as a spare way in.

See Admin sign-in: one password or a login for each admin.

Log in by emailed link

Use this when the page asks for an Email address.

The admin login page asking for an email address, with the Email me a login link button

1. Type the email address you were added as an admin with into Email address.
2. Press Email me a login link.
3. The page changes to Check your email. Open the email from your site and follow the link in it.
4. A page opens saying You're almost in. Click below to finish logging in on this device. Press Log in.

You are now on the dashboard.

The admin login page after a link has been requested, headed Check your email

Things to know about the link:

• It works once and stops working after 15 minutes.
• Open it on the device you want to use the admin panel on. Requesting it on a computer and opening it on a phone logs in the phone.
• If you typed the wrong address, press Use a different email address and start again.

The page a login link opens, saying You're almost in, with a Log in button

Why do I have to press Log in?

Many email services open the links in a message before you do, to check them for danger. If opening the link were enough, that check would use up your single-use link before you saw it. The extra press makes sure it is really you.

Log in with a username and password

Use this when the page asks for a Username and Password. Only self-hosted sites have this form.

The admin login page on a self-hosted site, asking for a username and password, with the Sign In button

1. Type the Username.
2. Type the Password.
3. Press Sign In.

On a self-hosted site

The username and password are the ADMIN_USERNAME and ADMIN_PASSWORD set on the server. They are not kept in the admin panel and cannot be changed there. Whoever logs in this way is a Site Admin, the kind of admin who can do everything.

On a site where admins log in by emailed link, the two forms are linked to each other:

• Under the email form, press Use the server's username and password instead.
• Under the username and password form, press Email me a login link instead.

How long you stay logged in

A login lasts 24 hours by default. After that you are asked to log in again.

On a self-hosted site

The length is the ADMIN_SESSION_HOURS setting. See Sessions and how long people stay logged in.

If a Site Admin disables or deletes your admin account, you are logged out straight away, whatever time is left.

Log out

Press Log out at the foot of the menu in the admin panel. On a shared computer, always log out when you have finished.

If something goes wrong

The email does not arrive

The page says Check your email whatever address you type. It never says whether the address belongs to an admin, so that a stranger cannot use the page to find out who your admins are. If nothing has come after a couple of minutes, check these in order:

1. Your spam or junk folder.
2. The address. It must be the address a Site Admin added you with. Press Use a different email address and try again, watching for typing mistakes.
3. How often you have asked. Each admin can be sent one link a minute and five an hour. Asking more often than that sends nothing, although the page looks the same. Wait a minute, ask once, and wait for it.
4. Whether you are still an admin. An admin who has been set to Disabled, or deleted, is sent nothing. Ask a Site Admin to look at the list in Add, change or remove an admin.

On a site we host

If none of that helps, see Get help.

On a self-hosted site

If no admin is receiving links, the server is probably not sending email at all. Log in with the server's username and password if they are set, then see Nobody can log in, or emails do not arrive and Add the first admin, and get back in when locked out.

Messages on the login page

Message	What it means	What to do
This login link has expired or has already been used. Request a new one below.	The link is more than 15 minutes old, has been used once already, or your admin account has since been changed or disabled.	Ask for a new link and use the newest email.
This login link is no longer valid	The same, shown when the site could not give a fuller reason.	Ask for a new link.
Enter a valid email address.	What you typed is not an email address.	Check for a missing @ or a stray space.
Invalid credentials	The username or password is wrong.	Type them again. If they are lost, whoever runs the server can set new ones.
The admin account is not set up on the server (ADMIN_USERNAME and ADMIN_PASSWORD).	A self-hosted site has no username and password set.	Whoever runs the server needs to set them. See The settings every site needs.
Could not send a login link or Server error	The site could not deal with the request.	Try again in a minute. On a self-hosted site, look at the server's logs: see Logs and health checks.

An old link keeps failing

Each link works once, for 15 minutes. If you have asked several times and have several emails, the simplest thing is to ask once more and use the newest one. Changing an admin's name, email address or kind also cancels every link already sent to them.