Resolved WordPress Toolkit shows list of admin users but can't update as says user doesn't exist

[MHC_1]

Server operating system version

aalmalinux 9

Plesk version and microupdate number

18

WordPress Toolkit shows admin users, but it can't update them. Says can't find them despite them existing.

WordPress toolkit can't log in to the Wordpress dashboard (presents the setup dialogue as below instead).

The SQL data for the _users and _usermeta tables both appear correct in PhpMyAdmin




How can I resolve this? I have tried to clear the WP toolkit cache for this ( as per site https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/12377346626071-How-to-clear-WordPress-cache-in-Plesk ) but makes no change.

 

[scsa20]

If possible log in directly into Plesk and make sure it has the administrator role. As another test you can also remove all other roles that account has and retry and see what happens.

 

[Sebahat.hadzhi]

@MHC_1 , what else you might want to check is the database prefix defined in the wp-config.php file and make sure that it matches the actual database prefix (for example, through phpMyAdmin) for all tables.

 

[MHC_1]

@MHC_1 , what else you might want to check is the database prefix defined in the wp-config.php file and make sure that it matches the actual database prefix (for example, through phpMyAdmin) for all tables.

Hello. Yes this has already been done. To be clear; the drop down list of Adminstrators correctly lists the (3) admins on the system but it doesn't seem to be able to log in with any of them. I have also checked the `_metadata` table on the DB and all admin have the correct admin flag on their data.

If possible log in directly into Plesk and make sure it has the administrator role. As another test you can also remove all other roles that account has and retry and see what happens.

I'm not sure I understand, you mean log directly in to the Wordpress ( site.co.uk/wp-login.php ) to access the dashboard? I have just tried this and the login simply resets to the home page without any notices.

... Maybe this is a Wordpress rather than a Toolkit problem.....

 

[scsa20]

If logging in directly by going to site.tld/wp-admin then something is broken with either your wordpress installation or the use of .htaccess (if using Apache) or NGINX rewrite rules or something which you'll want to get that fixed before getting WPToolKit fixed. It's also possible you have some sort of database corruption. In either case, need to fix WordPress first before anything else.

 

[MHC_1]

If logging in directly by going to site.tld/wp-admin then something is broken with either your wordpress installation or the use of .htaccess (if using Apache) or NGINX rewrite rules or something which you'll want to get that fixed before getting WPToolKit fixed. It's also possible you have some sort of database corruption. In either case, need to fix WordPress first before anything else.

Thanks. We've turned off all plugins and reset wordpress to core . Wordpress user_metadata is set up correctly the user is the administrator but logins only ever go to the home page rather than any sort of dashboard.

At a loss how to get the dashboard to work. Everything else works fine.

 

[MHC_1]

The issue might be WordFence -- I am trying to reset the password of the admin account, and I get an email from WordFence Plugin (to the same email address) telling me that someone requested a password reset but I never get the email with the actual password reset details. How can we do this?

 

[MHC_1]

Further to the above; I have literally just created a new admin account - on the Database - WordPress Toolkit can see that the admin account is there, immediately, but then it claims it can't see it to update it. Extremely frustrating.

This screenshot is literally for a user account created on the `_users` table with a single line in the `_users_metadata` table saying it's an administrator. Yes WordPress Toolkit can't seem to be able to update it.

 

[Sebahat.hadzhi]

@MHC_1 , please run the following command:

plesk ext wp-toolkit --wp-cli -instance-id 1 -- user list

If you are not sure about the instance ID, you can confirm it with the first entry the following command returns:

plesk ext wp-toolkit --list | grep 'example.com'

Please confirm if the "administrator" is returned under the "roles" column.

 

[MHC_1]

@MHC_1 , please run the following command:

plesk ext wp-toolkit --wp-cli -instance-id 1 -- user list

If you are not sure about the instance ID, you can confirm it with the first entry the following command returns:

plesk ext wp-toolkit --list | grep 'example.com'

Please confirm if the "administrator" is returned under the "roles" column.

Hello
The three users (all admins) are correctly showing but none are showing up as "administrators". None have any "roles" in the terminal output .

How do I set the WP_toolkit to reaffirm they/we are admins? To confirm - the _usermeta WP table correctly shows we are all Admin.

Thank you!

 

[Sebahat.hadzhi]

Thank you. Please create a backup of your WordPress database (just in case) and then try the following:

plesk ext wp-toolkit --wp-cli -instance-id 1 -- user set-role 3 administrator

set-role 3 should correspond to the output from the previous command.

 

[MHC_1]

Thank you. Please create a backup of your WordPress database (just in case) and then try the following:

plesk ext wp-toolkit --wp-cli -instance-id 1 -- user set-role 3 administrator

set-role 3 should correspond to the output from the previous command.

Thank you for this. Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

The command suggested returns an error:

# plesk ext wp-toolkit --wp-cli -instance-id 15 -- user set-role 3 administrator

[2025-08-07 09:41:45.004] 3885552:689474d900e77 ERR [util_exec] proc_close() failed ['/usr/local/psa/admin/bin/filemng' 'accountname' 'exec' '/var/www/vhosts/domainname.com/public_html' 'timeout' '60' '/opt/plesk/php/8.3/bin/php' '-d' 'safe_mode=off' '-d' 'display_errors=on' '-d' 'opcache.enable_cli=off' '-d' 'open_basedir=' '-d' 'error_reporting=341' '-d' 'max_execution_time=60' '-c' '/var/www/vhosts/system/domainname.com/etc/php.ini' '/usr/local/psa/admin/plib/modules/wp-toolkit/vendor/wp-cli/wpt-wp-cli.php' '--path=/var/www/vhosts/domainname.com/public_html' '--no-color' 'user' 'set-role' '3' 'administrator'] with exit code [1]
Error: Role doesn't exist: administrator

exit status 3

Any ideas how to progress this?

 

[Kaspar]

Can you run the command below and let us know what the output is? It should list all available user roles on the Wordpress installation.

sudo plesk ext wp-toolkit --wp-cli -instance-id 1 -- role list

 

[MHC_1]

Further to the above, the list of plugins that the WP_Toolkit shows for the site is not correct.

 

[MHC_1]

Can you run the command below and let us know what the output is? It should list all available user roles on the Wordpress installation.

sudo plesk ext wp-toolkit --wp-cli -instance-id 15 -- role list

id = 15 is the id of the website.
This produces an empty list. There are three admin users on the Wordpress DB and these three all appear on the WP_toolkit interface but are unable to be edited, as per the original post. Thanks.

Sorry, for clarity:

running instance id = 1 produces:

#sudo plesk ext wp-toolkit --wp-cli -instance-id 1 -- role list

name role
Administrator administrator
Editor editor
Author author
Contributor contributor
Subscriber subscriber
GiveWP Manager give_manager
GiveWP Accountant give_accountant
GiveWP Worker give_worker
GiveWP Donor give_donor

However, WP website id =1 is another website.

 

[MHC_1]

ISSUE IS RESOLVED :

After reading up on here: Where are available Roles Defined in the wp_ database? and How to fix WPCLI Error: Role doesn't exist: admin | TechOverflow I found that a plugin had changed the Options database table entry to the default `wp_` prefix rather than the actual prefix.

We can now log in via WP Toolkit and access the Dashboard. Thank you.