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Troubleshooting Common User Role and Capability Issues in WordPress with the Members Plugin

26 threads Sep 16, 2025 Plugin → Members – membership & user role editor plugin

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Managing user roles and capabilities is a powerful way to control access on your WordPress site. However, it can sometimes lead to confusing situations where permissions don't behave as expected. Based on common community reports, this guide will help you diagnose and resolve the most frequent issues encountered with the Members – Membership & User Role Editor plugin.

1. Capability Changes Not Saving or Taking Effect

The Problem: You update a role's capabilities in the Members interface, but the changes don't persist after a page refresh, or users continue to have their old permissions.

Why It Happens: This is often caused by a conflict with another plugin. Some plugins, particularly those that create their own roles (like e-commerce or booking plugins), actively manage their capabilities and may override changes made elsewhere. This can also occur on WordPress.com Business plans or other managed hosts that impose their own restrictions on core WordPress functionality, such as managing plugins.

The Solution:

  • Conflict Test: Deactivate all other plugins temporarily and switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-Four). If the problem disappears, reactivate your plugins one by one to identify the culprit.
  • Check Hosting Restrictions: If the issue is related to managing plugins, themes, or other core functions, contact your hosting provider's support to confirm if they block these actions for certain roles.

2. Administrator Loses Key Capabilities

The Problem: An administrator accidentally denies a critical capability (like 'edit_roles') from their own role, locking themselves out of the role editor.

Why It Happens: The Members interface allows administrators to edit any role, including their own. A simple misclick can have significant consequences.

The Solution: You can directly repair the role in the database.

  1. Access your database via phpMyAdmin (usually through your hosting control panel).
  2. Find the wp_options table (the prefix may be different).
  3. Locate and edit the wp_user_roles row in the option_name column.
  4. In the option_value field, find the serialized array for the 'administrator' role. Ensure it includes the necessary capabilities, like "edit_roles" => true.
  5. Save the changes.

Warning: Always back up your database before making any changes directly.

3. Custom Capabilities from Other Plugins Not Showing or Working

The Problem: A third-party plugin requires a specific, custom capability (e.g., 'tribe_manage_attendees', 'manage_stripe_orders') to access its features, but this capability doesn't appear in the Members list, or granting it doesn't work.

Why It Happens: Capabilities must be registered with WordPress before they appear in lists for management. Some plugins only register their capabilities on specific admin pages or under certain conditions to improve performance.

The Solution:

  • Ensure you have visited the admin area of the third-party plugin at least once. This often triggers the code that registers the capabilities with WordPress.
  • If the capability still doesn't appear, check the plugin's documentation or contact its support team to confirm the exact name of the capability required. You can then add it manually as a Custom Capability within the Members plugin.
  • Remember: The Members plugin provides the interface to manage capabilities, but it does not create the logic for what each capability does. That is determined entirely by the other plugin.

4. User with Multiple Roles is Denied a Capability

The Problem: A user is assigned two roles. One role grants a capability, while the other denies it. The user is still denied access, even with the "Denied capabilities should always overrule granted capabilities" setting unchecked.

Why It Happens: This is a complex aspect of WordPress's user role system. The behavior can sometimes be influenced by other plugins that hook into authorization checks.

The Solution:

  • Double-check that the setting is indeed saved in an unchecked state on the Members > Settings page.
  • Perform a conflict test (as described in section 1) to rule out interference from another plugin.
  • Consider simplifying your permission structure by creating a single, custom role that has all the necessary capabilities granted, rather than assigning a user multiple conflicting roles.

5. Cannot Assign Custom Role as an Author

The Problem: You cannot select a custom role (e.g., 'Operator') from the author dropdown when writing or editing a post.

Why It Happens: This is a known WordPress core behavior. The author dropdown filter uses an older user levels system, not the modern role/capability system.

The Solution: This requires a code-based fix. The 'Members - Membership & User Role Editor Plugin' team is aware of this limitation. You will need a small add-on plugin or code snippet that corrects the WordPress query to include custom roles. Search for solutions that address the pre_get_users hook or similar filters.

General Best Practices

  • Clone, Don't Edit: Instead of editing default roles like Administrator or Editor, clone them and then modify the clone. This prevents accidentally locking yourself out and makes troubleshooting easier.
  • Understand Capability Dependencies: Accessing a plugin's menu often requires more than one capability. You may need to grant multiple related capabilities for a feature to work fully.
  • Check for Updates: Ensure your WordPress core, the Members plugin, and all other plugins are updated to their latest versions, as compatibility issues are frequently addressed in updates.

By methodically working through these steps, you can resolve most permission-related issues and regain precise control over your site's access levels.

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