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Why User Roles Change Unexpectedly in WordPress and How to Fix It

14 threads Sep 9, 2025 Plugin → User role editor

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An unexpected and concerning issue can occur when using the User Role Editor plugin: a user's role might automatically change to 'Subscriber' after you edit their profile, even if you never touched the role dropdown. This guide will explain why this happens and provide the most common solution.

Understanding the Problem

This bug typically manifests after a specific sequence of actions:

  1. You go to Users and click Edit on a specific user.
  2. You choose a role from the dropdown (e.g., 'Editor') and click Update User.
  3. You then scroll down to the Capabilities section (added by User Role Editor) and click Edit.
  4. You assign an additional capability to the user and click Update.
  5. When you revisit the user's profile, their primary role has been reset to 'Subscriber'.

This is a confirmed bug within the User Role Editor plugin's interaction with the user profile update process. The act of updating a user's individual capabilities can sometimes interfere with and overwrite their primary assigned role.

How to Troubleshoot and Confirm the Issue

Before proceeding, it's important to confirm that User Role Editor is the source of the problem. The standard WordPress troubleshooting step of conflict testing applies here.

  1. Deactivate the User Role Editor plugin.
  2. Attempt to edit a test user's profile and update it. You should notice that the user's role no longer changes unexpectedly.
  3. If the problem stops when the plugin is deactivated, you have confirmed the issue is related to User Role Editor.

The Primary Solution: Update the Plugin

The most straightforward fix is to ensure you are running the latest version of the User Role Editor plugin. The development team is typically responsive to bug reports, and issues like this are often patched in subsequent updates. Check your WordPress updates page to download and install any available updates for the plugin.

Additional Considerations

  • Plugin Conflicts: While the issue is confirmed within User Role Editor, a conflict with another plugin is always a possibility. If updating does not resolve the problem, try deactivating all other plugins besides User Role Editor to see if the issue persists. If it is resolved, reactivate your plugins one by one to identify the culprit.
  • Capabilities vs. Roles: Remember that a user's permissions are a combination of their primary role and any additional capabilities they have been granted. For many use cases, it may be sufficient to add a single capability to a user's existing role rather than editing their capabilities directly, which could help you avoid this bug entirely.

By following these steps, you should be able to resolve the issue of user roles changing unexpectedly and maintain the correct permissions for all users on your WordPress site.

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