Joomla! Documentation™

A new feature added to the user registration process in and newer is the New User's Approval by Administrators, where a user will only be able to login after an administrator approves and activates the account.

To enable it set User Activation to "Admin".

This new feature required a slight change to the parameters set in the Users Manager. The User Activation parameter now has 3 options (as opposed to 2 options in Joomla! 1.5.x) and the options can be chosen from a select list box instead of the previous radio buttons.

The options are:

• None - No activation is needed. The user may login right after finishing the registration.
• Self - The user will receive an e-mail message containing a link with a token to activate their account.
• Admin - It is necessary that an administrator approves the account. Here is how the process goes:
  • After registering the new user receives an e-mail message containing a link with a token to verify their e-mail address;
  • After the user's e-mail address has been verified, all users with the Receive System Messages option enabled will receive an e-mail message notifying them that a user has verified their e-mail address and requests that their account be activated. That email message will contain a link with a token to activate the account;
  • Once an administrator has activated the account, the user will receive an e-mail message notifying them that they may now login. Note: the email is only sent to the users if the site Administrator activates the account from the front-end of the site not from the Joomla Administrator

This feature was a product of many suggestions made by users in the Administration Forum [1].