Inability to sign in is the most common user problem, and it is caused by the PSAP's two-party signup process which has more "moving parts" and delays than most website signups.

An account has to be both confirmed and enabled in order to be able to sign in. Confirming is done by the user; enabling is done by the admin.

Sign-up process flow

1. User signs up. (At this point their account has been created but is neither confirmed nor enabled.)
2. User receives an automated email containing a confirmation link.
3. User follows the link. (At this point, the account is confirmed but still not enabled.)
4. Admin receives an email requesting that the user be enabled.
5. Admin enables the user.
6. User signs in.

Responding to "I can't sign in"

1. Check whether the account is confirmed. If not, go to their user page (as an admin), and from the Actions menu, choose "Resend Confirmation Email."
2. Check whether the account is enabled by looking up the user on the users page. If not, enable it.
3. Check that they are using the correct username and password. Look up the user in the users table to find their username. Verify proper capitalization.
4. If they still can't sign in, ask them to reset their password by clicking the "forgot?" link in the sign-in area of the landing page. This will take them through the password reset process. (Passwords are encrypted and we can't see them.)
   • It's very rare, but there has been one instance where a user couldn't get through this process because the UIUC's SMTP server couldn't deliver emails (which are part of the reset process) to their address. In this case, the workaround is to:
     1. ssh into the PSAP VM as the psap user
     2. Invoke bin/rails console
     3. Find the user's User object: User.find_by_username('...') or find_by_last_name('...') (or whatever)
     4. user.update!(password: 'some temporary password')
     5. Email this new password to the user and ask them to change it