New user cannot change their e-mail address

AI-generated summary

A user, tvavrda, reports an issue where new users cannot change their email during registration, receiving a 403 error on /u/account-created/edit-email, despite the Email editable setting being enabled. Canapin confirms the feature works on their forum (3.4.0.beta4-dev) and meta.discourse.org. tvavrda notes no helpful logs and is using default settings. Jagster suggests testing in safe mode — which tvavrda confirms works, indicating a plugin or theme issue. tvavrda disables all plugins and switches to the default theme but still sees the error, asking whether plugins must be fully removed from the .yml file. Canapin advises full removal, noting that disabled plugins can still affect the forum server-side. Jagster adds that disabling plugins via admin panel only affects the user interface, not server logic — reinforcing the need to fully uninstall problematic components.

Reproduction steps:

  • Open an anonymous browser tab
  • Click on user registration
  • Enter a wrong e-mail
  • Email editable site setting is on
  • I am offered to change my e-mail on the 2nd step of the registration process
  • Click on the button
  • I get an error message

Result: On calling u/account-created/edit-email there is 403 error:

{
    "errors": [
        "You are not permitted to view the requested resource."
    ],
    "error_type": "invalid_access"
}

What is wrong?

I don’t have this issue on my forum 3.4.0.beta4-dev(5ecc981f56):

Successful PUT request on /u/update-activation-email.

I don’t have the issue either on meta.discourse.org.

How to troubleshoot? Logs do not show anything interesting.

I am on 3.4.0.beta4-dev(13b9493bf0)

I am using default settings for login. Nothing is overridden.

Does it work on safe mode?

(Can an anonymous use safe mode in the first place :thinking:)

They can. It also counts how many times I have used the change e-mail function so I have to wait for 15 minutes now to try again :slight_smile:

It seems to be working in safe mode.

Then you should know is the issue some component, plugin or theme.

I tried to turn off all the plug-ins, switch to the default theme with no components and still the same. Did not try restarting in between. Or is it important to remove the components fully from the .yml file, not just disabling them?

Yes, removing them from the configuration file is preferable. In rare cases, a disabled plugin can still have an effect on the forum (there are documented cases, but I don’t have the links), and completely uninstalling it can solve issues.

Basically using admin side to disable a plugin works only when it affects on user’side. It doesn’t touch server side. But I’ll stay corrected if I’m wrong.