# Can an admin create a staged user?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-an-admin-create-a-staged-user/382844>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Created:** [September 16, 2025, 3:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-an-admin-create-a-staged-user/382844 "2025-09-16T15:55:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 10

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**Author:** ![tknospdr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tknospdr/32/529762_2.png) [@tknospdr](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tknospdr)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 4:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-an-admin-create-a-staged-user/382844/10 "2026-01-26T16:50:50Z")

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> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> You can also create a staged user by simply sending them a PM, and pasting in the email address as the recipient. If they are not a member already then they will have a staged user account. If they log in later using the same email address, their account will transform magically and they will see their PMs on the site.

This used to work for us. I just had to use it again and now I get a pop up message that says:  
`An error occurred: You must select a valid user.`

Any idea how to get this working again?

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-an-admin-create-a-staged-user/382844)._