Hi I impersonated my alternate account on my forum today to do a quick test of a feature i did for the forum and it said Impersonating user 15 minutes left but i’ve never seen it before and nor have i seen a setting for this. have i missed a discussion on this? if there’s a setting can i get the name i tried searching on the forum’s settings and got nothing.

It’s a hidden setting. You need to enable it from the rails console ./launcher enter app rails c SiteSetting.experimental_impersonation_time_limit_minutes = 30 # or whatever exit

There is a hidden experimental_impersonation_time_limit_minutes setting set to 15 minutes.

[image] How would i find it on my forum? I want to work a little with the limit

You cannot find it in the interface. That’s what hidden implies. [image] Using Hidden Site Settings Self-Hosting bookmark This is a #how-to guide about Hidden Site Settings, how to enable them, and why you might want to adjust them. person_raising_hand Required user level: Administrator warning Important: Console access is required for some steps. In Discourse, hidden site settings refer to configuration options that are not readily visible or accessible through the standard admin dashboard interface. These settings are part of the backend configuration that can control various advanced or potent…

I don’t have acsess so i most likley need to ask the owner

I am guessing you could add the last ne to the app.yml as well?

yes but you should probably be looking to change the site setting instead, you need to rebuild to apply that which is a lot more annoying than visiting the rails console

We have an edge case where a handful of people use a single shared account. It was handy to login, impersonate, and just stay logged in and impersonated forever :slight_smile: Is there a way to extend the 15 minute window? Or disable the timer completely?

See three posts above yours. I guess you can set it to a long time like 24*60*365 (1 year)

You sir, are a genius :person_bowing:t2: Who knew you could use a mathematical formula as a setting value? :man_shrugging:t2: [w00t] :chefs_kiss: Thanks @RGJ :smiley:

Impersonation limit (time)

Product Support

Moin May 27, 2026, 10:44pm 4

You cannot find it in the interface. That’s what hidden implies.

Topic		Replies	Views
Impersonate a user and returning to admin user Site Management how-to , impersonate , users	4	6686	February 25, 2026
Experience when impersonation is terminated automatically after some time UX impersonate	5	298	May 11, 2026
Allow specific users to impersonate defined users Development impersonate	9	1093	May 5, 2024
Add 'stop impersonating' link to user avatar dropdown when impersonating Feature completed , impersonate	42	8215	October 29, 2025
The Impersonated user should be notified that they are being Impersonated Feature impersonate	21	2615	May 7, 2019

Impersonation limit (time)

Related topics