# "unknown error" on login, undefined method \`password\_algorithm='

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/unknown-error-on-login-undefined-method-password-algorithm/261664>\
**Category:** Self-hosting\
**Created:** [April 14, 2023, 5:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unknown-error-on-login-undefined-method-password-algorithm/261664 "2023-04-14T05:22:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![shyguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/shyguy/32/295079_2.png) [@shyguy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/shyguy)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2023, 5:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unknown-error-on-login-undefined-method-password-algorithm/261664/1 "2023-04-14T05:22:37Z")

</div>

i ran a phpbb3 migration on top of a known-good ‘template’ of `/shared` (as i have been doing a few times a week for a while now as i improve things), and then i couldn’t log in.

i got an “Unknown error” on the login dialog, and the console showed a 500 error on the POST. trying to change a password from rails or using `admin:create` task gave a error like this:

```plaintext
docker exec -it dc rake admin:create
Email: testadmin123@example.com
Password:
Repeat password:
rake aborted!
NoMethodError: undefined method `password_algorithm=' for #<User id: nil, username: "d8b57755b12086606777", created_at: nil, updated_at: nil, name: nil, seen_notification_id: 0, last_posted_at: nil, password_hash: nil, salt: "7512e03d29d4990a0bce5dd9b5954adc", active: false, username_lower: "d8b57755b12086606777", last_seen_at: nil, admin: false, last_emailed_at: nil, trust_level: 0, approved: false, approved_by_id: nil, approved_at: nil, previous_visit_at: nil, suspended_at: nil, suspended_till: nil, date_of_birth: nil, views: 0, flag_level: 0, ip_address: nil, moderator: false, title: nil, uploaded_avatar_id: nil, locale: nil, primary_group_id: nil, registration_ip_address: nil, staged: false, first_seen_at: nil, silenced_till: nil, group_locked_trust_level: nil, manual_locked_trust_level: nil, secure_identifier: nil, flair_group_id: nil, last_seen_reviewable_id: nil>
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activemodel-7.0.4.3/lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb:458:in `method_missing'
/var/www/discourse/app/models/user.rb:1882:in `ensure_password_is_hashed'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:400:in `block in make_lambda'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:199:in `block (2 levels) in halting'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:687:in `block (2 levels) in default_terminator'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:686:in `catch'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:686:in `block in default_terminator'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:200:in `block in halting'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:595:in `block in invoke_before'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:595:in `each'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:595:in `invoke_before'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:116:in `block in run_callbacks'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:138:in `run_callbacks'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:929:in `_run_save_callbacks'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/callbacks.rb:457:in `create_or_update'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/timestamp.rb:126:in `create_or_update'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/persistence.rb:615:in `save'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/validations.rb:47:in `save'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:298:in `block in save'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:354:in `block in with_transaction_returning_status'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/transaction.rb:319:in `block in within_new_transaction'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/concurrency/load_interlock_aware_monitor.rb:25:in `handle_interrupt'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/concurrency/load_interlock_aware_monitor.rb:25:in `block in synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/concurrency/load_interlock_aware_monitor.rb:21:in `handle_interrupt'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activesupport-7.0.4.3/lib/active_support/concurrency/load_interlock_aware_monitor.rb:21:in `synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/transaction.rb:317:in `within_new_transaction'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/database_statements.rb:316:in `transaction'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:350:in `with_transaction_returning_status'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:298:in `save'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/activerecord-7.0.4.3/lib/active_record/suppressor.rb:50:in `save'
/var/www/discourse/lib/tasks/admin.rake:87:in `block in <main>'
/usr/local/bin/bundle:25:in `load'
/usr/local/bin/bundle:25:in `<main>'
Tasks: TOP => admin:create
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

```

**rebuilding a few hours later fixed the issue.** ever seen that before?

all’s well that ends well, but i thought it was weird.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/david/32/157490_2.png) [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2023, 9:03am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unknown-error-on-login-undefined-method-password-algorithm/261664/2 "2023-04-14T09:03:23Z")

</div>

Most likely you had a pending database migration when you tried to run `admin:create`. (the `password_algorithm` column was recently added to the users table)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![shyguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/shyguy/32/295079_2.png) [@shyguy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/shyguy)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2023, 5:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unknown-error-on-login-undefined-method-password-algorithm/261664/3 "2023-04-14T17:35:01Z")

</div>

interesting.

can you guess what triggered the migrations to finally happen? restarting didn’t fix it. waiting didn’t seem to fix it. rebuilding the container again did though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/david/32/157490_2.png) [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2023, 6:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unknown-error-on-login-undefined-method-password-algorithm/261664/4 "2023-04-14T18:50:13Z")

</div>

Migrations are run when performing an upgrade via the admin UI, or when doing a rebuild.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![shyguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/shyguy/32/295079_2.png) [@shyguy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/shyguy)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2023, 7:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unknown-error-on-login-undefined-method-password-algorithm/261664/5 "2023-04-14T19:42:56Z")

</div>

that makes sense. what happened was the container was newer than its `/shared`, so needed migrations hadn’t been applied yet.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/system/32/443519_2.png) [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 7:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unknown-error-on-login-undefined-method-password-algorithm/261664/6 "2023-05-14T19:43:56Z")

</div>

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