Trouble with users activating their membership

[stevemorel]

Hello there,

So first a bit of context:

So here is the issue my users encounters:
– they choose a membership,
– they successfully pay for it,
– they receive the “complete your registration” email with a provided link.
– following the link they got an error saying the account already exist. Then the link disappear and can’t be used again and force me to activate the account manually.

I tried to check the “Redirect to Paid Registration Link” in the payment button setup. Tried to send them to the “thank you page” / “profile page” but I could not manage anything that would let them activate their account themselves.
Once I activate manually, they can login and see the content normally.

These student already bought Learndash course on my website and so already have an account. As I plan to provide different type of content via the membership I wish to keep the course as well as add the membership as an option.

So my question: how can people who already bought learndash courses (then already have an account) “add” and activate the membership on their account? I tried to find info on that in the documentation but did not find the info yet :/

Hoep you can give me some light! 🙂

ps: I guess that if the person create an account via the membership and later buy course that would not cause trouble…

[The Assurer]

This actually helps a lot. What you are seeing is expected behavior with the Simple Membership plugin when a WordPress user already exists (like from LearnDash).

In the standard paid registration flow, Simple Membership assumes the user does NOT already have a WordPress account.

However, WordPress does not allow two accounts with the same email or username. So if the person already has a WordPress account (for example from LearnDash), the registration form cannot create another one. This results in the error you are seeing.

That’s why the system gets stuck and you need to activate the account manually.

If the user is already logged into their existing account when they purchase, the plugin normally applies the payment to that account automatically (effectively upgrading it).

But if they are not logged in, the plugin assumes they are a new user, which triggers the registration link workflow.

Require users to be logged in before buying

Since your students already have accounts from LearnDash, the cleanest solution is:

Ask users to log in first.

Then purchase the membership.

[stevemorel]

Hey there,
thanks a lot for your answer.

The thing is that when my user purchased the membership they were already logged in. But if they would go on the “membership” login it would show that they are not (even though it would show a “logout” in the main menu, indicating they were.

So is it possible that the plugin does not “understand” that the user is logged in if they logged from another login option ?
Should I “force” my user to login with the membership login page first?!

(I will try like that with the next user to check!)
This was very helpful! thanks a lot 🙂

[stevemorel]

So I have been trying with an user.
I actually first imported all my wp member into the membership (after doing the existing user got another error saying “password empty or invalid”). I used the bulk import addon ^^; so it means the membership see the account but for some reason password did not import or work ^o)

I had first set all account to “inactive / expired” but then user could not login. I then created a “no membership” level which I gave to all account and put all account to Active.
I will also use your https://simple-membership-plugin.com/simple-membership-miscellaneous-shortcodes-addon/ to automatically set to lower level + active to expired / inactive account.
Anyhow I think I get to understand better how it works and all.. It’s not really thaaaat intuitive but well ^^ once the process is understood, it’s pretty cool so I’m happy =)

Now comes two questions:
– if from now on, someone buy a course or items from my shop via woocommerces (and then has their account created from the woocommerce shop) will this account be added automatically in the membership plugin as well, or will I have to import the account in the membership plugin via the wp user import addon?
– if the account is not added to the membership plugin automatically, is there a way to have it added automatically? or do you have any advice on what would be the best course of action? ^^

Thanks a lot for your help! : )

[The Assurer]

Great — it sounds like you’ve already understood the system quite well 👍 Once the logic of WP Users vs Membership records becomes clear, everything starts to make sense.

Let’s answer your two questions clearly.

1️⃣ If WooCommerce creates a user, will it automatically appear in Simple Membership?

No — not automatically by default.

Simple Membership stores members in its own table, separate from the standard WordPress users table. So when WooCommerce creates a user account, that user does not automatically become a Simple Membership member.

That’s why you previously had to use the import tool.

You already used the correct tool for that:

👉 https://simple-membership-plugin.com/import-existing-wordpress-users-simple-membership-plugin/

This is usually needed when users already existed before installing the membership plugin.

2️⃣ Is there a way to automatically create membership records for WooCommerce users?

Yes — and this is the recommended solution if you are using WooCommerce heavily.

Use the official WooCommerce integration addon

👉 https://simple-membership-plugin.com/woocommerce-simple-membership-plugin-integration/

About the password issue you saw

This happens sometimes when importing users.

The reason is:

Simple Membership does not store the password itself — WordPress does.

So when importing users, the plugin sometimes requires a password reset or first login to sync properly.

This is normal and usually only happens once during migration.

[stevemorel]

Okay, that sounds good! 🙂
Just to confirm, if I buy and install that plugin. It is a one time payment right?
Then once installed, can I keep my “join membership” page as well, or should I use woocommerce only to add membership?

In my case I would rather keep my woocommerce for my shop of physical good.
And keep the default simple membership join page for user to add membership to their account.

so if I understand correctly:
Case 1:
With this woocommerce addon people will have a defaut membership added automatically when they purchase an items in the woocommerce shop (other than membership);
and later they will be able to use the “join membership” page and add membership using the default simple membership payment button.

Is this correct?! 🙂

Case 2:
Working the opposite way, first the person join membership, and later buy a physical item on woocommerce, then the two account would still “merge”.
Right ?

Basically I prefer the default payment button of simple membership waaaay more than the wooCommerce check out page.
So for membership I would prefer to keep the simple membership payment button ^^;

[The Assurer]

Just to confirm, if I buy and install that plugin. It is a one time payment right?

This is a one-time payment (includes 1 year of support and updates).

Then once installed, can I keep my “join membership” page as well, or should I use woocommerce only to add membership?

Yes — absolutely.
You do not need to switch membership payments to WooCommerce.

Your Case 1 (WooCommerce purchase → membership later)
Your understanding is correct.

Your Case 2 (Membership first → WooCommerce purchase later)
Also correct.

Your preferred structure is actually ideal
What you described is exactly what many sites do:

WooCommerce → physical goods
Simple Membership → memberships

You do not need to sell memberships through WooCommerce.

[stevemorel]

Okay, absolutely awesome! 🙂
Definitely wanna support your plugin, so I’ll make the purchase and install the addon!
Thanks a lot for the great work!
5 stars! 🙂

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