BuddyPress.org

is this site already active with users? You might need to reinstall everything fresh.

Read this thread, its probably the same issue, has some suggestions. https://buddypress.org/support/topic/new-user-registration-problem-invalid-activation-key/

Clear your browser cache. This happens sometimes when you register, then try to login as new user during the same session. Can also be due to theme or plugin settings.

You can also read some older topics about this:
https://buddypress.org/support/search/Invalid+activation+key/

Even though the activation key is said to be invalid when clicking the authentication email, the new user is still created.

After creating a test account I see the authentication key error. However, if I click sign in from this point the new user account works. I was able to login.

Any thoughts?

I’m having the exact same problem with new use registration. They get the confirmation email, but when they click on the link it goes back to my home page with the:

‘invalid activation key’ message and a box to enter a number.

Seems like there hasn’t been a resolution to this so far, can anyone help?!

@malathis
You will probably find after clicking the activation email that you can actually log in to the site if you want to try it even though the invalid activation key message is displayed. This issue has been brought up many times on the forums so do a search of how others resolved it.

Hello everyone! I still can not find a resolution to this “invalid activation key” – has anyone had any success? My Buddypress website works fine for most but there are still several of my members that are experiencing this issue?

Has anyone found any fixes?

Thanks!

Hey,

I’m had the same problem and resolved the issue;

Cause of the problem

Wordpress database error Unknown column ‘signup_id’
column: signup_id missing from database table wp_signups

Solution

create primary key column titled ‘signup_id’ by entering the following sql statement at the mysql prompt:

ALTER TABLE 'database_name'.'wp_signups' ADD COLUMN 'signup_id' INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT;

Problem History

Error: Invalid Activation key
Also, manage signups view is empty, but I have attempted to register multiple users

system

• LAMPP
• WordPress Version 3.6.1

Unsuccessful Resolutions:

• activate 2012 theme
• deactivated all plugins
• deleted + reinstalled buddypress

Known Database Issues:

• the field user_activation_key is empty in table wp_users
• the field activation_key is NOT empty in table wp_signups
• column signup_id is missing from table wp_signups
• there is no PK or FK column for table wp_signups

apache error log

Found some useful output from apache log file, which is what led my solution:

[Wed Apr 23 20:58:19 2014] [error] [client xx.xx.xxx.xxx] WordPress database error Unknown column 'signup_id' in 'order clause' for query SELECT * FROM wp_signups WHERE active = 0 AND activation_key = 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' ORDER BY signup_id DESC LIMIT 0, 1 made by require('wp-blog-header.php'), require_once('wp-includes/template-loader.php'), do_action('template_redirect'), call_user_func_array, bp_template_redirect, do_action('bp_template_redirect'), call_user_func_array, bp_screens, do_action('bp_screens'), call_user_func_array, bp_core_screen_activation, bp_core_activate_signup, BP_Signup::get

To the BP devs, I hope that’s enough to solve the problem at the application code level, instead of the database hack I used. I have a feeling the error might be due to using an old WP version, as the error appears to stem from the core WP files and not the BuddyPress files…

Fix the following error:

Invalid Activation Key

Or

at least some kind of workaround it

in the admin section where admin can manually activate the user and send the email that user account has been activated.

Thank you.

I am having this exact issue. I am a developer and I know how to run through the steps mentioned here..

What I have tried is to find a user that is stuck in not being activated and running putting this on one of my pages:

<?php                                                                                                        $user = get_userdatabylogin('busaany'); echo $user->ID;                                                                                                    echo get_user_meta( $user->id , 'activation_key', true );
?>

This yeilded an activation key:
2429b4ee92830f6557b5b5be271b5078defe

So I tried to plug that into the activation key url as such:

http://bounty.co.nz/activate-account/?key=2429b4ee92830f6557b5b5be271b5078defe

This brought me to the invalid key page as mentioned by others… This is a major issue and I am getting all sorts of stress/grief from my client. I am 100% committed to fixing this issue myself if that is what has to be done. But I was hoping that my putting this here could give the buddy press devs some more info on what is going on. This use HAS signed up, this use HAS tried to go to this link and it failed first time.

I have used a plugin called buddypress pending activations to try and remedy this and trouble shoot it. It allows me to figure out who is being caught and it is a non-trivial amount of users. The user remains in the pending regardless of visiting that link or entering the code into the box on the page…

Any leads? I will be getting this locally set up and try and debug buddypress as I am certain this is buddypress thing now not a server issue. But if you can get me any help or direction that would be great. If I can fix this I will let you guys know and we can get this resolved in the core.

Regards,
Justsayno1