I get a lot of interesting questions. This Ask Nile series question is about whether or not is it okay to give a WordPress support technician your password. Since I’ve done customer support for years, sometimes I’ve run into issues that require access to a person’s WordPress website.
A WordPress support technician can be anyone who provides support or help for your WordPress website. They might work for a company, or as an individual freelancer. Some provide support for free, and others only help if they are paid. The bottom line is that most support technicians are knowledgeable about WordPress because they’ve experienced lots of problems, and can solve them.
And when you have a problem with your WordPress website, that you’re unable to resolve, that is where a support technician can be helpful.
Ask Nile: Is It Okay To Give A WordPress Support Technician My Password?
It’s quite natural to be hesitant about giving out a password to your WordPress website. For many of you, you’re trying to make a living with it, or you’ve invested enough time that it means something personal to you. The issue is, that not all support issues can be solved with a glance. Sometimes the available solutions found on Google, or in some WordPress support forum or group, just don’t work.
It might need a closer look, which means that you may have to give access to your WordPress website. However, when you do, you can do a couple things to make sure you don’t lose your website, and that in giving access to your website, you keep things secure.
Before granting login access to your website:
- Make sure you trust the person or company that is providing the support. If you can’t trust them, then it’s pointless to give them access. Choose someone that can decently and simply explain what happened, and what they did to fix the issue.
- Create a backup of your website. If by some chance, the person who is solving your problem, creates a catastrophe, then at least you can restore the website with your backup.
- Create a separate administrator account for the support person. Never give them the same account that is your own. This allows you to remove the other administrator account when they are done, without having to change your password again.
If the issue is bad enough that web host access is necessary, do not give them full access to your web host. You will end up having to change the password. Instead, create an FTP or SFTP account for the support technician to access the areas needed.
In summary, it is definitely okay to give a WordPress support technican your password.
Got a question about blogging, WordPress, social media, or webdesign… Ask Nile.
Ye, I had this problem once that i had to give a technician my ftp info to give him a closer look.
Pretty scary. But everything went ok!
Hi Mark! It can be scary. That’s why it’s important to remove the role or access to the accounts given when the support tech is done.