What happens to existing members if s2Member is disabled?

#1

This is just a hypothetical “what if” question. But I’m curious to know what would happen to my existing members if s2Member had to be disabled (for whatever reason). Would a member still be able to log in to my site with their username and password? If so, what would they have access to? What would their access level be?

Also, with s2Member disabled, would all member-protected content suddenly become public? Or would it be blocked from everyone including members? Again, just curious. Not planning to disable s2Member but wondering what would happen if I did.

#2

Just try it out. Basically downloads would not work any more (because nginx/Apache block them). Protected content visible by anyone. People can login but do nothing more than not being logged in.(except write comments which are handled by global preferences and could be set to registered only). New users could not register anymore (by default).

#3

Thanks for the info! I could have just tried it, but I thought it would be safer to ask. I’m not a Wordpress expert so I always worry that if I disable s2Member, something might go wrong that doesn’t resolve itself by re-enabling the plugin and I won’t know how to fix it.

So basically, once someone has signed up through s2Member, they are registered as a WP user which is separate from s2Member. They would still be able to log in with s2 disabled but would have the same experience as someone who is not logged in. And any protected pages would be visible to anyone.

#4

Hi Stephen,

The users are WordPress users, and they’d all still be there, and able to login, also controlled by WordPress.

The s2 content protection, and access control, done by s2Member, would be gone if s2 isn’t active.

The s2 options/configuration would still be saved in the database, even when deleting s2 if you have the Deletion Safeguards enabled. So when you re-enable s2, all continue working as it was. WP Admin > s2Member > General Options > Deletion Safeguards

:slight_smile:

#5

Thanks Cristián!

What about reverting back to a previous s2Member (and Pro) version if there is an issue after updating to the latest version? Would the previous version still work if I was to re-upload and re-enable it after deleting the newer version? I’m a couple of versions behind with my updates because the older version seems to work for me without issues. Would I still have the ability to switch back to the older version if needed?

#6

Usually yes because the data structure should not be changed - but you should just make a database backup - so you can roll back. That is valid for any major update. Just get a database backup plugin for backup and restore.

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#7

Yep, I use UpdraftPlus for backups.

1 Like
#8

Yes, you’d be fine. And Felix is right about backups. Backups always make changes safer.

:slight_smile: