Allow Custom Passwords not working (for me)

Apologies if this has been discussed, I couldn’t find it. I have a very basic set-up, wondering what I’m doing wrong.

Background: I have a personal blog where I allow open registration (level 0), which allows anyone to see the landing page (which is my welcome/registration page). If someone finds the site through Google or clicks on any link without registering, they’re taken to the Registration page.

Until now I’ve had “Registration/Profile Fields & Options” set to NO for custom passwords. It has worked fine. They register, I approve, then they get the auto-generated password. This way anyone registering can view the site. To restrict special content (blog posts, still free) to people I know, I change their user registration manually to Level 1. In the related content I put a tag which allows only Level 1 readers to access that content.

Problem: Too many people having problems with confusing auto-generated passwords and not figuring out how to change it themselves. Readership plummeted.

What I Want: I changed the Registration/Profile Fields & Options to allow custom passwords. Upon registration, users can indeed type in a password of their choosing. But when I approve the new user, they still get the auto-generated password and their custom password does not work. What obvious thing am I missing here?

Running: WordPress 3.4.2, Thesis theme 1.8, S2 Member Pro 120703 (got Pro not because I need it but because I wanted to support you guys, it’s awesome so far).

Thanks for the kudos and your support! :)

I see, it’s odd that although the user is entering his password, WP sends him a generated one. It sounds like maybe another plugin may be causing that… You can test this deactivating the other plugins one by one and testing with a registration after each to see if the problem goes away.

Let me know how it goes, please. I hope that helps.

Okay that is embarrassing. It was a plug-in staring right at me called “New User Approve” (Version 1.3.4 | By Josh Harrison). Its purpose is to allow only approved users to view the blog. Interesting that it conflicts but only with the custom password feature of S2 Member. I assumed that I would still be able to approve users after they registered with a custom password. Thank you for your time.

I’m glad you could find the source of the problem easily. :)

I assumed that I would still be able to approve users after they registered with a custom password.

Yeah, it’s logical to assume that. It’s possible that both plugins are tapping on one same place of WP that causes this problem, not that it’s the way this was intended to happen. It’s just very difficult to avoid every possible conflict with so many plugins out there.

Maybe you can just use the generated password and then point them to the profile page to customize it if they want.