Account Still Shows Pending After Approval – Causes & Fixes

After approving a user from the dashboard, their status still shows as “Pending Approval” when they log in or in the user table.

Possible Causes & Solutions

1. Caching Conflict
   • Solution: Clear any server-side or plugin-level caches.
   • Make sure your user meta is not cached aggressively by plugins like LiteSpeed or W3 Total Cache.
2. Misconfigured User Role
   • If approval doesn’t assign the expected role (e.g., customer), the system may continue treating them as “pending.”
   • Solution: Check your approval settings to ensure roles are assigned correctly on approval.
3. Approval Hook Conflicts
   • Other plugins may interfere with the approval hook.
   • Solution: Temporarily disable other user-role-related plugins and test again.
4. User Approved But Not Logged In
   • Some sites rely on login status to refresh account state.
   • Solution: Ask the user to log out and log in again.
5. Email Not Confirmed (if used with email verification plugin)
   • Solution: Make sure email verification is also completed, if required by another plugin.