Help:Temporary accounts

A temporary account is an automatically created account. It is an alternative to using the user's IP address as an identifier in the page history. The IP addresses of temporary accounts will be hidden from readers and most other contributors.

Features of temporary accounts

Temporary accounts do not have all the features of registered accounts. Temporary accounts can have user pages and user talk pages . They can receive notifications and see a banner about messages on their own user talk pages . The IP address used with a temporary account can be seen by trusted users, such as admins .

How do temporary accounts work?

How do you get a temporary account?

Upon successfully completing an edit without logging in first, users will automatically be provided with a temporary account. The username for this temporary account will follow a standard pattern, with an incrementing number for each new temporary account.

How can I tell if an account is temporary?

Temporary accounts have a standardized format for the username. As of 2023, the format is still being discussed. It might look like User:~2023-12345678.

Backend code may also consult the user_is_temp field in the user table, once task T333223 is completed.

Where can the account be used?

Temporary accounts will work across all connected wikis. For example, a temporary account created at Wikipedia will also work on Meta-Wiki and Commons. This is similar to the experience for registered accounts.

How is the information for a temporary account stored? How long does a temporary account last?

The temporary account will be tied to a cookie in the user's browser. As long as the cookie persists, the user will have access to the temporary account and all their edits will be attributed to the same temporary account. The user may change IP addresses, but the temporary account will not change as long as the cookie persists.

When the cookie is removed or automatically expires, the user will permanently lose access to the temporary account. The user will be granted a new temporary account with a different username for any subsequent edits.

How do I log in to my temporary account? What is the password?

You can not log in. There is no password. If you lose the cookie that records your temporary account name, the account can not be recovered. If you want to log in to another device, please create a permanent registered account. Creating a permanent registered account is quick and easy, and it does not require an email address.

Wikimedia-specific information for temporary accounts

This section only applies to temporary accounts in Wikimedia wikis.

• Temporary accounts holders in Wikimedia wikis will not be able to convert their accounts to permanent registered accounts. When a temporary user decides to create a permanent registered account, their contributions, notifications , etc. will not carry through to their new account. This is because there is no way to verify that all edits of the temporary accounts are actually the users', especially when temp accounts are used on public computers.
• Temporary accounts in Wikimedia wikis expires after 1 year from its creation (usually the first edit made by the temporary account). They will be alerted 10 days before expiration.
• The IP addresses will be available to stewards, admins , and others who need it for patrolling , sock puppet investigations, or other work to protect the wikis. See also <link to help page of IP Address Reveal>.

Non-Wikimedia-specific information for temporary accounts

Warning:

Some of the features described below do not yet exist.

This section only applies to temporary accounts in non-Wikimedia wikis.

• You can merge a temporary account to registered account via Extension:UserMerge if it is installed.
• Temporary accounts do not expire by default. System administrator may expire temporary accounts that are registered for longer than some specified time by forcefully logging them out via expireTemporaryAccounts.php .
• If the wiki has Extension:CheckUser installed, users with the checkuser-temporary-account privilege are granted the ability to view the IP addresses that are linked to temporary accounts.

See also

• Special:CreateAccount – to create an account
• User account types – comparison of the three account types
• Policy:Access to temporary account IP addresses – related WMF legal policy
• IP Editing: Privacy Enhancement and Abuse Mitigation – related WMF project
• Help:Temporary accounts/How it works – technical information