Title: Cannot delete default admin user in multisite Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # Cannot delete default admin user in multisite * Resolved [rhdesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhdesign/) * (@rhdesign) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/) * Im going to start off by saying that I did a ton of searching on this and according to everything I have read, deleting the default admin user should be possible and should be done to enhance security; however it is not allowing me to delete it. I have a multisite install with 8 different sites running WP 3.5 and I ran into a multitude of issues while attempting to delete the default admin user: * 1. With the original “admin” super admin, I created 4 new users and assigned them all “super admin” privileges. For some reason, even though I assigned them super admin privileges, I still had to go through each of my 8 sites and add all four users and set them as admins for them to see the sites in their “my sites” drop-down (which this seems like a bug or a much needed enhancement; all“ super admins” should have access to the entire network as an admin by default). * 2. I also went into each site and removed the default “admin” user leaving only my 4 new admin users. It is here I found another issue in that it never asked me if i wanted to transfer posts when i removed the admin user from each individual site. The user is no longer in the table (in the visual table, not referring to database table) however the posts still show as being written by admin. * 3. I also noticed that when i was looking at all users for a specific site, the categorization links at the top listed “Administrator (4) | Super Administrator( 1)” event though when looking at the network admin panel for all users, my four new users are all set as “super admins”. Once I deleted the default admin user from the individual sites, the categorization links just show “Administrator ( 4)” now * I also set the network admin email to one of the new super admins I had created, as well as went into each site and through the settings I set the main email to the same new super admin user. * After doing all of this, I am still not able to remove the admin user from the Network users. Am I missing something in this process or did I just happen to find 3 different multisite wordpress bugs in doing this? Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 29 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/page/2/?output_format=md) * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422837) * Are you trying to remove an admin from a site or the SUPER admin (aka network admin) from the network? * You have to have at least one super admin to do anything. * Thread Starter [rhdesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhdesign/) * (@rhdesign) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422839) * I am trying to remove the username “admin” from the network; I was able to remove the user from the individual sites but not from the network…as I said in my original posting, I have already assigned 4 other network super admins. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422906) * You said a lot of things, much of which was confusing 🙂 * Go to /wp-admin/network/users.php * Edit the admin. * UNCHECK the box for super-admin. * Now you should be able to delete them from there. * Thread Starter [rhdesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhdesign/) * (@rhdesign) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422933) * Sorry, i tried to make it as clear as possible while still getting all the information across, I know it was a lot to take in 🙂 * I have already unchecked the “super admin” box for the admin user in the network * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422936) * Okay, uncheck and save. The box remains unchecked so go back to /wp-admin/network/ users.php and dlete them. * What happens then? * Thread Starter [rhdesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhdesign/) * (@rhdesign) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422968) * Yes I saved afterwards and no, it does not change anything; I still cannot delete that user. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422971) * You mean the box remains checked after you uncheck and save? * Thread Starter [rhdesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhdesign/) * (@rhdesign) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422978) * no, the box is unchecked and the account no longer shows up as a super admin account, but I cannot delete it * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422990) * Are you trying to delete them from /wp-admin/network/users.php ? * Thread Starter [rhdesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhdesign/) * (@rhdesign) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422994) * yes * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3422997) * And what error does it throw when you delete? Or is the link just not there? * Thread Starter [rhdesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhdesign/) * (@rhdesign) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3423000) * there is no error. The “Delete” link does show but when i click it, it looks like the user table just refreshes but nothing has changed…”admin” user is still there and no error message or anything appears. It really seems like a bug. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3423009) * Go to /wp-admin/network/settings.php * What’s the email there? Is it the admin you can’t delete? * Thread Starter [rhdesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhdesign/) * (@rhdesign) * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3423015) * I addressed that in my initial post; No, it is not the email of the admin i can’t delete, I went in and changed it because i knew that is one thing that needs to be done before you delete a user. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/#post-3423016) * Well… the only thing left is SQL. * Go into wp_sitemeta and look for site_admins * In there you will see something like this: `a:1:{i:0;s:7:"Ipstenu";}` (though I bet yours is more like `a:3:{i:0;s:5:"liono";i:1;s:8:"thundera";i:2;s:11:"swordofomens";}` instead) * You should make yours `a:1:{i:0;s:8:"rhdesign";}` to ONLY allow your ID to be super admin. * However if you wanted to add WileyKit instead it would be `a:1:{i:0;s:8:"WileyKit";}` Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 29 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘Cannot delete default admin user in multisite’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [admin](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/admin/) * [multisite](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/multisite/) * [remove user](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/remove-user/) * [super-admin](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/super-admin/) * [users](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/users/) * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/) * 29 replies * 9 participants * Last reply from: [Steven](https://wordpress.org/support/users/spstieng/) * Last activity: [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-delete-default-admin-user-in-multisite/page/2/#post-3423116) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics