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Editing existing accounts

You can edit existing accounts, such as the account name, password, and other settings. For example, if someone forgets their password, you can reset it for their account and inform them of the new password.

For information about duplicating or deleting accounts, see Duplicating and deleting accounts.

Warning  Don’t forget the account name and password that is assigned to the Full Access privilege set. If necessary, write it down and store it in a secure place. If you lose or forget this account name and password, you may not be able to access or change the file.

To edit an existing account:

1.	Choose File menu > Manage > Security.

The Manage Security dialog box appears. The Accounts tab lists the accounts defined for this file.

2.	Select the account you want to edit and click Edit.

3.	In the Edit Account dialog box, change one or more of the options described in the following table.

 

To	Do this
Change how the account is managed	Choose an option from the Account is authenticated via list. For information about accounts managed by an external server, see Creating accounts that authenticate via an external server.
Change the account name	Enter a new account name in the Account Name box.
Change the password	Enter a new password in the Password box. For tips on choosing a password, see Tips for creating account names and passwords.
Force the user to choose a new password the next time he or she logs in	Choose User must change password on next login. Note  In most cases, an account that is shared by multiple users should not force a password change upon first login. Instead, you should specify a password and provide it to the users that need it. Also, the privilege set for a shared account should not permit password changes. See Editing other privileges.
Make an account active or inactive	For Account Status, choose whether you want the account to be active or inactive. Users cannot open a database using an inactive account name and password.
Change the privilege set for the account	For Privilege Set, choose the privilege set you want to use with this account. You can choose an existing privilege set, or choose New Privilege Set and create a new one. See Creating new privilege sets.
Edit the account description	For Description, enter the account description you want.

4.

Click OK.

5.	In the Manage Security dialog box, do one of the following:

•	If you’ve finished working with accounts and privileges, click OK. In the dialog box that appears, enter an account name and password that is assigned the Full Access privilege set, and click OK.

•	To continue working with accounts and privileges, see Creating and managing accounts, Creating and managing privilege sets, or Managing extended privileges.

Notes

•	At least one active, FileMaker-authenticated account in each file must be assigned the Full Access privilege set. An error message will appear if you edit accounts so that no active account is assigned the Full Access privilege set.

•	You cannot rename the Guest account or assign it a password. If you do not want to permit Guest access to a file, make the Guest account inactive. See About the Admin and Guest accounts.

•	Passwords are case-sensitive. For example, if you specify a password as zFootBallz2, FileMaker Pro will not accept zfootballz2. When you’re entering a password for an account, you may want to make sure the Caps Lock key on your keyboard is not inadvertently enabled.

•	Account names are not case-sensitive. For example, if you specify an account name as Chris, the account user can successfully open the file by entering chris or CHRIS as the account name.

•

Shared accounts are a security risk. For better security, use individual accounts instead of shared accounts. If you intend to use shared accounts anyway, make sure you limit the access capabilities of the privilege sets that shared accounts use. Change the password occasionally, particularly when certain users no longer require access.

•	To automatically log in each time a file is opened, choose File menu > File Options and specify the account name and password. See Setting file options.

•	To remove password protection from a file, remove passwords from all accounts. Then, in the File Options dialog box, make sure Log in using is selected, with Account Name and Password set to Admin and a blank password. See Setting file options.