Secondary email for forgotten passwords

Secondary email for forgotten passwords

by Matt Johnson -
Number of replies: 5

I am sure this has been asked before but I have as of yet not found a solution and the only thing I can find is for version 1.9 with no real resolutions given.

Is it possible to setup a secondary email address for forgotten passwords?


Here's why.

We have an issue where we have installed the Google Apps authentication plugin and act as the authenticator for student's email.  Also our academics department wants to force the communication email to always be their school email address.  This way students aren't getting moodle updates on their personal accounts.


The problem with this is, if they forget their password and their email is set as their school email address, they can't login to get their email.  So we either have to force students to use their personal emails as the contact point, or make students call me to verify their identities before giving them a new email.  

The Academics department doesn't like the first option and I'm all alone in my office so I can't field those calls all the time.  

So if it's possible to setup a secondary email where passwords will also be sent that would be a great boon to us.  Does something like this already exist?  Or anyone know how to set it up?

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In reply to Matt Johnson

Re: Secondary email for forgotten passwords

by Graham Bowman -

If you're using Google Apps to log in then you won't have a password for moodle. The reset will be through Google?

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In reply to Graham Bowman

Re: Secondary email for forgotten passwords

by Rob Johnson -

I think it is the other way around.  Users log in to Moodle to get to Google.  That is how the GApps integration works.  It does create headaches for password change requests.  Users can use an IMAP client (Outlook, phone, tablet) to bypass Moodle.

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In reply to Rob Johnson

Re: Secondary email for forgotten passwords

by Matt Johnson -

Yes, Rob Johnson is correct.  Authentication for Moodle is handled by our Active Directory, and we provide authentication to Google Apps.

Their google account, however, has the same password as their Moodle account and if they've forgotten their moodle account the IMAP idea only works if they set it up ahead of time.  Also that has caused problems in the past as changing the password in moodle does not update the password in Google Apps.  We had wanted to avoid that problem by using Google Apps Password Sync on our AD server but then the password for the IMAP will change as well when the email goes out.

If there is no way to get a secondary email (without hacking the system anyway.  xD ) I may have to just opt for using the IMAP option and receiving calls from those who didn't set it up.

Also forgetting the Google Apps Password Sync.

Thanks for your replies

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In reply to Matt Johnson

Re: Secondary email for forgotten passwords

by Graham Bowman -
There is the alternate email address for notificstions in the Messaging > Notifications setting. I don't know how that works with password resets because we don't use moodle passwords.
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In reply to Graham Bowman

Re: Secondary email for forgotten passwords

by Matt Johnson -

I'm also not sure exactly how it works, but from the description it sounds like almost the exact opposite of what I'm wanting to do.  xD

We don't want notifications to be sent to their personal for anything other than forgotten passwords because it forces them to use their school email.  Sort of training the dog as it were.

Horrible analogy, but you get the point.  But I love how close that was.


I however, love to do things the insane and stupid way.  So I edited the source code.


First I added a custom profile field and made it required through the normal moodle interface.

Then I went into the Moodlelib.php library and edited all of the confirmation emails to go to to this alternate field's address instead.  It looks like it worked, won't know for sure until it's in the wild though.  xD  Man I'm an idiot.  I really ought to know better than to fool around with these systems.

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