Changing System Language Automatically Changes User Type to 'Website User'

mohamed-ameer · June 25, 2025, 10:02am

what is the problem?

My problem was: everytime i try to change User Settings like (Language, Theme, Timezone), automatically the user_type will change to Website User so i can’t access any of the system modules.

why this happens?

in short: the reason was MY USER DIDN’T HAVE SYSTEM-LEVEL ROLES

When the user has only website roles (like “Customer”, “Supplier”), Frappe classifies them as a Website User.

When you add any system-level role / desk_access roles (like “Employee”, “Accounts User”, “System Manager”), Frappe switches the user_type to System User.

Where the Logic in Frappe Core?

File: frappe/core/doctype/user/user.py

Method: set_system_user(self)

Github:

github.com

frappe/frappe/blob/mergify/bp/version-15-hotfix/pr-31819/frappe/core/doctype/user/user.py#L293


      
          	def set_system_user(self):
          		"""For the standard users like admin and guest, the user type is fixed."""
          		user_type_mapper = {"Administrator": "System User", "Guest": "Website User"}
          
          		if self.user_type and not frappe.get_cached_value("User Type", self.user_type, "is_standard"):
          			if user_type_mapper.get(self.name):
          				self.user_type = user_type_mapper.get(self.name)
          			else:
          				self.set_roles_and_modules_based_on_user_type()
          		else:
          			"""Set as System User if any of the given roles has desk_access"""
          			self.user_type = "System User" if self.has_desk_access() else "Website User"
          
          	def set_roles_and_modules_based_on_user_type(self):
          		user_type_doc = frappe.get_cached_doc("User Type", self.user_type)
          		if user_type_doc.role:
          			self.roles = []
          
          			# Check whether User has linked with the 'Apply User Permission On' doctype or not
          			if user_linked_with_permission_on_doctype(user_type_doc, self.name):
          				self.append("roles", {"role": user_type_doc.role})

If no roles are assigned to the user, or none of the roles have desk_access = 1, Frappe will set user_type = "Website User".
Happens automatically on every call to .save() on a User document.
This override behavior is not visible in the UI or warned about — it just silently happens so if you don’t know this behavior then you will never notice.
FROM NOW ON: Always include at least one role with desk_access = 1 when creating system users.

How to follow what happened with me

Create a new user (e.g., test@example.com).
Do not assign any roles, or assign only roles with desk_access = 0.
Save the user.
Check the user_type: it will be automatically set to "Website User".

When you later assign a role that has desk_access = 1 (e.g., “System Manager”), user_type will be updated to "System User" on the next save.

The steps i made to solve this problem

open mariadb client and change my user_type to “System User”

bench --site [your-site] mariadb

UPDATE `tabUser`
SET `user_type` = 'System User'
WHERE `name` = 'user@example.com';

open the desk and give my user => any system level role (at least one role with desk_access = 1)

THAT’S IT