Forum new user validation stuck on admin approval

[DanRichard]

Hey guys, I've been all over the web trying to figure out this very frustrating issue.  While I prep for a 4.0 update (our main site pulls a lot from the forum resources of 3.4.8 so upgrading is a monster for us) I am trying to fix up our current install after some horrible management allowed it to turn in to a spam haven.  I've since fixed it but I have a very strange nagging issue.  No matter what I set the security settings to in the ACP, the forum is using manual admin validation, despite it being set in admin as mail validation or mail and then admin review.  I have tried saving it as different settings and then going back to mail validation to no avail.  Anyone have any idea what the heck is going on?  Does anyone know what file or where in the DB this setting is stored so I can check that the admin is indeed saving the setting correctly?

I know I need to upgrade but this site is a hobby site and the programming and licensing costs are quite high.  Hoping to keep this going just a bit longer as-is.

Thanks,
Dan
 

[DanRichard]

Edit - thanks for moving this to the right forum.

[Pete T]

2 hours ago, faken_merged said:

Hey guys, I've been all over the web trying to figure out this very frustrating issue.  While I prep for a 4.0 update (our main site pulls a lot from the forum resources of 3.4.8 so upgrading is a monster for us) I am trying to fix up our current install after some horrible management allowed it to turn in to a spam haven.  I've since fixed it but I have a very strange nagging issue.  No matter what I set the security settings to in the ACP, the forum is using manual admin validation, despite it being set in admin as mail validation or mail and then admin review.  I have tried saving it as different settings and then going back to mail validation to no avail.  Anyone have any idea what the heck is going on?  Does anyone know what file or where in the DB this setting is stored so I can check that the admin is indeed saving the setting correctly?

I know I need to upgrade but this site is a hobby site and the programming and licensing costs are quite high.  Hoping to keep this going just a bit longer as-is.

Thanks,
Dan
 

Am correct saying have members need be manual validated by the admin ? if so Is the email being validated by person normal will say as could be fake email.