Remove the Forgot Password and Username Links in Joomla

On an intranet, a members-only club or any site where you create every account yourself, the "Forgot your password?" and "Forgot your username?" links invite requests you don't want. Strangers and bots can also use those forms to send reset emails to your members. Joomla has no setting to hide them. You can remove them with one PHP snippet in Code Snippets.

The PHP snippet code

The snippet takes the finished page and removes the 2 links with preg_replace, both on the login page and in the login module. It builds each link with Joomla's own router, so it finds them with or without search engine friendly URLs.

use Joomla\CMS\Factory;
use Joomla\CMS\Router\Route;

// true also closes the reset pages, so typing their address doesn't work either.
// Visitors who try end up on the login page.
$closePages = true;

// Do not edit below.

$app   = Factory::getApplication();
$input = $app->getInput();

if ($closePages && $input->getCmd('option') === 'com_users')
{
    $isResetView = in_array($input->getCmd('view'), ['reset', 'remind'], true);
    $isResetTask = preg_match('/^(reset|remind)\./', $input->getCmd('task'));

    if ($isResetView || $isResetTask)
    {
        $app->redirect(Route::_('index.php?option=com_users&view=login', false));
    }
}

$app->registerEvent('onAfterRender', function () use ($app)
{
    if ($app->getDocument()->getType() !== 'html')
    {
        return;
    }

    $body = $app->getBody();

    foreach (['reset', 'remind'] as $view)
    {
        // Build the link exactly like the login form and login module do.
        $link = Route::_('index.php?option=com_users&view=' . $view);
        $url  = preg_quote($link, '#');

        // Remove the link, and the list item around it in the login module.
        $body = preg_replace(
            '#(<li>\s*)?<a [^>]*href="' . $url . '"[^>]*>.*?</a>(\s*</li>)?#s',
            '',
            $body
        );
    }

    // Drop the login module's list if no links are left in it.
    $emptyList = '#<ul class="mod-login__options[^"]*">\s*</ul>#';
    $body      = preg_replace($emptyList, '', $body);

    $app->setBody($body);
});

With $closePages set to true, the snippet also closes the password reset and username reminder pages. Anyone who opens them or sends their forms lands on the login page, and no email goes out. Set it to false to hide the links but keep the pages working.

If you allow registration, the Create an account link stays where it is.

How to add this snippet

Install Code Snippets if it isn't installed already.
Log into your Joomla backend.
Go to Components → Tassos Code Snippets.
Click New.
Enter a title, for example Remove forgot password links.
Set Code Type to PHP.
Set Insertion Method to Auto-Insert Locations.
Set Location to On Page Load.
Paste the code above into the editor.
Click Save & Close.

PHP snippets run on the frontend of your site only, so your Joomla administrator isn't affected. You can still set a new password for any user in Users → Manage.

Check that it works

Open your site in a private browser window.
Go to your login page.

The "Forgot your password?" and "Forgot your username?" links should be gone from the login page and from every login module. With $closePages set to true, opening index.php?option=com_users&view=reset on your site takes you back to the login page.

To choose where each user group lands after login, see Redirect Users After Login by User Group in Joomla. To learn more about how PHP snippets work, read the PHP snippet docs.

Remove the Forgot Password and Username Links in Joomla

Take the forgot password and forgot username links off your Joomla login forms when you manage member accounts yourself, using one PHP snippet.

The PHP snippet code

How to add this snippet

Check that it works