# Masquerading as another user

Masquerading users is one of the very helpful and useful features that allows top-level users to view the site as a lower-level user in terms of permissions and functionality.

Typically masquerading users is permitted to the webmaster user that has the super admin role assigned to it, while the site admin can only masquerade other lower-level users.

The permissions to masquerade users can be viewed by navigating to **People / *****Permissions*** under the **Manage** administrative menu.

![Masquerade Permissions](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/tjINItzRXfQ-5d7f_KKmJjAeXYKEyxQSVgywZOTT7RALaLAIw-aERls8-H0TNtNto0TdAw_nE55cZNk8JOAfMbAo9LrvwqpcmZWdsAAkKkMHcAqGQw9DxynVIHHadNbZGRDATiqI)

Note that the masquerading permission will have some security issues as any changes, edits, and content uploading on the site will appear as being authored by the masqueraded user.

There are two methods to masquerade a user.

**First method:**

1. Navigate to **Manage/*****People*** .
2. Click on **Masquerade as** option under the **Operations** menu next to the user.

![Masquerade As - Operation Menu](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bkIfO8uurqBctnCkyqKhK1dJF60E6QWqPyoXJf0d3j-0c9Oj_9TdK7y10hgQ18d7AnhjWDjzEYQypE53CilwQ8M6FXZaAKoZbs9ccIB9XBc5o-gp_n0wQsYoGmZEjXYVHc1sPJ__)

**Second method:**

1. Navigate to **Manage/*****People*** .
2. Click on the user to be masqueraded to view the user profile, Content admin for example.
3. Click on the **Masquerade as \[user]** link.

![User Profiles](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/SEaAfrKsFX3ROuIRUC22GTMG1vGjeDsBlAfolt_uaS9rKjL0dqt35jhGhw7yK8c08VQuNQ-FGJBg7W2X25wV6B3Ge-wU7N9Q1a8cWXQIFoT5dIacTLeaNNNbBgMGDLDdNTrDXCqT)

![Masquerade as \[User\] Link](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/DLp63uXZAzDQZfoLQcrvS-Zj83AaQ_wtxP7KmAc1sy3KNdYCPcHj9tHN5L7ooYgv4UfuHVUljpUvHlmYUVrqbR1g0KrCV-nHL31QYFNaIntJUVAisFv7Gw96_V95JCXFA5eC5veR)

When masquerading a user, a confirmation message will appear, and the username will be changed to reflect changes, in addition to a button to unmasquerade.

![Masquerading a User Confirmation Message and Changes](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/y4Iz-TYI1MVHw6KFrDBTApHeGWMUAQSGj5YBeSV3mEH9D6Ll0KLB2rltUYzgheeZ1rxHQe2W5dfUK2FMzFyNdTcznKhV8d9gvJ-W2K6K0QIUOUeu8iUEnjjbUWfI97Rid6-SrjER)

Clicking on unmasquerade will revert the user to its original state.

![Un-masquerading a User Confirmation Message and Changes](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/zssguB7zo2B7waMmceNUXdjw1EP3GddS5JwfuXI-vSdNSdfXuhvTGAPM43nXaFlQnGgbsnvmopOIbD52l5wOVQE2YTztHZGBKRQZX0z_refBTETjA05Omaa86MukzE6jfzovZV_H)

{% hint style="danger" %} <mark style="color:red;">Masquerading users should be only used to test and view other users permitted actions and functions, be careful while using this feature.</mark>
{% endhint %}