Sign in as Different User missing in SharePoint – Workarounds
SharePoint 2013 doesn’t offer the handy “Sign-in as Different User” feature as in its previous versions under the welcome menu. Not clear why Microsoft has removed this option; I guess it might be due to security/caching problems!
Even in MOSS 2007, we had this functionality.
But sometimes, you may have to log in as a different user who has different permission than the current user. Here are some possible workarounds to enable sign-in as a different user in SharePoint 2013 or in SharePoint 2016.
Option 1: Navigate to the Close Connection Page
Navigate to the URL: https://Your-Site/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true
BTW, The above URL is just copied from SharePoint 2010’s Sign-in as a different user option, and it works for SharePoint 2013 as well! Replace “Your-Site” with the SharePoint 2013 site collection URL of your environment. Once you hit this URL, you will be prompted to enter your user name and password.
You can also bookmark it! Just drag and drop this to the Favorites bar: Sign in as Different User
Option 2: Run IE as a different user Open IE in private mode
- Go to Start >> Internet Explorer >> Shift+ right click >> Choose “Run as Different User”
- Or, Go to Internet Explorer >> Tools >> Click on InPrivate Browsing
These options bring the prompt to Enter your credentials.
Option 3: Edit the “Welcome.ascx” file
Edit “Welcome.ascx” file, which is at “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extension\15\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES” folder. (modifying files in the SharePoint file system is not a best practice, BTW!)
Open it in notepad, Add this new entry under the node: <SharePoint:FeatureMenuTemplate>
<SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate runat="server" ID="ID_LoginAsDifferentUser"
Text="<%$Resources:wss,personalactions_loginasdifferentuser%>"
Description="<%$Resources:wss,personalactions_loginasdifferentuserdescription%>"
MenuGroupId="100"
Sequence="100"
UseShortId="true"
/>
So the file should look like this:
Save the file (No need for IIS Reset!) That’s it! Refresh the page, you can see the “Sign in as different user” menu item now!
Option 4: SharePoint 2013 Sign in as Different User Missing – Feature Based Solution
Sign-in as a different user in SharePoint 2016:
All the above methods, including the welcome.ascx code edit is valid for SharePoint 2016 also. The only change is: The SharePoint hive moved to “16”. So, you’ll find welcome.ascx at 16 hive “C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\16\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES”
Microsoft KB addressing this issue: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2752600
In one of our Farms when we Sign in as a different user the URL Changing from % as %25 and throwing 500 Internal server error. Any idea how to resolve this?