Manually Add Members to Member Area

Site URL: https://mindovermatterfit.com/

Hello,

I am implementing the new Squarespace Member Areas, but have existing subscribers to my content through Memberspace. I am wondering if/how I can import those existing subscribers to my new Squarespace Member Areas. 

Thank you.

Can you clarify - does this mean that if I already have an existing memebrship, I lose all of the data about them if I host on Squarespace? 

Hi @AndyWilson23

If you already have an existing membership, you will have to do a 'manual migration' to your new Squarespace Member Areas.  It doesn't mean you will lose their information,  but you will have to ask all your members to subscribe back again to your site. You can't do this for them; they will have to do this themselves!

Which is your current provider? How are you processing your payments? 

We just started looking at the membership module in square space. I literally took 3 minutes of a chat to figure out it simply won't function for any pre existing membership base that has none synchronized renewal dates. I have 358 members that pay a yearly fee. All have different renewal dates. The would no be able to access the membership area until their renewal date. Oh wait I could refund them a pro rated amount at my cost and then insist they sign up new. Unacceptable.   

Is there a solution for this yet? I am having the same issue. 

same issue here, we have pre-existing membership base and thought we could transfer them to squarespace. are we not able to manually add members and input correct renewal dates?

@ward320ny Yeah, not being able to import members, or at least convert email contacts to members, is a non-starter for me. Asking them to manually join again means that I might possibly loose some members. My plan is to have a free membership and so no one would even be charged. I understand if you are concerned about charging people without their consent but you should allow us to import the members and then send them an request to update payment info if that's part of it. Otherwise, I'm going to have to look someplace else for my website solution.

Same, hope in the future Squarespace will add this

You know what's really frustrating? The fact that we can't even manually add customer accounts on SquareSpace. I mean, come on! Considering the price they're charging, this feels like a major functional oversight. And seriously, for any website that's trying to grow its membership, not being able to manage members in basic ways is just a huge letdown. I really hope the folks in charge at SquareSpace step up their game and start giving us the basic features that actual websites need. It's about time they prioritize those over the bells and whistles they've been focusing on for the past three years. And hey, if you're a paid membership subscriber like me, I think it's high time we speak up and make them realize how important this is.

I'm having a similar issue. The business is a tuition business and we're wanting to use the member space as a sort of 'portal' for children to access content without a charge; the payment is currently all handled separately. Ideally we would just manually create accounts for these members and share their logins with them, but this doesn't seem to be something you can do with SquareSpace. 

I'm wondering if there's a chance we could work around this by creating a 'free to sign up' members area but then 'hide' the sign-up link and only share it with members who have paid. Does anyone know if this would work? I'm aware that this could have problems e.g. the sign-up link being shared and us having to be vigilant about deleting any new member profiles belonging to non-students. 

The issue here is that we don't want non-students accessing the area at all and I'm not sure there's a way that SquareSpace can facilitate that. I'm trying to determine if this is the right match for the business but I'm sadly starting to think it's not. 

I have a similar issue as well. I have an org looking to have gated content available to their members, but payment is only accepted in person via cash or check (they are a group of 70-year-olds).

Is there a way to use some sort of approval system that the admin can use to grant access to anyone joining through the site, only after the in-person payment is confirmed?

Yep. There is even a help page saying to click the particular mailing list you're attempting to add to, then click on add subscriber and select "manually add email". But THERE IS NO SUCH BUTTON! The only option is to "add subscriberS" it's that plural s that messes it all up. From there in only allows "importing a cvs file with 3 columns"

Gah. 

I just want to type an email into this list that I pay a

lot of money to create and have access to all in one place. Better just go back to mailchimp.

Has this issue been resolved?

I'd like to be able to migrate an existing membership program to Squarespace, but it doesn't appear that I can add "Members" - only subscribers.
It seems like a pretty easy feature to add - the ability for me to set up digital products and then manually enter a member and assign them to those products with effective dates?

Is this something that is possible?

We are having the same issue. We need the ability to add members and students to courses manually. This is a significant oversight.

I am also wanting to create a membership area for a client (doctor's office). He wants a member area that is free for his patients, but paid for non-patients, so need a way to approve specific members or import a list of email addresses and send them a link for login/access. It also needs to be easy to use because many patients are older and not tech-savvy. Squarespace, please create this functionality!

I'm going to assume that you can't just add new subscribers b/c of their credit card information. There can be some PII + PCI complications.

I think I have a work-around that you could use.... It's a bit janky if you've got customers who have different start dates. You may have to manually manage that.

You can build a discount making membership levels free. You could migrate your customers by having them sign up and giving them free coupons.  You can provide a discount that's 100% off. Just be careful of how you set it up so you don't give them free membership forever (or DO, in the case of the doctor's office).

Same issue here, extremely limiting and problematic. I want to give free access to my clients and I can't. This is driving me to change platforms. Have any of you found an alternative or solution for this? Thank you!

I wouldn't expect any updates any time soon. Simple things have been broken with member areas since launch.

has this been added as an update/change request/enhancement? thanks.