Add and manage users

A user is anyone who can sign in to your Blink console. Every user signs in with their email address, a password and a second factor. What a user can see and do depends on the roles you give them.

You manage users on the Users page, under Instance in the console sidebar. You need the Manage users permission to see it. Instance owners have it automatically.

Create a user and send an invite

Blink does not send email invitations. Instead, you get an invite link and send it to the person yourself.

1. In the console, open Users.
2. Select New user.
3. Enter their Email, First name and Last name.
4. Select Create and get link.
5. In the Invite link dialog, select Copy link and send the link to the person, for example by email or chat.
6. Select Done.

The link is shown only once

The invite link works once and expires after 7 days. Blink does not show it again after you close the dialog. If it gets lost or expires, an instance owner can make a new one. See Make a new invite link.

When the person opens the link, they see Set up your account. They choose a password of at least 8 characters, select Set password, and then set up two-factor sign-in with an authenticator app. See Sign-in and two-factor authentication.

A new user has no access to anything until you give them a role.

First and last names matter

Customers can see a technician’s name on the banner during a Support session. By default, Blink shows the first name and last initial. See Choose the name customers see.

Give a user a role

A user’s access is made up of roles, and each role is given for a scope. On the Users page you can give a role for:

• All organizations, including future ones: the role applies in every organization on your server, including organizations created later.
• Selected organizations: the role applies only in the organizations you tick.
• One group in one organization: the role applies only to the devices in one group. The user also becomes a member of that organization as Member (group access only) if they aren’t a member yet.

To give a role:

1. On the Users page, select the user’s row to expand it.
2. Under Roles, select Give a role.
3. Under Where, choose the scope. For Selected organizations, tick the organizations. For One group in one organization, choose the Organization and then the Group.
4. Choose the Role. The description of the role shows below the list.
5. Select Save.

To change or remove a role, expand the user’s row and use the pencil (Change) or bin (Remove) icon next to it. A group role can’t be moved to another group: remove it and give a new one.

Note

Some roles include instance permissions, such as managing users or security settings. Those permissions only apply when the role is given for All organizations, including future ones. If you choose Selected organizations for such a role, the console warns you.

The expanded row also lists the user’s Organization memberships. You change those on each organization’s Team and Groups pages. Select Open team to go straight to an organization’s team. See Manage organizations and teams and Limit access with groups.

For what each role allows, see Roles and permissions.

Read the user list

Column	What it shows
User	Name and email. Instance owner marks instance owners, and you marks your own account.
Roles	Up to three roles with where they apply, plus a count of group roles.
Two-factor	on, not set up, invite pending or invite expired.
Status	active or disabled.
Last sign-in	When the user last signed in, or never.

Use the All roles and Any scope filters above the list to find, for example, every user with a given role, or every instance owner.

Technician seats

Your plan includes a number of technician seats. Every user account that is not disabled takes one, administrators and instance owners included, and so does a user whose invite is still pending. Disabled users don’t take a seat. See Technician seats.

If you have the View license permission, the top of the Users page shows how many seats are in use, for example 8 of 10 seats. When every seat is in use, New user is greyed out with All technician seats are in use. Remove or disable a user, or add seats to your plan.

At the limit, Blink refuses to create a user or to enable a disabled one, with a message such as Your plan includes 10 technician seats and 10 are in use. Technician seats: ask your provider to raise the limit. A user you try to enable stays disabled. To free a seat, disable a user you no longer need.

If your plan changes to fewer seats than you use, nobody is locked out: everyone keeps signing in, but new users are refused until you are under the limit.

Disable or enable a user

Disable a user when they leave or should no longer have access. Disabling keeps their account and roles, so you can turn them back on later.

1. On the Users page, find the user.
2. Select Disable at the end of their row.
3. Confirm with Disable.

The user is signed out everywhere at once and can’t sign in until you enable them again. To restore access, select Enable on the same row. Disabling a user frees their technician seat, and enabling them takes one again, so enabling is refused when every seat is in use.

• You can’t disable your own account.
• Only an instance owner can disable another instance owner.
• Your server always keeps at least one active instance owner.
• You can’t disable someone who is the only active Owner of an organization. Make someone else Owner there first.

Blink has no option to delete a user. Disable the account instead.

Reset a user’s sign-in

Reset a user’s sign-in when they have forgotten their password or lost their authenticator app. Only instance owners can do this.

1. On the Users page, select the user’s row to expand it.
2. Select Reset sign-in.
3. Confirm with Reset sign-in.
4. In the Sign-in reset dialog, select Copy link and send the link to the user.

The reset removes the user’s password, two-factor setup, passkeys and recovery codes, and signs them out everywhere. Their roles stay. With the new link, they choose a new password and set up two-factor again.

Users can’t change their own password in the console. A reset is how they get a new one. You can’t reset your own account: ask another instance owner.

Note

Every reset raises an owner alert. See Owner alerts and webhooks.

Make a new invite link

If a user hasn’t accepted their invite yet, the expanded row shows New invite link instead of Reset sign-in. Select it and confirm with Make new link. The old link stops working.

Instance owners

Instance owners have every instance permission, including View license, and almost every permission in every organization, including managing users and other instance owners. The exceptions are in the note below. The person who set up your Blink server is the first instance owner.

To make someone an instance owner, expand their row on the Users page and select Make instance owner. To take it away, select Remove instance owner. Only instance owners see these buttons.

Caution

Keep the number of instance owners small. Making someone an instance owner raises an owner alert.

Terminal and Backstage as SYSTEM

Opening a remote terminal and running Backstage tools as SYSTEM are granted only by a role that includes them, such as an organization’s Owner role. Being an instance owner alone does not grant them. See Roles and permissions.