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Change web console default user?

Posted on May 3, 2026

On a Digital Ocean droplet, the web console fails to authenticate if you’ve disabled the root account because it defaults to the root user as the os_user parameter:

hxxps://cloud.digitalocean.com/droplets/xxxxxxxx/terminal/ui/?os_user=root

Is there a way to set the desired non-root user on the server or an account setting? You can do manually after the auth failure but perhaps there’s a better way.



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Hi there,

As far as I am aware, there is no account-level setting to change the default os_user for the web console right now. It always defaults to root.

The manual workaround you already found is the way to go: after the auth failure, edit the URL and replace os_user=root with your actual username:

https://cloud.digitalocean.com/droplets/xxxxxxxx/terminal/ui/?os_user=youruser

Not ideal, but it works. You can bookmark that URL with your username already in it to save the extra step each time.

This is worth submitting as a feature request at https://ideas.digitalocean.com. A simple account or Droplet level setting for the default console user would be a reasonable addition!

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