User exists in aspnet_membership table but getUser still returns null

Question

In my database I have the table aspnet_membership. In the application I am implementing the forgot password functionality. When the user is using this functionality he obviously isn't logged in. So the user enters his e-mail address of which he can't remember the password and in my code I try to get the correct MembershipUser object by executing this line of code:

var user = Membership.GetUser(username);

While testing, I enter and existing e-mail address but the function GetUser still returns null. I am sure the e-mail address exists by checking the content of the table. I cannot figure out what the reason is why I still get the null value returned. Can anyone tell me why GetUser returns null in this scenario?

Answer 1

Because the username isn't actually stored in the aspnet_membership table (assuming default implementation) - username is in aspnet_users .

I would try doing the following and seeing if you get a result:

declare @email nvarchar(50)
set @email = N'whateveremailyouarehavingproblemswith'

select * 
from aspnet_membership m 
inner join aspnet_users u on m.userId = u.userId 
where m.email = @email 
    and u.username = @email

if nothing is returned from this query, then either your usernames and emails aren't matching, or that user does indeed not exist.