diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7a3cfb6b73ea8d908b459ffe04c245d8163e2345..9997cd81461632727647bab467779089789dfb93 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Fixed
 
+* Bug: When the user password is updated the user is deactivated.
 * Semi-fixed a bug which occurs when retrieving old versions of entities which
   reference entities which have been deleted in the mean time. The current fix
   adds a warning message to the reference property in question and sets the
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/caosdb/server/resource/UserResource.java b/src/main/java/org/caosdb/server/resource/UserResource.java
index 8ac0df1d8f8f018a07251e35a118ae944224dcc3..2c463e0e4bf7a640adc2a8368f74d798f69d0fd5 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/caosdb/server/resource/UserResource.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/caosdb/server/resource/UserResource.java
@@ -99,13 +99,11 @@ public class UserResource extends AbstractCaosDBServerResource {
               : UserSources.guessRealm(username));
       final String password = form.getFirstValue("password");
       final String email = form.getFirstValue("email");
+
       final UserStatus status =
-          UserStatus.valueOf(
-              form.getFirstValue(
-                      "status",
-                      CaosDBServer.getServerProperty(
-                          ServerProperties.KEY_NEW_USER_DEFAULT_ACTIVITY))
-                  .toUpperCase());
+          form.getFirstValue("status") != null
+              ? UserStatus.valueOf(form.getFirstValue("status").toUpperCase())
+              : null;
       Integer userEntity = null;
       if (form.getFirst("entity") != null) {
         if (form.getFirstValue("entity").isEmpty()) {