Magento 1.9 Please make sure your passwords match error during User registration [Updated 11/2016]

With the upgrade of 1.9, there is a problem with new account registration where ever you access it: login, checkout, reviews, etc. When you try to create a new account, there is an error that says: “Please make sure your passwords match.” Though there seems to be a couple of ways to solve this, only one worked for me.

Here’s how I did it:

Copy /app/code/core/Mage/Customer/Model/Customer.php to app/code/local/Mage/Customer/Model/Customer.php

Find “$confirmation = $this->getConfirmation();” around line 843.

Replace with:

Save it and clear all cache. This fixed my error.

[Update 11/2016]
I revisited this issue while snooping around the code when I realized that a security patch from a while ago was the culprit for my new registration password problem.

Currently, this particular store that has had these password problems is on CE 1.9.0.1. The store owners want to keep their current theme until they upgrade to Magento 2, and this theme does not have an update for CE 1.9.2. So, I’ve been updating Magento with the security patches as they are released.

Though I had all of the patches installed through Supee-8788, and MageReport.com showed that all of my patches were installed, Supee-6788 apparently was not installed properly. Something didn’t install right with this patch. Thank goodness I had backups.

Here is where I have to interject and emphasize that you need to have backups of your files and database before applying any patch. In addition, you should clone your site and apply your patches on a development platform of your choice.

I first reverted Supee-8788, Supee-7405 v. 1 & 1.1, and Supee-6788. I then reapplied the Supee-1533 patch (because that patch you have to revert to apply Supee-8788). I then made sure that the /app/code/core/Mage/Customer/Model/Customer.php file was the original from CE 1.9.0.1., as well as /app/code/core/Mage/Customer/controllers/AccountController.php. I then reapplied all 4 patches one at a time while clearing cache and testing everything between patches, and the password problem went away.