https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-usersphp-column-to-order-by-user_meta function user_sortable_columns( $columns ) { $columns['authorise'] = 'authorise'; // ['authorise'] is the key of column return $columns; } add_filter( 'manage_users_sortable_columns', 'user_sortable_columns' ); function status_column_orderby($userquery){ if( 'authorise' == $userquery->query_vars['orderby'] ) { global $wpdb; $userquery->query_from .= " LEFT OUTER JOIN $wpdb->usermeta AS alias ON ($wpdb->users.ID = alias.user_id) "; $userquery->query_where .= " AND alias.meta_key = 'userstatus' "; $userquery->query_orderby = " ORDER BY alias.meta_value ".($userquery->query_vars["order"] == "ASC" ? "desc " : "asc "); } } add_action('pre_user_query', 'status_column_orderby');