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I had a separate log in account for mathoverflow. Now, I'm unable to log in into that. I see only options of logging in using google, facebook, stack exchange etc but no option of logging using mathoverflow. How can I access my old account?

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you point to the account corresponding to your old user? You should be able to find the profile page with the search box at meta.mathoverflow.net/users. $\endgroup$ Jun 25, 2013 at 4:20
  • $\begingroup$ This is my old account. mathoverflow.net/users/18503/john $\endgroup$
    – john
    Jun 25, 2013 at 4:21
  • $\begingroup$ I also had to create a new account. Could someone merge them? Thanks! Old account: mathoverflow.net/users/8838/dls $\endgroup$
    – dls
    Jun 25, 2013 at 4:32
  • $\begingroup$ My accounts got merged, but I still show up with rep 101 in meta. $\endgroup$ Jun 25, 2013 at 6:34
  • $\begingroup$ Could someone merge my accounts too? They are mathoverflow.net/users/3603/wouter-stekelenburg and mathoverflow.net/users/35398/user27375. I prefer the full name one. $\endgroup$ Jun 25, 2013 at 7:39
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    $\begingroup$ It seems like this issue is affecting a lot of people. Is there no way the merging can be automated? I'm meta.mathoverflow.net/users/35567/ben-millwood and mathoverflow.net/users/26698/ben-millwood $\endgroup$ Jun 25, 2013 at 15:36
  • $\begingroup$ I'm going to delete answers to this question which have been resolved (i.e. when a user has been merged, and has shown some activity indicating that they were able to use their old account), so that it's easier to keep track of outstanding unmerged accounts. $\endgroup$ Jun 26, 2013 at 4:51
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    $\begingroup$ It seems very impractical/tedious for this error to keep being fixed on an individual basis; Ben Millwood's comment is very apt. $\endgroup$
    – user61789
    Jun 26, 2013 at 6:38

2 Answers 2

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What can I do?

This is a simple issue that can be quickly rectified by following the steps below:

  1. Go ahead and create a new account using whatever authentication service you were using previously. Make a note of the profile URL - you can get to the new profile by clicking on your user name at the top of the page. Keep this handy.

  2. Locate your original profile URL, if you don't already know it. You can do this by going to the users page and entering your user name. Keep this handy as well.

  3. Contact Stack Exchange and provide them both links, and indicate that you can no longer access your account and have made a new one.

  4. Wait for a short while, you'll receive a reply indicating that you can now access your account. We try to process these as soon as they come in during the transition and we have overlapping coverage in many time zones.

Please, use the link to contact the team directly as that's where they're monitoring for requests to fix this issue. If you post here, it might be a while before someone from the team sees your request.

Why did this happen?

This happened because your OpenID provider is now returning a different email address during authentication than it did when you originally registered, so the system does not recognize you properly. This is why the system is asking if you want to create a new account.

How do you fix this?

By asking you to create a new account to merge with your established account, we ensure that you'll log in properly when either email address is returned during authentication. Once done, it will be as if this never happened, and no remnants of the temporary account you created for merging will remain.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you very much! $\endgroup$
    – john
    Jun 25, 2013 at 4:26
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    $\begingroup$ Where can mods merge users? I expected it under mod > links, but I can't find it there. $\endgroup$ Jun 25, 2013 at 4:34
  • $\begingroup$ Since I saw in the chat room that you had the double account problem, @AntonGeraschenko, and that you contacted the SE people to merge, I had assumed that mods couldn't now merge accounts and so I contacted the SE people when the same thing happened to me. $\endgroup$ Jun 25, 2013 at 4:50
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    $\begingroup$ @Anton, they removed the moderator merge a few months ago. The instructions for users to request merging of their accounts is here: mathoverflow.net/help/merging-accounts $\endgroup$
    – Kaveh
    Jun 25, 2013 at 6:39
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You can just use the "click here to recover your account" link on the login page. You should then receive an email with a link to a form to set a new password. Afterwards you should be able to log in by choosing "log in with Stack Exchange".

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