Trouble signing in

Most sign-in problems are one of four things, and two of them are the system working as designed. This article covers them in the order they actually occur.

1. "It keeps signing me out"

Expected. A session lasts seven days and does not renew as you use it, so even a device you open daily asks you to sign in about once a week.

A session that renewed on every visit would effectively never expire, which is fine until a device is lost or stolen. The weekly sign-in is the price of a hard ceiling on how long a stolen session is useful.

2. "It says my account does not exist"

Usually a different address from the one you signed up with — a personal one instead of a work one, or a Gmail alias with a dot in a different place.

Try the others you use. If you were invited by a tutor or a school, try the address the invitation was sent to; the account was created against that one.

3. Resetting your password

1. Use the forgotten-password link — On the sign-in page. It sends a reset link to your address.
2. Check spam — A first email from an unfamiliar domain lands there routinely.
3. Follow the link and set a new password — At least eight characters.

4. "I changed my email and now I cannot sign in"

An email change only takes effect when you follow the confirmation link sent to the new address. Until then the old address is still your sign-in.

So: sign in with the old one. If you mistyped the new address, nothing happened at all and the old one still works — which is the safe failure and exactly why it is built that way.

Invitation links that do not work

• "Expired" — Invitations time out. Ask whoever invited you to send another — resending is unlimited.
• Nothing arrived — Check spam, then check the address it was sent to is one you read. A typo fails silently.
• You already have an account — The invitation attaches to the account with that address. If you signed up with a different one, ask for an invitation to the address you actually use.

Signing in with Google or Facebook

Both are offered, on the sign-in screen and on the create-account step. Either one will sign you in, and either one will make you an account if you do not have one yet.

Your account is found by email address, so the one thing to get right is which address the provider is signed in under. Google account on a different address from the one you signed up with, and you will not be told you took a wrong turn — you will simply arrive at a new, empty account.

If you first made your account through Google or Facebook, you never chose a password — so if you now want to sign in with one, use the forgotten-password link to set it. It is the same flow as a reset, and it does not disturb the provider sign-in, which keeps working.

Still stuck

Write to us from the address you think the account uses, and say what happens — the exact message matters. "Incorrect password" and "no account found" are different problems with different fixes.