How to get round “an account with this email already exists”

John Murray

How many times have you tried to set up an account somewhere online, but been told that the email you have used is already connected to an account? Perhaps it was years ago and you’d forgotten about it, or maybe you’d just prefer the convenience of managing multiple accounts from the same email.

WordPress is a good example. If your job involves managing multiple WordPress websites, you might find yourself setting up several email accounts because WordPress wants a unique email address for each one. Rather than use personal accounts or create new email accounts you never intend to use just to log into a WordPress site, you might consider it neater and more convenient to tie them all to your work email address.

An IT professional can help you with this by creating what’s known as a “pseudo” account, meaning a new email address that directs to an existing one, but there is a quick and easy way you can do it yourself without any technical expertise, and it works on most sites and with most email providers.

Using WordPress as an example, note from the screenshot below that the site is not happy for me to log in under the email address I’ve typed in because it’s already connected to a WordPress account.

WordPress email address 1 — WordPress email error message

However, by typing the + sign before the @ in my email address and then adding one or more characters, I can trick WordPress into thinking this is a new email address. As you can see below, WordPress is happy with my “j.murray+a” email address.

WordPress email address 2 — Accepted WordPress email address format

The confirmation email to activate the account, however, will still go to my usual account, as the + sign and anything after it are ignored when sending emails.

You can log back into any account you create in this way using the semi-bogus email addresses you’ve registered with, but remember that you will need to keep a record of the email addresses and which accounts they relate to, otherwise it will be nigh on impossible to access them.

At Engage Web, it really helps us to know tips and tricks like this to help us manage our clients’ websites more efficiently. If you’re looking for experts in your corner who can bring you more business through your website, get in contact with us.

About
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John Murray

Content Editor at Engage Web

John studied English with Creative Writing at university and went on to write for newspapers in both West Yorkshire and Chester. A published poet, short story writer and music blogger with a flair for quick pun-delivery, John is a genuine word nerd and a member of a Scrabble club, so it was only natural that he went on to work in a wordy position.

How to get round “an account with this email already exists”