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I have been trying for the last week to access my 5 year old account on Stack Overflow. I've not logged in to the account for nearly a year. I can access the associated email account. But whenever I click the Forgot Password link, SO does not send an Account Recovery Email to my account email address.

(Either that or else it does and the email never arrives - though I'm not sure at what level it's being filtered: certainly it never arrives either in the Inbox or in Junk).

If my email address is correct (it definitely is), but my Account Recovery Email isn't arriving, what can I do to recover my account?

Here is my account:

https://stackoverflow.com/users/3897775/rounin

Thanks in advance.

Clarification

I should add that my email is working entirely normally. It will receive emails from all other addresses that I send it email from. Just, it is not receiving the Account Recovery Email from Stack Overflow.

I don't know what to do at this point. I would very much like to re-access my Stack Overflow account.

Update

A huge thank you to the support staff member(s) who have merged the new account I set up to ask this question (rounin_account_inaccessible) with my main account. Massively appreciated - thanks very much indeed. I'll keep an eye out for anyone I can pay a big favour forward to in the next few days.

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    Have you tried using the "contact us" link? A CM might be able to help - or maybe poke someone who can check why the email isn't getting through.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 7:53
  • Thanks - I'll try the Contact link in the footer.
    – Rounin
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 8:02
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    If it helps, as a moderator I can see that the account recovery email process was triggered multiple times from that account. It looks like the system at least was activated to send the emails, so either they were never actually sent or something stopped them along the way. Don't see any obvious problems with the email address itself.
    – Brad Larson
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 17:00
  • Yes, I keep trying. If you try more than 3-4 times in a row, you're then locked out for 24 hours. But then, when I tried again, I still didn't receive an email at the associated email address.
    – Rounin
    Commented May 29, 2019 at 9:03
  • Aha. My SO account has somehow been merged with this temporary account. Wow. Thanks very much. Was that you, @BradLarson? If so, thanks very much indeed. Or else thanks very much to whichever of your colleagues helped out. Massively appreciated. I've edited my profile and associated a different email address with my @rounin account on SO, so this doesn't happen again.
    – Rounin
    Commented May 29, 2019 at 9:14
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    Probably a CM. Good to see that its sorted ^^
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented May 29, 2019 at 10:48
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    @JourneyManGeek I have had exactly the same issue in December 2021 - forgot password, used account recovery process, email address does not receive link even in the "junk/spam" folder, despite repeated attempts over several days. I actually remembered my password in the end, but is there an appropriate venue I can give a poke to StackExchange that this guy's experience of trouble with the password recovery process is sadly not unique?
    – Silverfish
    Commented Dec 10, 2021 at 18:05
  • Hasn't changed - there's a contact link at the bottom
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Dec 10, 2021 at 21:37
  • same issue , tried different accounts and one (the original I used to sign up the first time) isnt working anymore, contacted staff, waiting for them
    – pippo1980
    Commented Mar 19 at 15:21

1 Answer 1

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Most likely you're using Google or Facebook for that lost account. The password recovery is relevant only for Stack Exchange own login.

So depending which provider you used, you should recover your password either here for Google, or here for Facebook.

If you've used other provider (e.g. Yahoo) your only option is to ask for account merge as explained here.

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  • Sorry, I'm not following. How does Google or Facebook relate to the email that I have associated with my StackOverflow account? Thanks.
    – Rounin
    Commented May 27, 2019 at 0:15
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    @rounin_account_inaccessible The "forgot password" option on this site is only accessible if you're using Stack Exchange email/password login. If you're using Google or Facebook login, you'll have to recover your password there.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented May 27, 2019 at 1:02
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    Thanks. I am not using Google or Facebook login. I have never mentioned Google or Facebook login.
    – Rounin
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 7:29

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