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Janrain has announced end of service for myOpenID, one of the many OpenID providers. MyOpenID will not be available starting February 1, 2014. (An earlier Twitter announcement from Janrain hinted at the same but did not set a date for end of service.)

This decision was made by Janrain, and Stack Exchange did not have any part in it. You can still use myOpenID to log in to Stack Exchange, but be aware that any outages in the myOpenID service will mean that you are unable to log in to Stack Exchange until Janrain fixes it – which may take several days, or weeks, or never. After February 1, you will no longer be able to use myOpenID to log in to Stack Exchange. Stack Exchange will not be able to answer any questions about why myOpenID is down or when it will be working again. If you do not have any other login credentials on your account by February 1, you will be locked out, and Stack Exchange will be unlikely to help you recover your account.

To avoid getting locked out of your Stack Exchange account, we strongly suggest that anyone using myOpenID as their primary (or even backup) login add a new login method to their Stack Exchange account.

We're also going to remove the "myOpenID" button from the sign-up/login page soon, in order to discourage new users from signing up using myOpenID.

Here's how to add a new login to your account. You must be logged into your account when you begin. (This information is also available in the Help Center.)

Open up your user profile page (by clicking on your login name at the top of the screen) and click the "my logins" link above the bio box on the right hand side. my logins

You should see a list of all of your logins.

To add a new login, click "add more logins..." at the bottom of the box. Choose the new login from the list and follow the steps to confirm. edit logins

If you choose, you can remove your myOpenID login by clicking the same "my logins" link, then clicking "remove" next to myOpenID.

If you are adding a Stack Exchange OpenID, you will receive a confirmation email. You must click the link in the email to confirm your email address before the Stack Exchange OpenID will show up under "my logins". Please make sure that you are already logged into your account when you click the confirmation link; otherwise, you will create a new account that needs to be merged with your old one.

If you encounter any trouble adding logins, or accidentally create a separate account that you would like merged, please fill out our contact form.

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    Don't forget data.stackexchange.com; the 'MyOpenId' option is still prominently shown there, nor can I merge accounts there.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 20:51
  • OK, I can still use it right, I just will have to paste in the URL manually?
    – Peter Turner
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 21:57
  • 43
    Who or what is janrain? Rain in January? The founder of OpenId? A gui at SE, connected to OpenID?
    – user unknown
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 22:23
  • Add Login still shows clickpass as a login option. janrain.com/clickpass-acquired-by-janrain this seems to say that janrain has rained over clickpass also.
    – user93353
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 23:19
  • Is it normal to add a login, then click the 'my logins' link and not have the new login show up? Does it take a while to actually merge in?
    – Alconja
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 23:33
  • @Peter, yes you can manually enter a URL, just like you could use any other OpenID. However, why would you want that? Why not move away from all the problems?
    – Arjan
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 0:22
  • 26
    user has more rep than Jon Skeet?! Imposible!
    – Doorknob
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 0:25
  • 30
    Boooo. I liked MyOpenID. -1 to the messenger.
    – lkessler
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 0:33
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    So I originally typed this out as a question, but decided to make it a question in its own right instead: What are the MyOpenID alternatives most likely to be immune to the same sort of change? meta.stackexchange.com/questions/190458/…
    – bguiz
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 0:42
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    @Arjan - Steps to reproduce: I'm logged in as Alconja (with myopenid), click profile, click 'my logins', click 'add more logins...', select Stack Exchange as the provider, get the StackExchange login screen, enter my details, click 'Sign in', click 'Confirm New Login' (which redirects me back to my profile), click 'my logins' and I still only see the myopenid entry...
    – Alconja
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 0:44
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    If janrain aren't going to support MyOpenID any more, does anybody know if anyone else has made any moves to take it over and maintain it?
    – Mark Baker
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 8:27
  • 10
    Damn you Janrain! They should have a message in a mean big red font on their web site clearly stating what is happening. So much for centralizing my logins.
    – Daniel
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 13:57
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    There's always some who read the above and then blame the messenger ;-)
    – Arjan
    Commented Jul 27, 2013 at 7:55
  • 1
    I have the same problem as some others. I tried to add a Stack Exchange login to my existing Stack Overflow account, and have ended up with a separate account instead. Please merge this account with my other one, which is sjleis.myopenid.com.
    – Emma Leis
    Commented Jul 31, 2013 at 9:14
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    I wonder if I'm the only myOpenID user that uses the service and didn't get a notification email...
    – Duncan Jones
    Commented Oct 14, 2013 at 15:56

5 Answers 5

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So, what happens for those of us who may forget to add another authentication method, when/if the service dies? Perhaps an idea to e-mail this notification to users also, and/or (when the stuff hits the fan) include a get-of-jail-free way of accessing ones account in it.

As an aside: Is there any similar services that Stack Exchange could switch to. Personally, I really liked the two-factor authentication to guard all my Stack Exchange secrets!

EDIT:

From the below I just received, seems there is an official shutdown date set (February 1st 2014):

Hello,

I wanted to reach out personally to let you know that we have made the decision to end of life the myOpenID service. myOpenID will be turned off on February 1, 2014.

In 2006 Janrain created myOpenID to fulfill our vision to make registration and login easier on the web for people. Since that time, social networks and email providers such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Yahoo! have embraced open identity standards. And now, billions of people who have created accounts with these services can use their identities to easily register and login to sites across the web in the way myOpenID was intended.

By 2009 it had become obvious that the vast majority of consumers would prefer to utilize an existing identity from a recognized provider rather than create their own myOpenID account. As a result, our business focus changed to address this desire, and we introduced social login technology. While the technology is slightly different from where we were in 2006, I’m confident that we are still delivering on our initial promise – that people should take control of their online identity and are empowered to carry those identities with them as they navigate the web.

For those of you who still actively use myOpenID, I can understand your disappointment to hear this news and apologize if this causes you any inconvenience. To reduce this inconvenience, we are delaying the end of life of the service until February 1, 2014 to give you time to begin using other identities on those sites where you use myOpenID today.

Speaking on behalf of Janrain, I truly appreciate your past support of myOpenID.

Sincerely, Larry

-- Larry Drebes, CEO, Janrain, Inc. Janrain, Inc. | 519 SW 3rd Ave, Suite 600, Portland OR 97204 | 888.563.3082 | janrain.com

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    I use two-factor auth for the Google account I use to log in.
    – Jeremy
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 23:56
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    What could such get-of-jail-free way work like? (Note to self: when myOpenID is down, make folks believe this one is mine.) And as for "services that StackExchange could switch to"? -- Stack Exchange doesn't need to switch; it supports any OpenID. So it's the users who might want to switch. By the way, users will indeed be warned: "We'll be sending notifications soon to users who only have MyOpenID logins on their SE accounts."
    – Arjan
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 0:19
  • JeremyBanks - Good point. I had forgotten, and hadn't been suggested to add a phone number to my google account for a while. @Arjan - Not sure. Suppose an open-dated Unique link would be a bit to insecure. Apologies regarding my missing the lack of "My" in "...you can manually enter your OpenID" so many times it is shameful. As for notifications, I think this post was Laura's notification (Showed up in the notifications area of my alerts), but don't think I have ever been e-mailed unseen notifications alerts, so those that don't login often, won't know without an e-mail.
    – user66001
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 1:17
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    We sent out an on-site notification to users last night. This went out only to users whose sole way of logging into SE is MyOpenID. We try to avoid sending unsolicited email unless we really have to, so we're not going to do that at this time. If we see a huge increase in support requests from people locked out of their accounts, we may reconsider, but for now the on-site notification and meta announcement should suffice. MyOpenID has been getting increasingly unreliable for a year or two; while Janrain should have announced this better, no one should be terribly surprised.
    – Laura
    Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 14:35
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    FYI, I had a different OpenID URL redirecting to myOpenID, and I didn't get notified. I came here after receiving an email directly from myOpenID about their impending closure.
    – dbreaux
    Commented Sep 4, 2013 at 15:34
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If you get locked out of your Stack Exchange account, and you remember which e-mail address you had given your OpenID provider, you can get back in to Stack Exchange by doing a password reset on that e-mail address.

Just go to the login link at the top of this page, and then follow the link that says click here to recover your account. If you enter the right e-mail address, you'll receive a link that will let you set a password for your Stack Exchange account and get back in.

This adds a Stack Exchange OpenID login to your account (which exists alongside the now defunct myOpenID login) so you can select log in with Stack Exchange each time you need to log in from this point on to get in to your account.

I just used this method to get back in to StackExchange as myOpenID has been down for almost a day now.

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The login routine should cease to promote myOpenID

We're also going to remove the "myOpenID" button from the sign-up/login page soon, in order to discourage new users from signing up using myOpenID.

Sooner rather than later, please.

Show more login options …

… still promotes myOpenID; it's the first option:

enter image description here

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    Give them 6-8 weeks.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 7:24
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    This is planned as part of a redesign for that page that has been held up by some other technical projects. We'll get to it before MyOpenId shuts down entirely in February. :)
    – Laura
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 18:19
  • It's promoted even stronger under Use your own URL on the sidebar of that same login page.
    – brianary
    Commented Dec 28, 2013 at 5:46
  • Believe this is done now.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Jan 29, 2014 at 22:14
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TIP: Try procedure from one of stackexchange sites (like stackoverflow.com), not your general networkprofile.

Explanation: Procedure turned out to be buggy for me when I tried to add new OpenID from stackexchange network profile. Once I went to one of stackexchenge sites (like https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/ ) things seemed to worked finally.

Bug: SE team might like to test/fix procedure from SE site.

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    Why not reporting a new bug report?
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jan 8, 2014 at 22:54
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A better solution would be to leave the myOpenID button in place and present an interstitial warning when someone uses it.

  • That would stop anyone from starting attaching a new myOpenID account.

  • It would notify users relying on myOpenID of the problem.

  • It would give users an opportunity to go add another login method to their account if their only current option is myOpenID.

Simply removing the myOpenID button is going to leave people in the dark and unable to correct the problem themselves.

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    No one should be left in the dark: Janrain emailed all myOpenID users a couple months ago, we posted on-site notifications (a few months ago) and emailed (last week) all users who have only a myOpenID login for their accounts, and this meta thread has been up here for months. An interstitial page with a warning wouldn't really do any good because logging in with myOpenID has mostly not worked since this announcement was made. We're doing what we can to help people avoid being locked out of their account, but ultimately, it's Janrain's responsibility to communicate with its users, not ours.
    – Laura
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 15:58
  • @Laura: Part of the rationale given for removing the button early was that some people were still in the dark. I did get the email from Janrain, and I have a calendar reminder to research and select a new provider this weekend. I use SO daily, but I did not see a notification that myOpenID was going away. Removing the button prematurely is not "doing what you can to avoid" locking users out of their accounts.
    – Adrian McCarthy
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 16:13
  • We only emailed people who only have a myOpenID login. If you have another login associated with your SO/SE account (SE OpenID, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, etc.), then you won't get locked out of your account; that's the whole point of allowing multiple login methods on a single account. Anyone who relies soley on myOpenID and is an active member of the site has been contacted by us multiple times now.
    – Laura
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 16:54
  • I misunderstood your first comment. I thought you said there was an onsite notification in addition to the email that was sent to users with only myOpenID. I didn't learn of this thread until the myOpenID button was removed.
    – Adrian McCarthy
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 17:05
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    "logging in with myOpenID has mostly not worked since this announcement was made" Where does this come from? I've logged in (almost) daily with myOpenID for years. (Since I clear cookies daily, I really do log in every day.) myOpenID has proven far more reliable than the other ID providers I've tried.
    – Adrian McCarthy
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 17:07

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