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How do I log in if my OpenID is not available, or maybe even no longer exists? Can I restore my lost account, or do I need to start over?

See also:

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  • belongs on user-voice
    – Malfist
    Commented Apr 15, 2009 at 20:35
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    No, it doesn't belong on uservoice. Currently lost accounts should be e-mailed to the 'contact us' link at the bottom of the page. If you want to change how that works, put that up on uservoice.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Apr 15, 2009 at 20:36
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    This should be community wiki. If there's not a FAQ item for this, there should be. Checking now...
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Apr 15, 2009 at 20:41
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    Okay, this is NOT in the FAQ. I'm going to recommend that it remain open (or at least not deleted) and either the author or other users perform the necessary edits to make it community wiki and add it to the faq.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Apr 15, 2009 at 20:46
  • I also suggest changing to a more generic title: "How can I recover a lost StackOverflow Account?"
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Apr 15, 2009 at 20:49
  • Added the question to the sofaq page under Help
    – Gavin Miller
    Commented Apr 15, 2009 at 20:56
  • @Joel, I don't know if you were a mod when you posted your initial comments, but now that you are, perhaps you'd like to FAQ-ify this yourself?
    – Pops
    Commented Oct 3, 2010 at 20:15
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    Since OpenID support was removed, the procedure has changed, and the updated process is in the answer to the FAQ How can I log in to my Stack Exchange account if my current account provider is blocked?
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Mar 20 at 20:54

2 Answers 2

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If the problem is temporary, you'll simply have to wait until the OpenID is working again.

Currently lost accounts should be e-mailed to the 'contact us' link at the bottom of the page. In the email, supply at least the following details:

  • The full URL to your profile
  • Your name (which should match the one you might have provided as "real name" in your profile)
  • The email address provided in your profile, if any (you can validate that using the recovery page of the site you're using, but note that an email address known to your OpenID provider might not be known to Stack Exchange as well)
  • Your previous OpenID, and the reason why it needs to be replaced
  • Your new OpenID

(The last 4 details are only known to you, and not publicly visible on your profile.)

To prevent this from happening in the first place, Stack Overflow supports an alternate or backup openid for every account, but you have to set that up yourself.

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Make sure that your backup provider is someone like Yahoo or Google.

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