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When I was trying to help this user, I noticed that there is no "Sign Up" or "Login" option for a Stack Exchange account when you are already signed in. I know it used to be there, what happened to it?

Ok, I see both the signup and login options when I am not logged in

Not logged in

But if I log (I tried with my test account since it doesn't have an SE account already associated):

No more SE and no Signup

In the second picture, there is no more SE login option. The account definitely does not have an SE login associated, but I can't see it on my account either and I do have an SE account.

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9
  • I'll ask the obvious question... Why would you want to login again? If anything, an option telling the user they are logged in already, and ability to logout would make more sense than adding the Stack Exchange button?
    – Steven V
    Jun 27, 2014 at 2:30
  • 11
    @StevenV you can have multiple login options for a single account. That is the whole point of the "add more logins" in your profile. This is useful if your OpenId provider shuts down (like MyOpenId did earlier this year) or is otherwise unreachable. the issue here is SE is giving me all of the normal options to add a login except the Stack Exchange OpenId.
    – psubsee2003
    Jun 27, 2014 at 8:14
  • @StevenV I need this feature because the proxy server at my workplace has decided to fail google auth requests which means I can no longer log in from there. Adding a Stack Exchange account would let me resolve this
    – Carl Onager
    Sep 19, 2014 at 15:33
  • @ClaraOnager if you haven't resolved your, there is a very kludgy workaround that Anna Lear pointed too. No assurances it will work as I've never tried it myself.
    – psubsee2003
    Sep 19, 2014 at 15:42
  • This is why bounties are so ineffective
    – Carl Onager
    Sep 26, 2014 at 14:38
  • @ClaraOnager on MSE, they only buy attention. Rarely do they generate answers, particularly because the "Answers" are usually implementation of feature requests or bug fixes, which take time and/or money to implement. Once your bounty expires, I'll be happy to throw another bounty on this for you to get another week of attention.
    – psubsee2003
    Sep 26, 2014 at 15:31
  • I also face above problem. hope there is some solution.
    – DS9
    Dec 9, 2014 at 15:44
  • @DS9 did you read the comment chain.... look about 3 comments above yours. There is a link to a workaround.
    – psubsee2003
    Dec 9, 2014 at 15:45
  • meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/308307/…
    – AeroX
    Oct 20, 2015 at 11:25

1 Answer 1

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This is currently by design because doing it properly would require a fair bit of work. The main problem is that you can't be logged into two StackId accounts at the same time, but we don't do a good job of showing you which one you're using while you're logged in.

This wasn't my decision, so I'm not entirely sure when the option was taken off of the "add login" page or how exactly that decision came to be, but I assume it's because of the above and the confusion (and issues) trying to do this caused in the past.

A cheap fix could be to add the option back in for users who don't already have a StackId associated with their account. This would, however, introduce inconsistent and non-obvious behaviour.

A not-quite-as-cheap fix could be to add the option back in for users without a StackId credential, but show a greyed out option and/or an explanation to the rest. This buys us consistency, but isn't necessarily helpful for a fairly common use-case - trying to change the email address used to log in.

A yet-more-expensive fix could be to modify StackId to allow email address changes under tightly defined circumstances. This is potentially undesirable since we treat your email as your identity and changing it up could (and likely would) break any other site you're using StackId on for authentication. (General "you" in this case. I don't know off-hand how many people use StackId as an OpenID outside the SE network.)

A full fix would likely be a combination of UI work, StackId changes to support multi-sign-in, etc. The fact that we allow a more or less infinite combination of credentials to be used to sign up makes this further more complicated.

I can't make any promises at the moment, but I will be looking at the Add Login UI soonTM and I'll see if either of the cheap fixes would be "kind of okay". But in the meantime, there's a workaround for changing the email address here as well. If all you want to do is add a StackId to your account, request account recovery and click the "set password" link in the email you receive while logged into your account.

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  • Hi @Adam Lear. Is there a way to create a new global SE account and move the child accounts from an old SE to this new one?
    – romu
    Mar 31, 2016 at 16:50
  • @romu You can merge an account into another one, which will effectively move all child accounts over. You can't move only some child profiles and leave the rest on the original account.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Mar 31, 2016 at 16:53
  • Great thanks. @Adam Lear, is there any documentation about how to merge? Or I have to ask SE support?
    – romu
    Mar 31, 2016 at 16:56
  • @romu Hit up /contact and choose the user merge option. If you have access to the email address on both accounts, you should be able to self-service the whole thing.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Mar 31, 2016 at 16:58
  • Perfect, thanks a lot.
    – romu
    Mar 31, 2016 at 16:59
  • when I try to merge, I'm asked for the 2 profiles account. If I enter something like stackexchange.com/users/#ID#/#nickname#, I'm returned this is not a valid profile. What do I wrong?
    – romu
    Apr 1, 2016 at 12:23
  • @romu Needs to be two profiles on the same Q&A site, IIRC.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Apr 1, 2016 at 15:35
  • "will be looking at the Add Login UI soon" - year and (almost) half later, any updates? :)
    – Shadow Wizard Chasing Stars
    Jan 18, 2017 at 9:34
  • "will be looking at the Add Login UI soon" - two years later, any updates? :-)
    – Shadow Wizard Chasing Stars
    Nov 9, 2017 at 21:14
  • 1
    @ShadowWizard "I looked at it, it's a world of pain, and I have more pressing things to work on."
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Nov 9, 2017 at 21:16
  • Fair enough, it happens to me many times with features client ask to add saying "Hey it's easy, just add it". Anyhow, is this answer still relevant, i.e. working? Never tried myself, so can't really know. (I closed a question as dupe of that, so if the answer isn't relevant I'll reopen.)
    – Shadow Wizard Chasing Stars
    Nov 9, 2017 at 21:21
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    @ShadowWizard I have absolutely no idea off the top of my head. It should work, but I wouldn't bet money on it.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Nov 9, 2017 at 22:13

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