By updating my job email settings, I have accidentally merged 2 accounts, how do I undo the merge?

Question

A few years ago, I created a new account on SO with a new gmail address, and stopped using my old one which was associated with my personal email address.

Now since then, I only go with the new one, on which I only answer questions, and which I use on SO chat.

Today, as I was updating my job settings, I accidentally put my old gmail address to be reached out on by recruiters, and both account got merged.

Now, the account i've been using these past few years is no longer accessible, Which is something I honestly don't want.

I don't really care about the old account (if it's deleted or not), nor the reps I gained after the merge, all I want is to retrieve the account I used to go with.

Is it possible to undo the merge and retrieve back my "new" (2y old) account?

Answer 1

You can't undo the merge. Even moderators can't undo account merge. I believe Stack Exchange staff can, but it requires manual intervention (i.e. no "undo merge" button") which takes lots of time and efforts.

The reason is that unlike posts deletion which is "soft", account deletion is "hard". Hence, to get the data reversed, they need to look in backups, etc.

Personally I don't think SE staff should spend time on such things. You can try and ask them anyway by going to the "Contact" page linked in the footer, and choosing "Other" as the reason in the contact form, pledging your case. But like I said, chances for this to work are pretty low.

If you have posts that you really really don't want to show in your profile anymore, you can ask to disassociate them from your account. If it's only one or two, just flag each and ask for this, otherwise submit contact form, choose "Other" and explain what posts you want disassociated and why. This action is trivial for SE staff, so they're more likely to respond and do it.