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Account access

  1. bfaverty
    Member

    I have not been active online for about 9 months, (family member had a stroke) and have forgotten my password (it was random). Unfortunately, due to inactivity, my email account was removed from the provider’s server.

    I can’t access my blog or request a new password since the email address no longer exists... (I have over a year of work and almost 400 posts invested in the blog) and would greatly appreciate your assistance.

    I have set up a new email address, and established this new WordPress user account with the new email but I can’t get the blog attached because it is still named on the previous account. Can I please have an administrator for WordPress remove the blog name from the old account so I can pick it up on the new account?

  2. supportbot
    Support Bot

    You did not specify a blog address or reason for posting when you created this topic.

    This support forum is for blogs hosted at WordPress.com. If your question is about a self-hosted WordPress blog then you'll find help at the WordPress.org forums.

    If you don't understand the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, you may find this information helpful.

    If you forgot to include a link to your blog, you can reply and include it below. It'll help people to answer your question.

    This is an automated message.

  3. bfaverty
    Member

    http://ottertude.wordpress.com

  4. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    We'll need one of three things to prove ownership of the account.

    1. Receive an email from the bfa[...] (at) q.com email address on the account.

    2. Receive confirmation of the account's API Key.

    3. Receive the transaction ID from the receipt of your domain mapping purchase.

  5. bfaverty
    Member

    Thank you for your reply.

    1. As stated above - Unfortunately, due to inactivity, my email account was removed from the provider’s server.

    2. Where will I find the API key? Is it for the email account, or WordPress account? Keep in mind that I can't get to the WordPress account. And the email account no longer exists, including any email referring to the blog, which were kept in their own email folder.

    3. I will check with my Domain Host/ICANN Registrar, but I doubt there is a reference for (formerly) mapping the blog to the domain. It was mapped to the domain about September 9, 2010, but was not renewed in 2011. I'm sure you have reference to that. What about the questions (first school, favorite uncle, first pet, city of birth, etc.) when I set up the WordPress account?

    Please keep in mind I can't access either my WordPress account or the email address associated with it. Looking up anything on either of them is not possible.

    Thanks for your understanding and help.

  6. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    1. Is there any chance that you could get them to restore the email address temporarily? That would certainly be the easiest route.

    2. This was included in your Welcome email with a note to keep it safe.

    3. Your registrar can't help with that. The transaction ID was included on the receipt emailed to you when you initially purchased the domain from us.

  7. bfaverty
    Member

    1. I will see if that can be arranged. Parenthetically, "q.com" no longer exists either - it is now "Century Link", and that further complicates things. I hold little expectation for that. When I was able to get someone on the phone, they said the account would have been deleted ("removed from the server" was the way they phrased it) - after 3 months - around November to December 2011.

    Obviously, people can lose email accounts and attempting to use the email to demonstrate that is quite possibly an exercise in futility.

    This is about people, not email.

    What other options demonstrate ownership besides trying to retrieve a no longer existent email account? How about:

    a.) I have all of the images that have been posted on the blog and I can send you a copy to review. If you send me an email, (at the address associated with this new account) I will send a copy.

    b.) You might try whois on the actual domain name registered with Go Daddy.

    c.) You might check your information regarding the blog being associated with the domain name.

    2. I would love to have been able to "keep it safe", however, the ISP was cancelled by a family member. (I was a secondary email user, the service belonged to my mother, who had the stroke and the service was subsequently cancelled.) I was given no prior notice that it would be cancelled, and was not informed that my email would also be affected.

    3. No, I did not find anything regarding the domain name being associated with the blog for that year between Sept 2010 and Sept 2011.

    Thanks for your understanding and help.

  8. cumberlandirish
    Member

    Hi, I am tearing my hair out with wordpress:
    I have two blogs, one personal and one on a public theme that I want to publize. However the two accounts and the gravatar keep getting jumbled up and when i sign into one it has the others account details etc.......its really frustrating.

    Furthermore, i blog on a personally sensitive issue using another e mail address.

    When i linked wordpresss to my facebook account to my horror this sensitive information was being transmitted for all my family and friends to read, even though the e mail address is a completely separate one to my two original blogs, above.

    Is it because i am using the same computer.

    Blog 1, primary has own email address but comes up with blog 2 as my Blogs.

    Blog 3 has its own address is should be completely separate to the others, but appeared on my facebook page which has a completely different email address to blog 3, when i tried to link Blog 1/2 to facebook.

    I have 2 sperate Twitter accounts as well..........whenever i try and link things all the passwords are mixed up between blogs 1 and 2, and i just find the whole thing a nightmare.

  9. raincoaster
    Member

    It won't push posts to facebook unless you select "Publicize to Facebook" on your sharing page. Go to Dashboard->Settings->Sharing and ensure that it's disabled.

    As for the twitter accounts, you should be able to designate one Twitter per blog, no more than that. Go to the Settings page and disable sharing to twitter, then re-enable it to make sure each blog is getting shared to the right account. If that doesn't fix it, you'll have to disable Publicize entirely and manually post to Twitter.

  10. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    a. That can't be accepted, as images can be retrieved from a variety of caching services.

    b. Subdomains like http://ottertude.wordpress.com/ don't carry WHOIS info, only registered domain names do.

    c. There are no registered domains associated with http://ottertude.wordpress.com/ in our system.

    cumberlandirish, in the future, please do not hijack someone else's thread with an unrelated issue. If you need further help, please start your own thread.

  11. bfaverty
    Member

    a. Understood, thank you for protecting my interests.

    b. ottertude.wordpress.com was mapped to the registered domain about
    September 9, 2010, but was not renewed in 2011. I'm sure you have reference to that. You might check your history information regarding the blog being associated with the registered domain name.

    The domain - http://ottertude.com (Go Daddy) has associated whois info. and will indicate it is me.

    My understanding is that the email address is permanently associated with the WordPress account. (Part of the Key) And the old account is rendered unusable by virtue of the email address being extinct.
    If that is so, my only option is to get the ottertude blog associated with the new account, bfaverty, in order to get the blog mapped to my registered domain name again.

    Again, this is precisely what I need your help with. Thanks for your understanding and help.

  12. timethief
    Member

    This is just to let you know this thread has been flagged for Staff attention.

  13. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    b. Unfortunately, we still can't accept that as proof of ownership.

    Before taking any action with the blog, I will need proof of ownership via either the email, API Key, or transaction ID from the past receipt.

    If either of those are unavailable, the best I can do is make the blog Private.

  14. bfaver
    Member

    Thank you very much.

    I happened to find the password for the bfaver account, which has the ottertude blog...

    I CAN GET TO the blog, here's proof: (reference to your website)

    http://ottertude.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/cool-blog/

    (It actually IS my blog.)

    Now the question is to get the ottertude blog from the bfaver account, (with the bad email address), and put it on the bfaverty account.
    Do I need to have an Administrator for WordPress remove it from bfaver, and then add it to bfaverty? Can I do that myself? It won't "get lost" in the process will it?

    After that, the bfaver account won't be used any more, so it would be fine to make it private. I just want to get the blog moved to the new account.

    Thanks for your understanding and help.

  15. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    Now that you have access, you can transfer ownership of the blog following this guide: http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#transferring-your-blog-to-another-user-or-account

  16. bfaver
    Member

    No, I cannot transfer the blog to another account. You know that. I need to have a WordPress administrator's help.

    The instructions for transferring a blog to a new account specifically states -

    "After entering a valid user information, you will receive a confirmation email to your registered WordPress.com email address. Your blog transfer will not take place until you read this email and follow the link contained within it."

    "... you will receive a confirmation EMAIL TO YOUR REGISTERED WORDPRESS .COM EMAIL ADDRESS. YOUR BLOG TRANSFER WILL NOT TAKE PLACE UNTIL YOU READ THIS EMAIL AND FOLLOW THE LINK CONTAINED WITHIN IT."

    I CANNOT ACCESS THE EMAIL ADDRESS. THE EMAIL ADDRESS NO LONGER EXISTS.

    I have been telling you this since the first message in this thread. If you don't have the authority to address this situation, follow timethief's lead and send this to someone who can help -

    " timethief -
    This is just to let you know this thread has been flagged for Staff attention."

    I need to have a WordPress administrator's help.

  17. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    Oh, ok. Sorry about that.

    I can move it for you, but just to verify, do you want to move http://ottertude.wordpress.com/ to bfaverty?

    If so, please reply as bfaver and I'll move that ASAP.

  18. bfaver
    Member

    Wonderful, that's all I need. Thank you.
    Sorry to be testy with you, there's been a lot going on, I hope you understand.

    Yes, If you would please, move http://ottertude.wordpress.com from the bfaver account to the bfaverty account.
    Then the bfaver account will no longer be used. However you would treat that as an unused account is fine, that's up to you.

    Thanks again for your understanding and help.

    .

  19. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    I have transferred http://ottertude.wordpress.com/ to bfaverty as requested.

    Please let us know if you need any further assistance!

  20. bfaver
    Member

    That's awesome. Thank you very much!

    Can you remove the blog from the bfaver account? The only option I can find will delete the blog, which I don't want. I only want it to be on the new account, and not on the old account.

    Thanks again for your understanding and help.

  21. bfaver
    Member

    You can close this thread if you wish, I don't need any further help at this point.

    Thanks again.

  22. timethief
    Member

    @bfaver
    You can enter the top of this thread and mark it "resolved" as you created the thread. :)

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