Your workspace
When someone has two accounts
The same person logging in with two different emails: why it happens and why to fix it early.
It is a small mess that grows: someone logs in one day with their personal email because an invitation landed there, and another day with the company one. To the platform they are two different people, and from then on everything splits in two: what they see, what they have done, and what reaches them.
How you notice
| Symptom | What is happening |
|---|---|
| "I log in and cannot see my things" | They are in the other account's session |
| "I do not get the alerts" | They go to the other email |
| They appear twice in the user list | There are two accounts, not a display glitch |
| The log attributes actions to two names | Which complicates any later review |
Important
The fourth row is the most annoying long term and the one nobody sees coming. If the same person has worked six months with two accounts, the history is split: answering "who did this" requires knowing those two identities were one person, and only whoever was there at the time knows that.
How to fix it
- 1
Decide which one is the good one
Nearly always the company domain: it outlives the person and fits domain-based access.
- 2
Move access to that one
With the same permissions they had on the other, no more.
- 3
Withdraw the other, without deleting its history
What they did stays; what is removed is the ability to keep using it.
- 4
And tell them which to use
That is half the problem: without knowing, they will log in wherever the password is saved.
Watch out
Mind the order: if you withdraw the old account first and that person had tasks, alerts or files in their name, those are left ownerless and nobody notices until something expires. Reassign first, withdraw after — exactly as with a leaver.
How to prevent it
Worth knowing
The external collaborator who works with several companies is a different case: there it is normal to use one email with access to several organisations. That is not two accounts, it is one account with several accesses, and it works as it should.
›Can the two accounts be merged?
What moves is the access; each one's history stays where it was generated.
›Do they take two seats?
While both are active, yes. Another reason to resolve it early.
›What if the good email changes because the domain changes?
Access is updated; no new account is needed.
A real case
The situation
An employee sometimes logs in with her personal email and sometimes with the company one.
What you do
- They reassign her tasks to the corporate account before withdrawing the other
- They confirm which one she should use
What you get
She stops missing alerts and the log attributes her work to one person again.
The situation
One person has two accounts and works from both.
What you do
- Merges into one and removes the other
What you get
The history stops splitting.
The situation
Files are spread across their two accounts.
What you do
- Reassigns everything to the account being kept
What you get
Nothing is left orphaned.
The situation
Notices go to the account they do not use.
What you do
- Updates the address on the files
What you get
Notices arrive where they get read.
The situation
An extra licence is consumed.
What you do
- Removes the duplicate account
What you get
The account reflects the real people.
The situation
An account is deleted and its actions vanish from the history.
What you do
- Deactivates rather than deletes
What you get
The record of what they did is kept.
This article answers
- a user has two accounts
- i logged in with another email and see nothing
- merging duplicate accounts
- changing a user's email