Changing your email address

Your email address is your account name, so changing it changes how you sign in. You confirm the change from the new address, and nothing about your account changes until you open that confirmation link.

Before you start

• The app shows this option to owners and admins only. Change Email appears only when your role in the organization you are currently working in is owner or admin. If you have your own workspace, select it with the workspace switcher on your dashboard, then reload the page. An account created by accepting an invitation, or through single sign-on on an organization’s custom domain, has no workspace of its own. In that case, ask an owner of the organization to invite your new address, which creates a separate account, or contact support.
• You need your current password. An account created through an identity provider may have no password, and is not offered this option until it has one; see Signing in.
• You need to read mail at the new address. The confirmation link goes there only.
• The new address must not already have an account here. If it does, you see “This email cannot be used”. The message does not say whether the address has an account.
• Accept pending invitations first. An invitation is addressed to a specific email address and can be accepted only by an account with that address. After the change, an invitation sent to your old address can no longer be accepted. Accept it first, or ask the sender to invite your new address. See Inviting members.

Change your address

1. Request the change

Go to Settings → Profile → Change Email. Enter the new address and your current password.

You are told a verification email has been sent to the new address. Nothing about the account has changed yet.

At the same time, your current address receives an “Email change requested” notice naming the new address. It says no changes have been made yet.

2. Open the link sent to the new address

The message has the subject “Verify your new email address”, a Confirm Email Change button, and the same link in plain text. The link works for 24 hours from your request. A re-sent message does not restart that time. If the link expires, request the change again.

3. Sign in with the new address

Opening the link completes the change and signs out every session, including the browser you opened it in. You are sent to the sign-in page. Sign in with the new address and your existing password.

Your previous address receives a “Your email address has been changed” message.

Verify it worked

Sign in with the new address and your existing password. Your dashboard, receipts and organizations are unchanged.

If the confirmation page shows an error, the change usually did not happen. To check, try signing in with the old address. If that no longer works, the change completed despite the error. Contact support in either case rather than requesting the change again.

What changes and what stays the same

Changes:

• The new address is the one you sign in with. The old address is no longer attached to the account.
• Every session is signed out.
• You are not asked to verify the new address again; opening the confirmation link verified it.

Stays the same:

• Your credentials. Your password, two-factor authentication, recovery codes, passkeys and connected identity providers are not reset. See Two-factor authentication and passkeys and Sessions and connected identities.
• Single sign-on. A connected provider is matched to your account by the identifier it issues, not by the email address it reports, so it still signs you in. Linking a new provider whose address matches your account still requires proof that the account is yours.
• Your secrets, links and receipts. Links you already shared keep working until they are revealed, burned or expire. Emails already delivered still name the old address.
• Your organization membership and role.
• Billing addresses. These are stored separately and are not changed.

Mail-delivery blocks follow the address. If the new address has bounced before or was marked undeliverable, messages to it may be blocked, including the confirmation email.

Changing back

There is no undo button. To return to your previous address, change your email again, back to that address. You need access to that inbox, and the address must not have been used for another account in the meantime.

While a change is pending

You still sign in with your current address, and it still receives all account email.

• Only one change can be pending. A new request replaces the earlier one, and the earlier link stops working; it is reported as invalid or expired.
• The confirmation can be re-sent from the page where you made the request, but only before you leave that page. If you have left it, request the change again; the new request replaces the old one.
• A pending request expires after 24 hours, and the account stays as it was.
• There is no cancel button. To cancel, let the link expire. If you did not make the request, see below.
• Requests are limited per day. If you reach the limit, you are told when you can try again.

If you did not request a change

An unexpected “Email change requested” notice means someone submitted an email change on your account. The request requires your current password, so your password is probably known to someone else.

Before the confirmation link is opened:

1. Change your password. This signs out every other session on the account. See Signing in.
2. Replace the pending request. Request a change to an address you control. This replaces the pending request and invalidates its link.
3. Contact support. You cannot withdraw a pending request yourself, and support should know about a compromised password.

If the change has already completed (you received “Your email address has been changed” and can no longer sign in), contact support immediately from your previous address. You cannot recover the account yourself after the sign-in address has changed.

Troubleshooting

“Current password is incorrect.” Nothing was changed. If you cannot remember the password, reset it first; see Signing in.

“This email cannot be used.” The address is not available. The message does not say why, so the form cannot be used to find out which addresses have accounts.

“New email must be different from current email.” You entered the address already on the account.

“This verification link is invalid or has expired.” Usually the 24 hours have passed, or you made a newer request and this is the older link. Request the change again from Settings. The confirmation page shows this message for every kind of failure, so first check which address signs you in; see Verify it worked.

The confirmation never arrived. Check the junk folder and any quarantine your organization runs. If you are still on the request page, use its re-send option; otherwise request the change again. If it still does not arrive, the address may be blocked from delivery. Try an address you know receives mail from us.

You are in the wrong region. Each region is a separate service. An address change applies only to the account you are signed in to, in that region. See Changing your region.

Related

• Signing in — password resets, and what happens when a sign-in stops working.
• Sessions and connected identities — what is signed in right now, and the providers linked to your account.
• Closing your account — permanently closing the account instead.
• Changing your region — why an account exists in one region only.

Questions or need support?

We’re here to help.

• Email: support@onetimesecret.com
• Feedback form: https://onetimesecret.com/feedback