My account was deleted. Then it wasn't

Community Website and Forum
1

Back at the end of December I received a cryptic email:

Hello dccontrarian, we are reaching out to inform you about the status of your account with us.
If you wish to retain access to your account, we kindly request that you log in within the next 7 days. Failure to do so will result in the permanent deletion of your account.
Please follow the link below to login and confirm your interest in keeping your account:
https://id.arduino.cc.
If you received this email by mistake, simply delete it. Your account won't be deleted if you don't click the confirmation link above.

I’m not sure how I was supposed to know if I received the email by mistake, but I was able to log in and post so I didn’t do anything.

Yesterday, I went to login and my password didn’t work. I tried to do password recovery and it said my email wasn’t found. Hmm. I emailed Arduino support, they said my account had been deleted because it hadn’t been used in two years.

OK, I’m not going to argue, creating a new account isn’t the end of the world. So I went to create a new account. Same email, new user ID, new password. I click on “create” and …

I’m logged in with my old account. Just.. weird.

I don’t know whether my old password or my new password is the one that works. I’m afraid if I log out to try it I’ll never get back again.

Thoughts?

2

Do you have an Arduino Cloud account? I have seen these accounts creeping into each other.

pert 3

Hi @dccontrarian. The deletion of accounts that have been inactive for over two years is in regard to arduino.cc accounts. Arduino Forum is actually a different website, with separate user accounts. In order to continue to provide attribution for posts created by the account, we wait an additional five years before anonymizing the Arduino Forum account:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/terms-conditions/#:~:text=The%20posts%20made%20via%20the%20inactive%20Account%20will%20remain%20on%20the%20Forum%20and%20Project%20Hub%20for%20a%20period%20of%20five%20(5)%20years%20and%20will%20continue%20to%20identify%20User%20during%20such%20period

10.5 Should User be inactive for twenty-four (24) months, Arduino may close their Account for inactivity. The posts made via the inactive Account will remain on the Forum and Project Hub for a period of five (5) years and will continue to identify User during such period via username, and after such five (5) year period such posts will become de-identified by deleting all Personal Data which may directly identify User.

The arduino.cc account is the sole method of authentication for the Arduino Forum account. So it is not possible to authenticate your Arduino Forum account after the arduino.cc account deletion. However your browser stores a persistent authentication token which allows you to use your Arduino Forum account via that browser on that machine without having to log in all the time. This allows the continued use of the Arduino Forum account even after the arduino.cc account deletion. However, that is only as long as you don't change to a different machine, browser, or clear your browser data.

The email address is used as the linkage between the arduino.cc account authentication and the Arduino Forum account. So this is why you are able to continue to use your existing Arduino Forum account when you create a replacement account registered via the same email address.

Use the new password. The credentials for the old account became invalid when the account was deleted.

4

This clearly isn’t true. That’s what’s weird. I’m posting from my old account right now. I was locked out of it. When I tried to create a new account with the same email, I got back into my old account.

5

So if arduino.cc and forum.arduino.cc are separate accounts, are all other platforms as well?
How many arduino accounts are needed to cover all?

6

I'm trying to find the other (another) topic on this forum that had your same issue... locked-out, "you don't exist" then after trying to start a new "sorry, that already exists" kind of situation.

7

So that’s what I got. But then I got my old account starts working once I try to set up a new one.

I didn’t log in again. But the next time I went to forum.arduino.cc, I’m logged in. With my old user ID.

I still haven’t activated the new ID. But here I am.

8

Would "suspending" each account to see which is effected (meaning, the forum bot logs you out)... that way, you get blocked and know which account is active, but you don't have to clear your cache of other passwords.

... something else is going on that might be part of this... I just got a "(something) is being edited in another window, reload"... notification. I was not, so maybe the bot is?

9

Replying from another device with my new ID to see how it shows up.

10

And it still uses my old ID. Hmm.

11

Note that while the email said to go to arduino.cc to check your account, there is no login option on that page (or it’s hidden so well I couldn’t find it.) The correct place to go is id.arduino.cc .

12

There is only one Arduino forum account in question here: @dccontrarian.

Unrelated.

This is expected. I provided an explanation in my previous reply.

Are you sure? The text you shared says id.arduino.cc:

You are correct that the design of the primary arduino.cc website makes it difficult to navigate to the login page. So if the email does direct you to the homepage then that would indeed be something the web team should fix. I don't have any involvement in the management of the arduino.cc site, so I don't have a way to check the text of the email directly. Thus, I am working from the information you provided.