Troubleshooting account creation problems

If you cannot create an account:

Red error notices in the add account wizard

Most validation takes place when you enter things into a field, but some can only happen on submit.

If you cannot see the error that is stopping you:

• if you have added several fields via the schema editor, you may need to scroll the page to see every error when there is more than one
• if you have errors on more than one page of a dialog the system will not be able to show you both at the same time

Username already exists

As well as the most common reason (another user already has this account), this can come up if the username is that of a recently deleted account - check the deleted tab of list and search results. If you cannot find it using advanced search, talk to your domain administrator as it may be under an organisation that you cannot see with your login. If they cannot find it, they should talk to our service desk.

Email address is already in use

This will come up if the account you are creating is set to use an email address as the username (in such a scenario the email address must be unique) and another account anywhere in OpenAthens has the same email address and is similarly set to use email address as the username.

Reasons for this could be:

• User already has an account they have forgotten about
• User is registered with another OpenAthens organisation (will need to use a different email address)
• User's old account has recently been deleted and is in a recoverable state 

If you do need to reuse an email address that is on another account, untick the option to use email as username on that account.