Sign in, register and recover your password

This guide covers getting into your account: creating it, signing in, the code you may be asked for on the way, recovering a forgotten password and changing a password you were asked to change. It ends with what each refusal means and what to do about it.

Create your account

Open the site and click Register at the top, or Or create new account under the title of the sign-in screen. The screen is titled Create your Account. If instead you get a page saying it was not found, the product does not let people sign up on their own: ask whoever runs it to create your account.

Choose how you sign in

If the product lets you sign in in more than one way, the form first asks How do you want to sign in? and shows a button for each one: Email, Phone or Username. Click the one you want.

• Email or Phone opens the form straight away.
• Username asks you to Select an additional method to sign in: pick Email or Phone as well, because a username alone is not enough.

Above the form, Signing up with reminds you of your choice. The arrow next to it takes you back to change it. If the product offers only one way, there is no choice: the form opens directly.

Fill in the form

• Name: required.
• Username, Email address or Phone (Include country code): the ones you chose. None of them can belong to another account; if one does, you see that it has already been taken. A username may contain letters, numbers, dashes and underscores. Type your phone with its country code.
• Password and Confirm Password: at least 8 characters, and both must match.
• I agree to the Terms and Conditions: tick the box. Clicking Terms and Conditions opens them in a window so you can read them first. You cannot sign up without ticking it.

Click Sign up. Your account is created, you are signed in and you land on the home page of your account. In a product with plans, your account gets its free plan a few seconds later: if you open a screen before then, My plans shows We are activating your plan and updates on its own.

When your email or phone must be verified first

Many products ask you to prove that the email or phone is yours before the account is created. In that case the field shows Not Verified and a Verify now link as soon as you type in it. Click Verify now, type the code you receive and confirm; the field then shows Verified. If you change the address or number afterwards, it goes back to Not Verified and you must verify the new one.

If you click Sign up before verifying, nothing is created and the field says Confirm this email address with the verification code before continuing. (or the same for the phone number). The codes, resending them and what to do when one does not arrive are explained in Verify your email and phone.

Sign in

Click Login at the top of the site. The screen is titled Welcome back.

The first field is named after the way you sign in: Email, Phone or Username. When the product accepts more than one, it is called Identity followed by the accepted ones, for example Identity (Email, Phone), and you can type any of them. Type a phone with its country code.

Depending on the product, you sign in on one screen or in two steps.

On one screen

Type your email, phone or username and your Password, and click Sign in.

In two steps

1. Type your email, phone or username and click Continue.
2. Type your Password and click Sign in.

In this mode the sign-in screen does not show Or create new account. If what you type in the first step does not belong to any account and the product lets people sign up, you are taken to Create your Account, with your email already filled in when you typed one.

If your account was created for you and still has no password, the second step asks for a New Password instead. Type one of at least 8 characters and click Create password: you see Password created, Now you can login, and you are signed in.

Remember me

Under the password, Remember me keeps you signed in on this browser after you close it. Leave it unticked on a computer other people use. Next to it, Forgot password? takes you to recover your password.

After signing in you go to the page you were trying to open, or to the home page of your account.

The code asked when you sign in

If your email has never been confirmed, signing in with it does not let you in straight away. The screen changes to Please confirm your email and a code is sent to your address. Type it in Validation Code and click Confirm Email: your email is now confirmed and you are signed in. You are asked for it only once; from then on you sign in normally. On the two-step screen the code is asked right after Continue, before the password.

This is the only extra step when signing in: no code is asked from people whose email is already confirmed, and none is sent to your phone when you sign in. How to get a new code when it does not arrive is in Verify your email and phone.

If your account was created for you, you reach the sign-in screen from the Login button of the welcome email and the product signs you in on one screen, your email counts as confirmed and no code is asked.

Recover a forgotten password

1. On the password field, click Forgot password?. The screen is titled Reset password.
2. Type the Email address of your account and click Send reset link. You see Reset link sent!, Please, check your email for further instructions.
3. Open the email and click its button. It takes you to Reset Password, with your email filled in.
4. Type the new password in Password and again in Confirm Password, at least 8 characters, and click Reset.

You see Success!, Your password has been changed, and you are signed in. Or go back to login returns to the sign-in screen without sending anything.

The link works for 60 minutes and only once. If you ask for another one, use the newest email. The link is always sent by email, so an account without an email address cannot recover its password this way: ask the support team.

When you are asked to change your password

If your account was created for you, the welcome email gives you the email you sign in with and a password. The first time you sign in with them, the screen Change your password says You've been requested to change your password, and every page of your account brings you back here until you do:

1. Type the password you were given in Current password and click Continue.
2. Type your new password in New Password and again in Confirm Password, at least 8 characters, and click Confirm.

You then go on to the home page of your account. The new password must be different from the current one: if it is the same, you see Password must be different.

Sign out

Click your picture in the top bar and choose Sign out. You go back to the site's home page. Signing out here leaves your other devices signed in; to close those, use the Connected devices card of your profile.

When sign-in is refused

After signing in you may also see a notice asking you to choose your country, or to set up a security PIN. They are not refusals: follow the button in the notice. Why the country is asked is explained in Your country and why it matters, and the PIN in Your security PIN.