Confusion About GMail Vs Non GMail Based Email

Long ago, when diagnosing a problem thought to involve email, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, we would ask a very simple question

Is your Blogger account based on a GMail - or non GMail - email address?

And we would carefully add

Please, do not state your email address, here!

The latter request was to prevent theft of peoples Blogger accounts.

Now, in many cases, we must qualify the question of email address. We also ask.

Is your email provided by your employer, ISP, or school network?

and even

Do you read your email in a browser window, or a local email client?

Modern email distribution is not always homogeneous.

Both questions reflect the complex nature of email delivery, that is a part of Internet reality.

Few people can accurately diagnose their problems, based only on the simple question

Is your Blogger account based on a GMail - or non GMail - email address?

The lines between GMail, and non GMail email accounts - and addresses - are not absolute, any more.

Both GMail and non GMail addresses may be used in a local network.

GMail, and non GMail addresses, alike, may use GMail browser based email, in delivery and display. And GMail accounts may use non GMail email systems, for addressing, delivery, and / or display.

These variations can lead to interesting scenarios such as mysterious loss of blog membership invitations, and of email subscriptions. And options for Blogger account recovery become more complicated - with password synchronisation issues, between the email account and the Blogger account.

Thanks to Google Apps based domains, and the ability to provide non GMail addresses which use GMail, anybody can use a non GMail address with GMail based delivery and display. Some people have even setup Blogger accounts, based on Google Apps based email addresses (again, appearing to be non GMail based) - though this is not recommended.

Managed domains may use GMail delivery, and a non GMail email address.

Corporate email systems, ISP provided email, and schools (of all grades, elementary through university) may use Google Apps based email. Many large local network based email systems have been "upgraded" to use cloud based email, such as GMail, for delivery and display. The results are not always beneficial.

And, thanks to "push / pull" GMail options, where an individual GMail account can be configured by a knowlegeable account owner, even individual account owners can use a GMail address, with non GMail delivery and display - or can use GMail display, for non GMail based address / delivery.

With computer owners who do not care or know about what email system they use, with where the individual messages may be filed, and with security filters that update without notice, loss of email messages is common.

Bounced email does not get dropped into the "Bulk" / "Spam" folder.

Note that "bounced" email may not be treated as spam. Some "bounced" email never gets as far as a spam filter - it may simply be rejected. You will look, in vain, in the "Bulk", "Inbox", and "Spam" folders.

This will interfere with account recovery - if you can't find the password reset email, how do you recover control of the account?

The simple question

Is your Blogger account based on a GMail - or non GMail - email address?

just is not accurate, when diagnosing all Blogger problems.

Comments Posted Use "noreply" Email Addresses

Recently, we've noted a number of complaints about Blogger commenting, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

.My comments all use a "noreply" email address, instead of my actual email address. How do I have people email their replies to my comments?

This appears to be one more way which Blogger is trying to safeguard our Blogger accounts and blogs, from malicious, technically astute blog thieves.

Some time ago, we observed that this precaution appeared to be unique to Blogger accounts which used Google and Google+ profiles - and did not involve Blogger profiles.

It appears that this is now universal, and includes Blogger profiles, as well as Google / Google+ profiles. It's likely that the noreply email addresses are being offered to keep more blog readers from, inadvertently, exposing their email addresses to email mining techniques.

In remembering the long ago discovered "nice blog" spam, it's possible that "nice blog" spam was originally developed to help the spammers gather email addresses, using very innovative technique.

All that a spammer has to do is to post a "nice blog" comment, select "Email follow-up comments to me" - then watch as the Inbox fills up with follow up comments from bloggers, willingly giving up their email addresses to every stranger also selecting "Email follow-up comments to me", in that comment thread.

The people willingly providing their email addresses, to the world in general, are perfect targets for hackers later trying to brute force access to the Blogger accounts, starting from the provided email addresses. Use of the "no-reply" email address prevents this type of mischief - and reduces the workload of Google Security, as they would otherwise have to verify account / blog integrity, for hacked accounts and blogs.

For even more protection (which is not a bad idea, in any case), consider using Google 2-Step Verification, to protect your Blogger / Google account from hacking.

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Please, Do Not Publicise Your Email Address

We've seen a few reports, recently, about stolen blogs, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Why is my blog not on my dashboard - and why is somebody else publishing, and using my name?

There are so many reports from people who are not using Google "One Account" login properly, that the significance of this problem report was initially overlooked.

More than a few such reports started with the blog owner email address being openly disclosed - generally on the blog, or in comments. Too many blog owners want to be contacted - and they innocently provide their email addresses as a contact point.

We've known, for years, about disclosed email addresses, and brute force password guessing. That is not the only way your email address can be used, to gain access to your Blogger account, however.

Google recently had to deal with a very carefully executed hacking project, where Blogger and Google account owners received some well phrased advice, in their email.

Google treats policy violations and invalid activity very seriously in order to protect the users, publishers, and advertisers who make up our advertising ecosystem. While we usually notify publishers and take action for policy and invalid activity at the site level, there may be times when we will need to suspend or disable accounts due to policy violations or invalid activity.

Our hope is that you will be able to resolve your policy issues during the suspension period using This Link

I'm betting that the above message was written, very carefully, by hackers who studied the phrasing and wording of the many abuse / spam / TOS violation notices, sent out by Blogger Support constantly.

Many of the recipients of the email are the same crowd that I encountered, several years ago, when we saw similar numbers of reports about the same type of stolen blogs. The owners typically

• Post their email address, or provide it for contact, visibly.
• Participate in comment based networking, on their blog, and openly state their email address.
• Participate in comment based networking, on similar blogs, and openly state their email address.

Each of these activities can be used, by the bad guys, to build lists of email addresses, of people who can be easily persuaded by an email message, to resolve their policy issues using the link provided. And this led to a number of reports, in the forums, about stolen blogs - and mentioning email, offering to sell the stolen blogs back, to the rightful owners.

If you want contact from your readers, there are more safe ways to allow this.

• The Blogger "Contact Me" form.
• Blogger based comments, with email address concealed (and not stated openly).
• Google+ based comments / networking, with email address never involved (and not stated openly).
• Setup a second email account. Use one email account for contact - and a second for blog ownership.

All of the above contact options give you a possibility of hearing from and / or networking with, your readers - and none of these options require you to disclose your ownership email address.

Just don't disclose your email address, to the world at large. Your email address is one half of the security measure, as designed by Google - that prevents unknown individuals, from taking control of your Blogger account and your blogs.

Finally, if you are not yet using Google 2-Step Verification, this is the time. If you were one of the victims of the recent attack, you know the despair. If not, you truly don't want to be. In either case, you should really want to protect your account, and your blogs.

Confusion From Email Spam Detection, And Non GMail Email

We're seeing a few reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken about problems with email, sent by Blogger, when the destination is a non GMail email system.

Some email systems verify the sending email address, against IP address. With these systems, email which originates from a Blogger account that's based on a non GMail email address, and comes from a Blogger / Google IP address, is going to present a problem, to the account owners.

If your Blogger account (your readers Blogger account) is based on a non GMail email address - and your blog provides any of various "notification" / "subscription" services, this can be a problem.

• "BlogSend" (aka "Email posts to") based subscriptions.
• Comment moderation or notification email.
• FeedBurner feed distribution, such as "Subscribe by Email"
• Your readers like to comment authenticated, and select the "Email follow-up comments ..." option.
• The Blogger supplied "Contact Me" accessory gadget.

You're going to have email "bounced" by some (non GMail) email clients. This will be a similar problem, if a reader sends you email - or Blogger relays you email based on your reader request, as in comment notification or contact form entries.

Note that "bounced" email may not be treated as spam. Some "bounced" email never gets as far as a spam filter - it may simply be rejected. You will look, in vain, in "Bulk", "Inbox", and "Spam" folders.

Blogger originated email, to certain email clients, will be bounced, because Blogger sends the notification / subscription email with your Blogger account (your readers account) mentioned, as the sender.

With Blogger comment moderation / notification email coming from a non GMail based Blogger account, and sent from a Google IP address, an email client such as AOL, HotMail, or Yahoo, which verifies email address against IP address, is going to reject the incoming email message. This is because "Sender Policy Framework", which AOL, HotMail, Yahoo, and other email systems use, detects the originating address as "spoofed".

Spoofing is a common technique used by spammers, in hiding their email identity. Most email based spam is spoofed - so email systems, which use DKIM or SPF filters to identify spam, will bounce any messages which do not verify properly - when IP address and originating email address are compared.

The problem may also involve comment subscription email. This may result in bounce messages being sent to the person attempting to publish a comment. This causes more confusion.

The solution, to the problem with moderation / notification email, is simple - but unlikely to satisfy many Blogger account owners. You will have to use a GMail email address, for comment moderation or notification. Until Blogger Engineering figure a better way to send the moderation / notification email, email clients such as AOL, HotMail, and Yahoo will have this problem.

If the blog owner changes ownership of a blog, from a non GMail based Blogger account to a GMail based account, and neglects to change the comment moderation / notification email address, the bounce messages will likely continue. What might happen with comment subscription email is yet to be determined.

This problem, as discussed above, affects the comment moderation process. While annoying to some blog owners (as noted, those using non GMail based Blogger accounts / email addresses), the problem is not all that severe. Affected blog owners can use the Blogger dashboard Comments wizard, to moderate comments. Also, blog owners, who moderate comments after they are published, may not even notice this problem.

This problem may also affect membership invitations to private / team blogs This will be a more severe issue, in that this problem will affect all blogs with owners using non GMail email addresses, and with prospective blog members on large non GMail email systems - because there will be no dashboard based wizard - and no possibility of moderation after publishing.

The involvement of Google Apps based (non "gmail.com" Google email) Blogger accounts, and Blogger originated email, is yet to be studied. Also please note that Blogger account email addresses, and comment moderation / notification email addresses, do not have to be the same - and this may cause still more confusion.

Third Party Email Collection / Login Gadgets Being Detected As Malware / Phishing

Recently, we've had several reports from naive blog owners, with blogs locked for malware or phishing, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Some owners have found accessories, such as email address collection or even a convenient login gadget, offered by helpful third parties. Installing the new gadgets, they have later received the well known (automated detection) notice, from Blogger Support.

Both third party email collection, and convenient login gadgets, are righteously classified as malware.

• Email address collection, run through a third party database, can provide hackers a starting point for account and blog theft, using botnets - or the account holder may be added to email distribution lists for spammers.
• Third party login gadgets are blatant phishing tools - and can be used for immediate account and blog theft.

Neither accessories are good, for your readers.

Any such third party accessories are just hacking / phishing tools. When you install this on your blog, it becomes hacking / phishing enabled by you.

You can collect email addresses, if you wish - using a FeedBurner Email Distribution gadget, which allows your readers to subscribe to a feed from your blog. If you want to offer your readers a convenient Blogger / Google login, add an HTML gadget, targeting

http://www.blogger.com

and let them use the standard Google "One account" login screen.

Don't be a dupe for the hackers, phishers, and spammers - keep your blog clean, and keep your blog online. The future of your blog, and your readers well being, requires your wise decisions.

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Confusion About EMail Addresses Based On Google Apps Provided Email Domains

Since 2009, I've been explaining the intricate relationships between Blogger accounts, email addresses, and Google accounts.

One of the challenges of logging in to Blogger or Google involves account names and passwords, that may be shared with an email account that is the basis for the Blogger / Google account name.

Non GMail based Blogger / Google accounts initially share an account name / email address with the source non GMail email account. If you change a non GMail email address, the Blogger account name will not change. If you delete a non GMail account, the Blogger account is not deleted. Finally, even with shared account names, the passwords between the email account, and the Blogger / Google account, are not automatically shared.

With a GMail / Google based Blogger account, on the other hand, both the account name and password will be shared - since it's the same account. If you delete a GMail / Google Blogger account, the Blogger account - and all owned blogs - are also deleted.

Besides the account name / password confusion, use of the Google login wizard is complicated by use of Google Apps based email accounts.

Use of the new Google login wizard is a challenge because of the blind login process - and the lack of detailed diagnostics, when an incorrect account name or password is entered. The lack of detailed diagnostics helps prevent hacking of our Google accounts, when our email address and various personal details become known to the public. Any mistakes result in one monolithic error.

The email or password you entered is incorrect.

Google Apps based email accounts are a frequent concern, when frustrated custom domain owners need to access their Google Apps accounts, to either update domain registration payment details, or to access the registrars domain management dashboard.

Google Apps access, which uses the Google multi-account login wizard, is complicated by domain owners who do not realise (or remember) the non GMail based Google Apps account name - or the password.

Before Google Apps based email domains became an issue, it was possible to easily identify non GMail based Blogger / Google accounts, as opposed to GMail based accounts, based on one significant detail - the absence of "gmail.com" / "googlemail.com" in the account name.

Observing that a given Blogger account name did not include "gmail.com" / "googlemail.com", we could advise a Blogger account owner of the issues involving account name / password sharing, between the source email account, and the Blogger / Google account.

Thanks to the existence of Google Apps based email domains, it is now possible to have GMail / Google accounts which lack the "gmail.com" / "googlemail.com" in the account name - and we see the confusion.

• Some blog owners may delete an unused "non GMail" Google account, not realising that they are deleting the necessary Blogger / Google account that owns a given blog.
• Other blog owners may be unable to use the Google login wizard effectively, since they don't understand that a non "GMail.com" account may be a Google account.
• And, in truly unfortunate scenarios, we have blog owners who lose control of their blogs when their employer, Internet Service Provider, or school converts their domain to use Google apps management

Just as it's impossible to canonically identify "legacy" accounts, it's a challenge to adequately describe the issues specific to Google Apps based non "GMail.com" Blogger / Google accounts. Control and synchronisation issues, relevant to both the account names and passwords, will always cause confusion, to Blogger blog owners.

Articles about regaining account control - and proper use of the new Google One Login wizard - will be referenced frequently, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

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The New Google Login, And Using Public / Shared Computers

I've written a few times about protecting your Blogger / Google account, when you use public / shared computers.

Generally, any concern about use of public / shared computers discusses cookies, which are simply invisible traces that you might leave behind when using any computer. If you only use your own computer - and never share your computer - this issue is probably of no concern to you.

If you use a computer that someone else, who you know, also uses, cookies are a small concern. If you use a computer that other people, who you don't know, also use - as in a public computer in a coffee shop or library - this should be a larger concern.

If you look at the Google login screen, you'll see a common option, on many login screens.

Stay signed in.

If you hover the mouse over the option, you'll see a small popup.

For your convenience, keep this checked. On shared devices, additional precautions are recommended. Learn more.

Clicking on "learn more", you get to read Securely signing in to Google.

The Google Help article mentions cookies as a significant risk to you, when using a public computer ("Devices used by lots of people").

Public computers, if well-maintained, automatically clear a user’s web history and cookies. If you’re unsure, we recommend that you use the private browsing feature of the browser. If private browsing isn’t available, clear the browser’s history, cache, and cookies before and after you use the device.

With a shared computer ("Devices shared with a few people"), the risk is less alarming.

If you only plan to use the device briefly, such as when visiting a friend or relative, we suggest using private browsing.

If you plan to use the device often (say, for example, it’s your family computer), then we suggest creating a user profile either in the operating system or in the browser so you can keep your information private from other users. We recommend you leave the "Stay signed in" checkbox selected to take advantage of Account Chooser and longer sessions. Learn how to add user profiles on an Android device or in Chrome.

And the final note.

If none of these security options are available to you, we strongly suggest you do not sign in to your Google Account. If you do sign in, we recommend deselecting the "Stay signed in" checkbox in case you forget to sign out.

I've discussed clearing cache, cookies, and sessions, in a few articles - and in more than a few forum discussions. In many cases, before the new Google Login (2014) was developed, cookies were moderately significant. Cookies, along with cache and sessions, are normal bits of data, which a knowleagable hacker might find hidden away, on a computer.

With the new Google login display, cookies are a more significant concern. Look at a typical Account Chooser login screen might look like, on a computer shared by a number of people who use Google products.

Would you want any later user of your computer, checking out Account Chooser, and finding your email address in plain view?


If you, personally, only use one Google account, and never use a public or shared computer, you may never see the Account Chooser login screen. If you do see Account Chooser, in its native state (un erased), you will see the account name ("Display Name" in Blogger) and email address of each Google account owner who has used the computer, since cookies were last cleared. Note that the screen print, shown here, has display name and email address, for each of the 5 previous users, erased.

With the Google login display (2014), and Account Chooser, we have gone from account vulnerability to any knowleagable hacker, to account vulnerability to anybody who cares to click on "Use a different account".

Obviously, when using a public computer - and probably a shared computer - you would not want to ever select "Stay signed in". Also, if you ever have to use a public computer, I would always use 2-Step Verification.

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A Hint Will Not Always Recover Your Access To Your Blogger Account

Some Blogger blog owners, trying to regain access to their blogs after a long absence, attribute their problem to over indulgent security measures.

I have too many email accounts, and no way can I remember all of them!

and maybe even

I have too many GMail accounts, and no way can I remember all of them!

Our suggestion will be, that they should carefully check all email (GMail) accounts. Their next request seems like a final solution.

Can Blogger just give me a hint, so I can remember which account I need to check?

Here they are asking for a last ditch effort, which is not guaranteed to bring success.

There are several reasons why requesting a hint - just a few characters of the email (GMail) account address - is not guaranteed to produce beneficial results.

• The hint request may be made by either a would be hijacker - or the possible later victim of a hijacker. The hint request invites focused brute force password guessing, which involves
  • Increased load on Google network resources.
  • Later problem reports about another stolen Blogger account / blog.
• A hint will not be given immediately. Blogger Support has several long queues of essential tasks. Helping somebody regain access to their Blogger account, after the would be owner has rejected the offered several automated tools, is not going to be at the top of anybody's task queue.
• A hint may not provide the right clue. Blogger Support will provide a limited number of characters in any hint - and cannot guarantee that the characters provided will be meaningful to the would be blog owner (or possibly, would be blog hijacker).
• Only one hint can be provided. Blogger Support won't provide an online game of "Hangman", by providing a new hint, until you guess your account name. One hint, only!

With all of these details in mind, and if at all possible, please do everybody a favour and make some effort to remember your account name and password. Don't count on Blogger to tell you your account name. Try the improved Google account recovery wizard, and check every email account which you may have possibly used, before asking for special attention.

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When You Search For Important Email, Search Carefully

Many Blogger / Google procedures involve email communications, with you needing to read - and respond to - email from Blogger / Google.

Some email systems automatically sort incoming email, and put important (and not so important) email into different folders. Many times, email from Blogger / Google may be sorted into a folder where you would not always normally look - or may be sent to an email address that you might not think of, immediately.

It's to your personal advantage, to find any email that is being sent to you - even stuff in Bulk / Spam.

One of the best known folders, besides Inbox, where email may be found would be "Bulk" / "Spam".

"False Positive" filter effects are unavoidable.

All email systems may occasionally put important email into either "Bulk" or "Spam". Any time when you are awaiting important email from Blogger / Google, such as when you are trying to recover access to your blog, or when you make (or maybe, need to make) an important purchase, always look in both the "Inbox" and "Bulk" / "Spam" folders.

If your email system provides an "Incoming" mail log, it's never a bad idea to scan the log, periodically.

Consider all possible email accounts that you might own.

Besides checking the multiple sections of any one email account, you should also consider the complex interactions between Blogger accounts, email clients, and Google accounts, and examine any possible email addresses - both GMail and non GMail addresses - current and past, with similar persistence.

Consider all individual email accounts, that may be combined automatically.

If you use GMail, or any email delivery service which provides ability to manage and use multiple email accounts from a single email desktop, you should check settings in every such email system, for multiple account setup.

Your Blogger account needs to be based on an active email account (GMail, or non GMail). If you are intentionally obscuring your Blogger account, you're going to have a problem here. There are various reasons why you may not see every key email message, in your Inbox, at first glance.

Diligent searching may reduce time spent in online forums.

Searching for incoming email, carefully, may reduce the amount of time you spend in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, asking for help retrieving your account name or email address from Blogger records, or asking why your non BlogSpot URL now redirects your readers to a page full of advertisements.

Prevent disappointment and future regret - check your "Bulk" / "Spam" folders, for all possible email accounts and clients which you use, periodically. And consider possible spoof filtering effects.

Why Can't Blogger Just Tell Me The Email Address?

We see the pain, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, of blog owners who do not understand the need for keeping the name of their Blogger account a secret.

I forgot the email address that I was using. Why can't Blogger just tell me the address??

and some ask

How did this unknown person "xxxxx xxxxx" get control of my blog?

Years ago, the local police would have to convince home owners

Please, stop leaving a spare key under a rock, near the door!

Both many blog owners (today) - like some home owners (years ago) - had the same basic problem - naivete.

Like the home owners of years ago, who kept a spare key under a rock near the front door, for emergencies, blog owners will use tricks to remember their password.

Don't - please don't - use a guessable password!

One favourite technique, for remembering the password, is so obvious.

Pick a password based upon something that you can remember.

For a blog owner who is married, the answer is obvious.

What is my spouse's name?

and there's your password. If you forget that, you have worse problems, that cannot be addressed here.

If the name of one's spouse was a secret, using the name would not be a problem. But knowing that many blogs either contain the name (and picture, maybe) of the whole family - or lead to a Profile page or website (FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, ...) with similarly useful information - how secret is the password going to be?

Hackers love blogs with guessable passwords.

Knowing both the Blogger account name (email address) that owns any blog of interest, and the URL of the blog, any hacker has a simple enough task.

1. Scrape blog content, into a text analyzer.
2. Extract a few hundred details (spouse's name, and others) from the blog content, as analysed.
3. Run the known details through a password generation program.
4. Now, the hacker has a database, containing "10,000 good possible passwords", specifically relevant to this blog.
5. Go to "www.blogger.com", plug in the account name, and try out the 10,000 passwords, one by one.
6. That's a simple brute force password attack.
7. Sit back, and watch any botnet, controlled by the hacker, go to work.
8. Given enough time, the hacker very likely gets access to the Blogger account, and to the blogs owned by the account.

Steps 1 - 8, for any experienced hacker, will be summed into one step.

Plug in the URL of the blog.

Everything needed is just more coding - and a nice robust botnet or two.

The hacker, of course, will be targeting thousands of different blogs, simultaneously. So what if he (she) fails to find what details she (he) needs, to steal your blog? He'll (she'll) gladly settle for another - while the botnet works on yours.

Besides using a "strong" password (which carries it's own risks such as forgetting the password - and now we're here, again), the best way to prevent a brute force attack is by preventing step 5.

Keep the account name / email address a secret.

Additionally, if you have a blog and a business - or otherwise exchange email with strangers, separate your Blogger / Google account and your email account. Use two separate email addresses, for Blogger and email.

Learn to appreciate efforts made, by Google, keeping your account and blogs safe.

If you need to recover access to your Blogger account, don't expect to use the Blogger "Forgot?" wizard, plug in your blog URL, and get a reply

Email was sent to your address xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz

And, if you post in the forum.

Please email me advice, to "xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz"!

expect to get a stern warning

Please, do not post Blogger account names, or email addresses, in the forum.

People objecting to the recent Blogger policy of masking email addresses, in Blogger commenting and similar services, as "no-reply @ blogger . com", may also need to consider this very real issue. Possibly, even use Google+, instead of Blogger commenting, for networking with ones peers.

Google tries to identify brute force attacks, and takes action when possible.

And, if your Blogger / GMail / Google account is disabled - and you get a mysterious notice about

Suspicious / Unusual activity on your account

this could well be the other side of a brute force attack against your account, intercepted by Google.

Don't be offended by the various precautions.

• The unpopular "24 to 48 hour" waiting period, which you endure after getting the account enabled.
• The painful diagnosis of "hacking detected" against your account (aka "suspicious" / "unusual" activity).
• The annoying inability to access your Blogger account, when traveling.

If you find the precautions and problems to be unacceptable, consider using Google 2-step verification, to protect your account against brute force hacking.

This is not fiction here - it's all very real.

None of this is fiction or paranoia - it's based on some very real, recent events, and even involves a recent National Scandal - and leads to some very real conundrums.

Similarly, we have a very distasteful answer, to a seemingly worthy need. And another apparently "ceremonial" but necessary answer, to somebody in need of understanding and support, that can't be provided.

You have to make the effort, to maintain and protect your blog.

You will get no sympathy, when you complain how unsupportive Blogger is.

You have to make some effort - and remember some basic information - if you are going to maintain a Blogger blog. And, encourage your friends to keep their accounts and blogs safe.

Blogger Accounts, And Changing The Email Address

As I've written in a few places, the name of your Blogger / Google account is based upon the email address that you provide, when you setup the account.

The name of the account can't be changed, and neither can the email address for that account. When you want to manage your blog(s) from an account with a different email address, you must setup a new Blogger account, starting with the Settings - Permissions wizard.

This isn't obvious to everybody.

When you edit your profile, you look under the Identity sections, and there is "Email Address".

Beside email address, you would originally see

Changing this does not change the e-mail address you use to sign-in

Email address for readers to contact you.



Now, you see

Email address for readers to contact you.

Regardless of the caption, not everybody heeds the warning there - and this is where a lot of confusion starts.

If you enter a new email address in that box, all that you get is an account with a second email address. Not an account with a changed name, or even with a changed email address. And not an account with a secondary GMail address, either.

If you enter a GMail email address, you should (though may not) see

You are not allowed to have a GMail address as the primary address for your Blogger account.

If you want a different GMail address, you setup a new Blogger account, and you transfer your blog(s) to the new account. Alternatively, setup a new non GMail email account - and change the existing Blogger account to use the new email address for password recovery.

And need I state this again, when you need to change your email address, do this before you forget the password to the account with the current email address.

Blogger Accounts, Inadvertently Created

Occasionally, someone reports an odd problem with a Blogger account, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

I changed the email address on my account, and when I logged in again, it said that I had no blogs. Now, I can't manage my blogs. Help!

or

I have two blogs, but I can only see one in my dashboard! When I log onto the older one and click on the "dashboard" link, it takes me to my new blog.

These complaints come from blog owners who don't realise that your email address is part of your Blogger (Google) account in two ways.

1. As the account name.
2. As a contact mechanism.

This is only a potential problem - as long as the email address never changes.

There's no problem - as long as the account stays as it is when created, and as long as the email account associated with the account name stays active. Sometimes, a blog owner will get a new email address (new ISP, new job, new school).

We ask people to always update their Blogger email addresses, when they get new email. The blog owner will think right - and will change the email address in the Blogger (Google) account.

The contact email address (#2 above) will change, but the account name (#1 above) will not change. Alternately, the blog owner will click on the wrong link, when logging in. And occasionally, a cookie or other security setting will contribute to this problem.

Mistyping the email address, when accepting membership, is a problem.

Another problem is called a "typo". When the new member types the email address, sometimes he / she will get it wrong. And since no verification is sent - let alone verified - the new member now has a new Blogger account.

Fortunately, the blog owner who sent the invitation should get a mysterious email message.

The purpose of this message is to inform you that your invitation to xx...@gmail.com was accepted, but using a different email address.

And the different email address will be the new account name, created by the new blog member.

With a new email address, incorrectly changed, the problem becomes real.

Oblivious of the possible problems, the blog owner will try to login using his new email address as the account name, and will be told

The email you provided does not exist.

and below that

Don't have a Google Account?
Create an account now.

Here is where much confusion started, long ago. I'm not convinced that the new login process is any better.

If the blog owner gets the account name wrong, and sees "Create account", what do you think will happen?

And, here we are at "Create your Google Account", 2015.



Now, a new Blogger account is created - and maybe a new blog, too.

Now somewhat confused

I know this is the email address.

the unhappy blog owner selects "Create account", creates an account with the right email address (or whatever he's allowed), and logs in.

Now, he has what he should have done in the first place, except for one major detail.

The blog(s) are still owned by the old account.

Now, he sees an empty dashboard, with the advice

You are not a member of any blogs. Create one now to start posting!

and below that

Create Your Blog Now

Even more confused, the blog owner may even create a new blog, under his new account.

This can be resolved - with patience and understanding.

Now, he has become a very unhappy blog owner. This problem can be corrected, but a bit of work is required.

1. Understand the above scenario.
2. Use Blogger / Google tools, and identify all accounts that you've setup.
3. Ensure that the dashboard view that you see is up to date, by clearing cache, cookies, and active sessions, and restarting the browser.
4. Starting from the unwanted Blogger (Google) account (generally the one with the original email address), transfer ownership of the blog(s) to the wanted account (generally the newly created account with the new email address).

If you're here because you just deleted the blog - and you can't un delete because you have multiple Blogger accounts, you have a similar, and equally frustrating procedure in your immediate future.

The new (2014) Google "One account" login will continue the confusion.

As of July 2014, and with the New (2014) Google MultiLogin wizard, the confusion continues.

But the process of correcting the problems starts with understanding how the problems occurred, in the first place. That sometimes requires introspective thinking, and the lack of that is frequently why you end up reading this, and similar evidence of confusion.