Mass Confusion Caused By Legacy Account Migration

In 2012, Blogger started the next phase of the Legacy Account migration process.

For several days, we saw mass confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Why am I getting this email? Is it a scam?

and

I can't migrate my account!

and

I migrated my account, and my blogs disappeared from my dashboard!!

The people targeted in the email were registered owners of legacy (pre 2006) Blogger accounts, created before Blogger started using Google (email address based) accounts.

The confused owners are similar to the ones with whom we have been dealing for several months, unable to regain access to their long dormant Blogger / Google accounts.

Many do not remember creating accounts, others don't remember the login details, which are essential to blog control.

Both the blog owners, and Blogger, contributed to the confusion.

The confusion was caused jointly by Blogger, and by the blog owners. And, it was not a surprise, to Blogger Support.

The confusion started with the history of the migration.

• In 2007, Blogger offered the opportunity to transfer control of owned blogs, to a new Google based account, when someone attempted to login to their legacy Blogger account.
• People never logging in to Blogger after 2007 never got the offer to migrate.
• Some people elected to not migrate - but setup new Google accounts and manually transferred control of their blogs - and left some legacy accounts inactive and without any owned blogs.
• Last year, Blogger warned people that the end of life, of the legacy accounts, was inevitable.

  For a number of technical and operational reasons, we’ve decided to finally end our support for migrating legacy accounts and blogs after December 5th, 2011. So if you have a Blogger account and haven’t logged in since 2007, you will lose access to the account and associated content permanently unless you update to the Google Account system before December 5th.

• Last week, Blogger took the next step.

  You are receiving this message because your email address is associated with an unmigrated legacy Blogger account. As we announced in April of last year, legacy accounts will no longer be accessible after May 30th, 2012 unless they are updated to the Google Account system. Any blog content associated with this account will also be unmodifiable after that date.

• The emails went to registered owners of all unmigrated legacy accounts, whether or not any account owned a blog.

The confusion was magnified by issues caused by the various blog owners.

• Blogger insists on making it easy to create a Blogger account, frequently resulting in non intentional creation of multiple Blogger accounts. Some people, for instance, may have created Blogger accounts to post comments, on other blogs.
• Some people receiving the email had stopped using Blogger, long ago.
• Other people had continued using Blogger, but with newly created Blogger accounts - and simply ignored the unused legacy accounts.
• Many people, overlooking the fact that the migration had started in 2007, became unhappy that they were given only one month to conclude what they had been given, to date - 5 years.
• Too many people, not having used their legacy accounts since 2006, were unable to remember the account name or password, and were forced to use the "Forgot your password?" wizard.
• Some people, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the password reset email, found that this critical email is subject to email spam filters - and now, to email spoofing filters (and the two are not the same).
• Some people managing to complete the migration - but with their blogs owned by a separate (newer) Google based Blogger account - watched in horror as their blogs appeared to disappear from their dashboards. The migration created a new account, leaving their important blogs owned by their previously created Blogger / Google account, which became inaccessible to them.

The confusion continued, with multiple scenarios.

The history, plus the issues, resulted in several scenarios - each resulting in an unhappy account owner.

• Owners with a migrated previously legacy Blogger account (created in 2007), and one or more un migrated legacy Blogger accounts. These people have one or more legacy Blogger accounts (that they don't know about), plus an already migrated previously legacy account (that can't be migrated, again).
• Owners with a Google based Blogger account (created in 2007), and one or more un migrated legacy Blogger accounts. These people have one or more legacy Blogger accounts (that they don't know about), plus a Google based Blogger account (that can't be migrated).
• Owners with a single un migrated legacy Blogger account, unable to migrate because of forgotten account name or password. These people have a legacy Blogger account (that can be migrated, if they know the account name, and the password).
• Owners with a single, newly migrated legacy Blogger account (created this week, with no blogs), and a previously migrated or created Google account (created in 2007, with the owned blogs). These people are now logged in to Blogger with a new Blogger account, and cannot access their blogs, owned by their previous Blogger account.

The unhappy recipients of the email, following the instructions provided to them, posted their complaints in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

If you have questions, please visit our Help Forum at http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/OKddNnCN05400K and create a message with [legacy Account] in the subject line.

Confusion was magnified by forum complaints, and inability to help.

The confusion spread, as the forums became saturated by the complaints. Not all complaints used the "[legacy Account]" tag, suggested in the instructions. This motivated various forum helpers to use fuzzy processing techniques in sorting various forum complaints, and some non legacy issues were treated as legacy issues. Other legacy issues were overlooked, in the volume of posts.

Blogger Support, becoming aware of the numbers of complaints, created a legacy Account FAQ, and started answering questions, posted in the FAQ. And the frustration became expressed in various FAQ responses.

This is clearly not working out well for Blogger. In the true business world, heads roll when fails are so epic.

This blog owner is overlooking the history and the issues, and making no acknowledgement of his contribution to the problem.

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(Update 2012/04/30 10:00): Blogger Support has now provided a form, for any legacy account owner to use, to request details.

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Mass Confusion Caused By Legacy Account Migration
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/04/mass-confusion-caused-by-next-phase-of.html

Challenges Created By Legacy Account Migration
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/04/mass-confusion-caused-by-next-phase-of.html

Legacy Blogger Accounts Are No Longer Supported

Last year, Blogger made an announcement that displeased a few Blogger blog owners.

For a number of technical and operational reasons, we’ve decided to finally end our support for migrating legacy accounts and blogs after December 5, 2011.

The initial announcement was made in April, 2011, with an action date, initially scheduled, well before December 5 - and the action date was delayed, several times. The quotation that you see was edited by Blogger Support, in their article, repeatedly.

On December 6, 2011, support for Legacy Blogger accounts finally ended. Even so, we still see occasional signs of oblivious account holders, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

My account doesn't have a Google address because it it is 8 years old - how do I recover access to my account?

Apparently, not everybody who needed to do so, bothered to read the announcement.

Like the long announced FTP Publishing migration, Legacy accounts support has ended. There's no known alternative, for Legacy accounts - nor is the status of the accounts themselves - or the blogs, or of the URLs, owned by the non supported Blogger accounts - known.

What does the above announcement state? Simply, if

1. You have a legacy account.
2. You never bothered to migrate your legacy account.
3. You try migrating your legacy account in the future.
4. And you have a problem with the migration.
5. Then, you are on your own.

Blogger is looking to the future - and needs to spend their time more productively. They simply don't have time to diagnose problems with individual accounts that can't be migrated, after many months of warning, about this change, was provided.

What does the above announcement not state?

1. You can't use your legacy Blogger account, in the future.
2. You can't migrate your legacy Blogger account, to a current Google account.
3. Your legacy Blogger account will be deleted.
4. Your blogs, owned by a legacy Blogger account, will be deleted.
5. The URLs, used by blogs owned by a legacy Blogger account, will be taken from you.
6. Any URL, used by a blog owned by a legacy Blogger account, will be made available to you.

None of the above were stated, in the announcement. The announcement states only that migration support has ended. Whether any of the above will change, in the future, can't be predicted. We'll hope that some warning will be given, before any of the above change. Just don't bet any money that warning will be given.

All that we can say, right now, is

You were warned.

Sorry. All things come to an end. You have to support Blogger, to expect them to support you.

>> Top

Will Legacy Accounts Deletion Automatically Make The URL Of Your Choice Available To You?

If you believe some of the discussions in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, a lot of Blogger blog owners are lining up at the gate - or will be doing that, starting 2011/12/05 23:59.

For a number of technical and operational reasons, we’ve decided to finally end our support for migrating legacy accounts and blogs after December 5, 2011.

Some discussions include speculation about deletion of blogs owned under legacy accounts, which will result in their personal dream URL being made available to them, finally.

How much chance is there that dozens of unhappy Blogger blog owners will finally get use of the URL to match their blog subject / title?

Does anybody here wish to guess the values for these numbers?

1. Total number of URLs that exist, in BlogSpot.
2. Number of URLs that interest you, in BlogSpot.
3. Total number of legacy accounts.
4. Number of blogs owned by legacy accounts.
5. Number of legacy accounts that will be deleted, immediately, on December 6.
6. Number of URLs that will become available on December 6.
7. Number of people like you, that desire the same URL that you desire.
8. Certainty that Blogger will clean up BlogSpot, and actually delete all blogs owned by legacy accounts.

If you are waiting for your dream URL to start your blog, how much chance is there that your new blog will be coming online December 7?

I'm thinking a working formula might be something like

( ( b / a ) * f ) / ( g + 1 ) * h

Comment lines are now open, and operators are waiting for your call.

If you have a blog in mind, get your blog online today, and make it valuable, using the content. Don't waste time, waiting for an event that may never happen. Especially given the fact that nothing stated by Blogger implies

h > 0.00

Read the note provided by Blogger, again.

we’ve decided to finally end our support for migrating legacy accounts and blogs

I have seen no mention of planned deletion of blogs, owned by the legacy accounts.

>> Top

A Blogger Account, For Virginia, USA

A few months ago, a few Blogger blog owners were given important news which may not have pleased them.

For a number of technical and operational reasons, we’ve decided to finally end our support for migrating legacy accounts and blogs after December 5, 2011.

If you are one of the blog owners who needs to read this, you will need to know the name and password for your (Legacy) Blogger account.

You will need to execute the Claim your blog wizard, before December 5. The normal Blogger account recovery wizard may work for you now - but after the end of next month, it will probably not.

If necessary, move ahead, this month. Next month will be too late.

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.