When you accept membership in someone else's blog, you are going to use a different browser, than the one used by the owner.
If you are accepting membership in your own blog, as part of a blog ownership transfer that you started, you might be tempted to use one browser, for the entire process. If you do this, you can end up with a blog owned under your current Blogger account - but using your (would be) new account's email address. This may cause you to lose control of the blog.
If you manage to retain control of your blog, you'll continue to use the current Blogger account - as the new Blogger account will never get control.
A reliable and safe transfer requires two browsers.
To reliably and safely transfer control of a blog, you should always use two browsers.
If you are adding an administrator, you can omit Step #4 - and if you're adding an author, you can omit steps #3 and #4.
What ever you are doing, please understand the risks, inherent in team blogs. It's your blog - until you add a member, without proper planning.
Try to use one browser - and you will soon have a problem.
Some people will try to use one browser.
When you accept membership, the transfer token in the email is connected to the Blogger account, that you provide. If you don't select "Use a different account!", you'll use the the current Blogger account, as the "new" owner - and that will be the same account that you used to add your new account to the Permissions list.
If you are transferring the blog to a different account - and your email accounts are all active, you'll see this message in your Inbox - after you accept membership, using your current account, and with a new email address.
This can also happen, if you are a new member, accepting a membership invitation.
If you are a new member, accepting membership in a private blog, or a team blog - and you don't accept membership using the right Blogger account, you'll have a similar frustration.
When you accept membership, you provide an email address as your Blogger account. If you make a mistake when typing, you have a typo - and you also have a new Blogger account.
The blog owner will get an email, warning of the email address that you used. Hopefully, you know the password (maybe, the same password) that you have, for the Blogger account that you intended to use.
Make one mistake, and the transfer process is broken.
You can't go forward, and you can't go backward. As soon as you logout - and if you forget your password, you're done.
The dashboard of the target Blogger account will be empty.
If you login using your "new" Blogger account, you'll find an empty dashboard.
You know that you own your blog - and you just accepted membership! Where is my blog?
Then you check Permissions (if you're able to use your previous Blogger account) and see that the transfer is still pending.
You can restart the transfer, if you use a third email address.
If you don't forget your account name and password, you can maybe login and re invite yourself - but use a new email address. This will not be an enjoyable alternative.
This is one way that one Blogger account ends up with two email addresses - which you find out, the next time you need to reset your password. Here's hoping that, by that time, you have written down the email address and password, for the third email account.
Using a third email address is not a good solution, either.
You'll have other complications, now.
A Password recovery will confuse you, even more.
If you forget the account name or password, and try to get the password reset, here's where we see the anomaly.
Here's a simple, single member recovery.
And, a more complex single member recovery.
Or maybe
And a simple team recovery:
Or maybe
And a complex and painful team recovery:
Here, each author will have to enter each possible email address, blindly, hoping that one of them will get an email with a useful token, to regain control.
Why do we see "We've sent you an email message ...", and not "We've sent login instructions ... to you and the other blog authors ..." - followed by "Emails were sent to your accounts ..."? The first two examples address individuals - neither is a team blog control recovery message.
The second example happens because one Blogger account now has two email addresses. When one of the email addresses is GMail, chances are good that this is the result of a failed ownership transfer.
Do the transfer correctly - use two browsers! Please!!
Wouldn't it have been so much easier, to do the job correctly, the first time?
Please, use two browsers - one browser with an incognito / private / virtual session, two browsers on the same computer, or two browsers, each on a different computer.
Think, plan, then do it correctly.
If you are accepting membership in your own blog, as part of a blog ownership transfer that you started, you might be tempted to use one browser, for the entire process. If you do this, you can end up with a blog owned under your current Blogger account - but using your (would be) new account's email address. This may cause you to lose control of the blog.
If you manage to retain control of your blog, you'll continue to use the current Blogger account - as the new Blogger account will never get control.
A reliable and safe transfer requires two browsers.
To reliably and safely transfer control of a blog, you should always use two browsers.
- Login to the old account, using Browser A, and make the new account a blog member.
- Login to the new account using Browser B, retrieve the email offering blog membership, and accept membership using the new account.
- Using Browser A, give the new account administrator status.
- Using Browser B, remove the old account administrator status.
If you are adding an administrator, you can omit Step #4 - and if you're adding an author, you can omit steps #3 and #4.
What ever you are doing, please understand the risks, inherent in team blogs. It's your blog - until you add a member, without proper planning.
Try to use one browser - and you will soon have a problem.
Some people will try to use one browser.
- Login to the old account, and make the new account a blog member.
- Retrieve the email offering blog membership, using the email account of the new blog owner, and accept membership.
Here's where you make your mistake. When you accept membership, you pick up the login of your current Blogger account - and you give it your new email address. - Give the new account administrator status.
Here's where you see one symptom of your mistake. The Permissions list still shows the new member as pending - so membership promotion is not going to happen.
When you accept membership, the transfer token in the email is connected to the Blogger account, that you provide. If you don't select "Use a different account!", you'll use the the current Blogger account, as the "new" owner - and that will be the same account that you used to add your new account to the Permissions list.
The purpose of this message is to inform you that your invitation to xx...@gmail.com was accepted, but using a different email address.
If you are transferring the blog to a different account - and your email accounts are all active, you'll see this message in your Inbox - after you accept membership, using your current account, and with a new email address.
This can also happen, if you are a new member, accepting a membership invitation.
If you are a new member, accepting membership in a private blog, or a team blog - and you don't accept membership using the right Blogger account, you'll have a similar frustration.
When you accept membership, you provide an email address as your Blogger account. If you make a mistake when typing, you have a typo - and you also have a new Blogger account.
The blog owner will get an email, warning of the email address that you used. Hopefully, you know the password (maybe, the same password) that you have, for the Blogger account that you intended to use.
Make one mistake, and the transfer process is broken.
You can't go forward, and you can't go backward. As soon as you logout - and if you forget your password, you're done.
- You won't be able to login with your existing account, because your account now has a new email address.
- You won't be able to login with the new account, because that account has not accepted membership - even though the membership invitation has been opened.
- You won't be able to accept membership with the new account, because the membership invitation has been opened.
- With two entries in Permissions, you may be able to delete your current ownership, thinking that will force ownership to the new account. This may, or may not, happen.
- Alternately, you can try deleting the new membership invitation, and trying again. If the invitation was opened, you may not be able to use the same target email address.
The dashboard of the target Blogger account will be empty.
If you login using your "new" Blogger account, you'll find an empty dashboard.
You are not an author on any blogs yet, create one now to start posting!
You know that you own your blog - and you just accepted membership! Where is my blog?
Then you check Permissions (if you're able to use your previous Blogger account) and see that the transfer is still pending.
You can restart the transfer, if you use a third email address.
If you don't forget your account name and password, you can maybe login and re invite yourself - but use a new email address. This will not be an enjoyable alternative.
- Setup a third email account, based upon any non GMail email address. I'll suggest Yahoo.com as an example here - but you can use whatever email service works for you.
- Go to Settings - Permissions, and add your new email address as an invited member.
- Here's where you really should use a separate browser. If this browser has been used before, clear cache, cookies, and authenticated sessions, restart the browser, and login to your new non GMail email account. Start with a clean browser here.
- Go to your non GMail email account, and open your email. Remember to look in your "Bulk" or "Spam" folder, if you don't see anything in "Inbox".
- Accept membership in the blog.
- When you're asked for an account / password, select "Use a different account"!
- Enter the second Blogger account name (address), and the correct password for that account.
- Go back to the Permissions display, and refresh.
- Verify that you have a new member in the Author list.
- Return to the normal procedure, and complete the transfer, with Steps #3, and #4 (optional).
This is one way that one Blogger account ends up with two email addresses - which you find out, the next time you need to reset your password. Here's hoping that, by that time, you have written down the email address and password, for the third email account.
Using a third email address is not a good solution, either.
You'll have other complications, now.
- The blog will end up owned by the right Blogger account, but an email address that will drive you crazy - because you only created it, to recover control of the blog, back to your desired Blogger account.
- If you delete your "unused" Blogger / Google account, you could end up deleting the blog, too.
A Password recovery will confuse you, even more.
If you forget the account name or password, and try to get the password reset, here's where we see the anomaly.
Here's a simple, single member recovery.
We've sent you an email message with login instructions for your blog at http://xxxxxxx.blogspot.com/. Email was sent to your hotmail.com account.
And, a more complex single member recovery.
We've sent you an email message with login instructions for your blog at http://xxxxxxx.blogspot.com/.
Emails were sent to your accounts at these domains:
gmail.com
hotmail.com
Or maybe
We've sent login instructions for the blog at http://xxxxxxx.blogspot.com/ to you and the other blog authors. Email was sent to gmail.com accounts.
And a simple team recovery:
We've sent login instructions for the blog at http://xxxxxxx.blogspot.com/ to you and the other blog authors.
Emails were sent to accounts at these domains:
gmail.com
hotmail.com
Or maybe
We've sent login instructions for the blog at http://xxxxxxx.blogspot.com/ to you and the other blog authors. Email was sent to gmail.com accounts.
And a complex and painful team recovery:
Your blog has too many authors to email them all. Please enter your email address into the form below to look up your account information.
Here, each author will have to enter each possible email address, blindly, hoping that one of them will get an email with a useful token, to regain control.
Why do we see "We've sent you an email message ...", and not "We've sent login instructions ... to you and the other blog authors ..." - followed by "Emails were sent to your accounts ..."? The first two examples address individuals - neither is a team blog control recovery message.
The second example happens because one Blogger account now has two email addresses. When one of the email addresses is GMail, chances are good that this is the result of a failed ownership transfer.
Do the transfer correctly - use two browsers! Please!!
Wouldn't it have been so much easier, to do the job correctly, the first time?
Please, use two browsers - one browser with an incognito / private / virtual session, two browsers on the same computer, or two browsers, each on a different computer.
- Login to the old account, using Browser A, and make the new account a blog member.
- Login to the new account using Browser B, retrieve the email offering blog membership, and accept membership using the new account.
- Using Browser A, give the new account administrator status.
- Using Browser B, remove the old account administrator status.
Think, plan, then do it correctly.
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