Accidentally accepted invite using a slightly different gmail address, disabled original account

Question

I accepted an invite to access an organisation’s Dropbox. They sent it to my personal email myname@gmail.com but when I signed in I used myname+bb@gmail.com (don’t ask why).

Now my original dropbox account is disabled. I can still log in using the +bb email address, and it is effectively my old dropbox account (with all my old files) however, I can’t log in using the original email. Nor can I change the email on the +bb login to match the old one (says email already in use). Finally I can’t log in to the old account because it is disabled.

It seems I have effectively changed the email address on my Dropbox whilst locking me out from being able to change it back. I’d really like to get it back to how it was.

UPDATE: Just tried logging in Chrome on my iPad and it said:

“This account has been deleted

Please re-register with a new account or wait 6 days to re-register with your current email.”

Should I just wait six days and then try to change the email address back on my myname+bb@gmail.com account?

Hannah · Answer

Hey @glennbroadway, let me jump in here, to see what we can find out about this situation.

Right now, if you contact the admin of the team and ask them to check the "members" tab in their admin console, are they able to see you as a member of the team? And under which email address?

Please ask them to check both the "active" members and the "deleted".

If you appear in the deleted members, does the admin have the option to restore you?

This would restore the deleted account and allow you to sign in again.

glennbroadway · Answer

I think an important factor is that I used the invite that went to myname@gmail.com to Join the business team, except I didn’t join it WITH that dropbox account - I created a new one (using myname+bb@gmail.com as the contact address) I did this because I was nervous about mergin the two accounts. But soon after the admin removed me and I created a third new account with a completely different account (which is part of the organisations email system). But in the meantime, dropbox changed the email on my original account - everywhere.

glennbroadway · Answer

@Megan I’ve waited 6 days (actually 7) and I am still unable to change the email on myname+bb@gmail.com back to myname@gmail.com because it says “This email is already taken.”

When I try to remover the password for myname@gmail.com I get the message “Sorry, this account is disabled.”

And yet, myname+bb@gmail.com is still working as the login email for my account. And the login email was changed on all my devices where I was logged in already.

How can I return my account to myname@gmail.com ? I just can’t seem to work out how to do it. Are you sure your suggested method will work - the one about being reinstated to the organisation by the admin? I can’t see how that helps when myname@gmail.com is taken and disabled.