Combining Two Accounts

Why you might have two accounts

It's easy to end up with two ShareLocket accounts without meaning to. Maybe a friend first invited you by text to your phone, and you signed up right there — then invited you again by email to your laptop, and you signed up a second time without realizing you already had an account. It happens more often than you'd think, and it's simple to put right.

What happens when you combine them

If you're already signed in and open an invitation addressed to a different email or phone number of yours, we'll offer to bring that other account together with the one you're using now. Everything the other account holds — your circles, your posts, your photos, and everything else on it — moves across to the account you're using. Once everything has moved over, the other account is closed, since there's nothing left on it anymore.

A few things that don't move across

Your content all comes with you. A small number of settings don't, because the account you're using already has its own — so it's worth a quick look afterwards:

• Two-step sign-in. If you had two-step sign-in turned on for the other account and not for the one you're keeping, it won't carry over — so please set it up again on the account you keep. We'd hate for you to lose that extra protection without noticing.
• Notification settings. The settings on the account you're using stay exactly as they are; the other account's aren't brought over. If you'd changed them there, set them again here.
• Anything you'd set up twice. If both accounts had the same thing connected — the same contacts import, say, or the same discount already saved — the one on the account you're keeping is the one that stays.
• Being in the same circle or album twice. If both accounts were part of the same circle, you'll have one place in it afterwards rather than two, and we keep whichever of the two gives you the most access. Albums work a little differently: the place held by the account you're keeping is the one that stays, even if the other account was able to do more there. If that leaves you with less than you had, just ask the album's owner — they can set it back for you in a moment.

You'll also be signed out of the other account anywhere you were still signed in to it, so it's a good idea to sign in again on your other devices with the account you're keeping.

Proving both accounts are really yours

Before we bring anything together, we'll ask you to sign in to the other account as well, not just the one you're already using. It's an extra step, but an important one: it's what stops someone else from combining an account that isn't theirs into their own. Once you've signed in to both, we know for certain they both belong to you, and we can go ahead.

If we tell you the code has already been used

If you see a message saying the code you entered has already been used, don't worry — you haven't been locked out. Just ask for a new code and try again.

When we can't combine your accounts automatically

Most of the time, combining your accounts happens right away, with no extra steps beyond the ones above. Now and then something gets in the way. Often it's something you can put right yourself in a couple of minutes; occasionally we'd like a person here to help.

If you only ever sign in to the other account with Google or Apple

This is the one we see most often, and it's the quickest to sort out. If the only way you've ever signed in to that other account is with Google or Apple — it's never had a password, and you've never set up a passkey for it — then for now we can't accept that as your proof when combining two accounts. Give that account one more way to sign in and you'll be able to carry straight on.

The quickest way is to give it a password. This works even though the account has never had one:

1. Go to the sign-in page and use the link for when you've forgotten your password.
2. Enter the email address that other account uses, and we'll send you an email.
3. Open the link in that email and choose a password.

If you'd rather use a passkey — signing in with your face, your fingerprint, or the code that unlocks your phone — sign in to that other account the way you usually do, then add a passkey from your account settings. Either one on its own is enough.

Then open your invitation again and pick up where you left off. When we ask you to sign in to the other account, your new password or passkey is there waiting, and we can go ahead.

When we'd like a person here to help

A few situations we'd rather look at ourselves before anything moves:

• The other account has a paid plan. If that's the case, sign in to that account instead, and combine this one into it — that way your paid plan carries over cleanly.
• The other account has albums of its own. Reach out to us and we'll help you bring everything together the right way.
• A referral reward is tied to one of the accounts. When that happens, we want a person to double-check it before anything moves, so the reward isn't lost or applied the wrong way. Contact us and we'll take care of it for you.

Very occasionally we run into something else — say, an account holding an unusually large amount of content, or one we need to take a closer look at first — and combining it automatically isn't possible. Nothing changes on either account when that happens. We'll let you know right away and point you to contact us, and we'll finish bringing your accounts together for you personally.

Need help?

If anything about combining your accounts doesn't go the way you expect, contact our support team and we'll sort it out with you.