How can I access an old account that the email no longer exists for?

[Jason Donohoe]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for any help in advance.

I have an old account and site I created years ago when I was working for a small business that no longer exist. As such, I no longer have access to the email address for the account. To be explicit, it is a personal account and site which I just happened to use the email from work for at the time.

I forgot the password a long time ago but have managed to keep access via my mobile iOS Confluence app which has remained logged in all this time.

With my recent phone upgrade though I now have a phone that’s not logged in and need a way to sort this out. I mainly just want to export the various spaces from the site/account into a newer one I now have.

Not sure how to best approach this or how to get atlassian support for it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Jason

[Evgenii]

Hi, @Jason Donohoe 

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

To gain access to a site registered with a business email, the fastest way is to contact your former colleagues and ask them to restore your email access and grant you entry to the site.

Atlassian support may not be able to assist in this case, as you're trying to access an instance that formally belongs to another company, not to you. Even if you know it's your former business Confluence instance, Atlassian cannot determine whether granting you access is legitimate.

[Jason Donohoe]

Thanks for the response @Evgenii

Just to add a bit of extra info and context;

* The confluence site and spaces linked to the account are personal only. No content from the previous business or use by any other staff. It was a free tier of confluence at the time and I naively used my work email for the sign-up process.

* The business no longer exists. Well it got acquired by a larger firm and operates under the broader name. I’ve reached out to a former colleague but am not hopeful that getting access to the old email will be possible.

* Surely there’s some part of Atlassian support that can help? While not common, I’m sure this has happened enough times before? Maybe not.

Anyway, I’m staring down the barrel of losing a whole lot of curated content so its worth putting the call for help out!

[Evgenii]

Got it.
I invited support team member to this thread, hope, this situation can be resolved.
Usually support team answers on request in 2 business days.

[Jason Donohoe]

Amazing! Thanks @Evgenii , appreciate your help.

[Rishabh]

Hi @Jason Donohoe 

Thank you for reaching out to us.

I understand that you created a site using an email address that no longer exists, for a business that has since been acquired by another company. I realize this situation can be frustrating, and I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

If the site still exists, it is now part of the acquiring company. In such cases, Atlassian is only able to grant access through the new organization’s administrators.

Unfortunately, since your previous account no longer exists or you do not have access to its mailbox, we are unable to verify your identity. This is a security measure to protect our customers’ data.

As my colleague mentioned earlier, I kindly recommend reaching out to your former IT administrators, as they are best positioned to assist you with your current request.

I hope this clarifies the situation. Please let us know if you have any other questions or if there’s anything else we can do to help.

Kind regards,
Rishabh
Atlassian Support

[Jason Donohoe]

Hi @Rishabh

Thanks for your response.

Just to be extra clear, this was not a Confluence site or space for the business. Beyond the email address I used, there was no link to the business, none of the business’ content was put into the site, no employees of the business used the site or ever had accounts related to it. And it was a free confluence subscription so no commercials were involved and the business never had any financial transactions related to it. It was not setup by that business’ IT administrators, they never had any linkage it it.

Given this, the site did not “change hands” or have anything to do with the merger of said business into the larger acquiring one. It was and still is my own personal site and set of spaces and has no relation, beyond the original email address I used, to the businesses mentioned.

Given all of the above, can you please clarify if Atlassian’s policy and position is that it is unable to help resolve the issue?

[Rishabh]

Hi Jason,

Thank you for your update.

I understand that the site was originally created using a business email address, which you were using for personal purposes. I also understand that you are now unable to access the site because the email account no longer exists and you do not have the password.

However, for security reasons, we are unable to assist you in gaining the access to the site without being able to verify your identity through the associated email address. This policy is in place to protect our users—if someone else were to claim ownership of a site without access to the original email or credentials, we would have no way to confirm their identity.

As previously recommended, I suggest reaching out to your former IT team and explaining the situation to them. They may be able to assist you in regaining access to the necessary email account or provide further guidance.

I hope this clarifies the situation. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Best regards,
Rishabh
Atlassian Support

[Jason Donohoe]

Hi @Rishabh

Thanks for the response and for clarifying the Atlassian position/policy.

No further questions on my end.

Cheers,

Jason