When trying to change your account's email address you might encounter an error message claiming that the new email address is already in use. This means you have registered this email address with a different Openlearning account.

Each email address can only be used for one account. If you want to swap the email addresses of your accounts, you can use the trick below.

Here's an example of a situation:

“Hello,

I am having trouble changing the email address associated with my account.

My account (username: johnb) is currently associated with the email johnb@tmail.com, but I would like to change it to john@myjob.org.

However, when I try to change the email in the settings I get a message saying the address is already in use? I remembered I have another account (username: johnnyb) which is associated with john@myjob.org. But even after I deactivated that account, I still couldn't use the address for my other account. Help!”

To sort this, you will need a third email address.

Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1

Reactivate the account you won’t use (john@myjob.com)

Step 2

Change its email address to a third email address (an email address that you haven’t used for any OL account).

Step 3

Go to the account you want to use (e.g. johnb), and then change the email address to your preferred address.

Step 4

Deactivate the account you won’t use.

To learn more about activating and deactivating accounts, see How do I activate or reactivate my account?