Fixing Duplicate Accounts

Sometimes a person ends up with two separate Our Cat Herder accounts — typically because they signed up or were added using two different email addresses. For example, someone might be linked to your portal with their work email but have also created a separate account using a personal email.

Our Cat Herder does not support merging two accounts into one. Each account is tied to a single email address (plus an optional secondary email), and there is no way to combine the history or access from two accounts. Instead, you need to decide which account to keep and resolve the duplicate manually.

How Duplicates Happen

Common causes include:

• A member was added to one portal with their work email and separately added to another portal (or created an account) with a personal email
• A member created their own account before being invited by an admin, using a different email than the admin later used
• A member is part of multiple organisations and used different email addresses for each

Identifying the Problem

Signs that a member may have duplicate accounts:

• They can log in but cannot see your portal — they may be logging in with the account that is not linked to your organisation
• They appear in your Members list but say they cannot access the portal — the email on their account may not match what they are using to log in
• You can see them on your portal, but they also have a separate account elsewhere that they want to consolidate

How to Fix It

Since accounts cannot be merged, there are two approaches depending on the situation.

Option A: Remove and Re-add

Use this when the person's preferred account (the one they want to keep) is not linked to your portal, but their other account is.

1. Go to Members and find the member's current entry on your portal
2. Note their current role(s) — you will need to re-assign these
3. Remove the member from the portal (see Removing a Member)
4. Add the member back using the email address of the account they want to keep (see Adding a Member)
5. Assign them the same role(s) they had before

If the member's preferred account is already activated (because they use it on another portal), the system will recognise them as an existing user. They simply need to log in and the portal will appear in their account — no new activation or invitation acceptance is required.

Re-inviting to Resources

After re-adding the member (if their role is not Admin), you will need to re-invite them to any resources they previously had access to. This includes meetings, decisions, registers, and document folders. Their previous access is tied to the old member entry, so the new entry starts without any resource invitations. Check what the member needs access to and re-invite them accordingly.

Historical Data

Removing a member preserves their historical data (meeting attendance, actions, etc.) for audit purposes. However, this history will be associated with their old account. The new entry will start fresh from a historical perspective on your portal.

Option B: Free Up an Email Address

Use this when the person wants to keep the account that is linked to your portal, but their preferred email is tied up on their other (unwanted) account.

Because each email address can only belong to one account, you need to release the email from the unwanted account before it can be used on the account they want to keep.

This approach requires an Admin to change the email on the unwanted account. The Admin does this from the member's profile page in the Members area.

1. Go to Members and find the member whose email needs to be changed on the unwanted account
2. Click on their name to open their profile
3. Click the pencil icon next to their email address to edit it
4. Change the email to something else — a simple approach is to add +old before the @ symbol. For example, change tom@example.com to tom+old@example.com. Most email providers (including Gmail and Outlook) will still deliver mail to the original address, so any confirmation email will still arrive.
5. Once the email change is saved, the original email address is now free
6. The Admin can then update the email on the member's preferred account to use the now-available address using the pencil icon on the member's profile page, or the member can add it as a secondary email address via My Details

Can't See the Pencil Icon?

The pencil icon to edit a member's email is only available if the member is linked to a single portal. If the member belongs to multiple portals, the Admin cannot edit their email. In this case, contact Our Cat Herder support at support@ourcatherder.com and ask them to change the email on the unwanted account for you.

The +old Trick

Adding +old (or any +tag) before the @ in an email address creates a unique address as far as Our Cat Herder is concerned, but most email providers treat it as the same mailbox. This makes it a convenient way to release an email address without needing access to a completely different email account.

Which Option Should I Choose?

Situation	Recommended approach
The account linked to your portal is the wrong one and the member has no significant history on your portal	Option A — Remove and re-add with the correct email
The member wants to keep the account on your portal but change its email address	Option B — Free up the email from the other account
The member is on multiple portals with the wrong account and the correct account exists separately	Option B — Free up the email, then update it on the correct account. This avoids disrupting access across multiple portals
The unwanted account is not used on any portal and the member just wants to use that email on their existing account	Option B — Free up the email from the unused account

Important Notes

• Admins can only edit a member's email if that member is linked to a single portal. If the member belongs to multiple portals, they must update their own email via My Details. See Can my portal admin edit details for me?
• The email address must be an exact match. Our Cat Herder treats john.smith@example.com and johnsmith@example.com as completely separate addresses, even if the email provider delivers to the same inbox.
• Secondary emails can also cause confusion. If a member has set a secondary email on one account that matches the primary email on another, they may be logging into the wrong account without realising it. Check both primary and secondary emails when troubleshooting.
• After resolving a duplicate, the member should confirm they can log in and see all expected portals from the My Details page.

Related

• Managing Portal Members — adding, removing, and managing members
• Update Your Email — how members change their email address
• Multiple Portals — how a single account accesses multiple portals
• Account Activation Troubleshooting — resolving login and activation issues
• Admin Troubleshooting — other common admin troubleshooting steps