Password suddenly stopped working

If you're a regular user of Our Cat Herder and your password has suddenly stopped working (specifically if reset does not appear to be working either), here are a few pointers to help you troubleshoot the issue.

Please note that having an Admin user remove your user from system and re-add is highly unlikely to fix the issue.

Are the cookies in your browser turned on?

If you've recently been browsing a website where you needed to turn off cookies (eg: news sites with free article limits), have you remembered to turn them back on again? Or perhaps you disabled them without meaning to?

https://www.cookiesandyou.com/disable-cookies/ will show you how to disable cookies in your browser. Simply follow the reverse to enable them or at least it will show you where to look to make sure cookies are on.

Have you cleared your browser's cache?

Sometimes browsers just get "confused" or hold onto old data - clearing or resetting the cache makes sure that your browser will have the latest information from Our Cat Herder.

Visit https://www.refreshyourcache.com/en/home/ for more details on clearing your browser's cache.

Are you using a browser that is up-to-date or compatible with Our Cat Herder?

We recommend you are using an up-to-date web browser on your device. You can check the browser you are using and if it is the latest version at https://updatemybrowser.org/ or https://www.whatismybrowser.com

If you are using Internet Explorer 11 - yes this is technically the latest version of this browser - but it will not work with Our Cat Herder.

You can read more about Our Cat Herder and web browsers here.

I receive a message saying "Your email or password has not been recognised"

A. Check with your portal administrator which specific email they have used and ensure you are using that one exactly.

Sometimes your portal admin may have made a mistake or used another email you have (such as your personal one). A common gotcha is if you typically use first name.lastname@email.com but you are inputting namelastname@email.com (without the dot in between) then the OCH system will not grant you access because, even though you might receive email to both, from the Our Cat Herder system's point of view they are completely different addresses.

B. If you are using a saved bookmark or link (or a link in your email program) to navigate to the portal login this might be creating a login loop.

To ensure you are not stuck in a log in loop head directly to www.ourcatherder.com then click the "Sign In" button on the top right side. Try logging in.

C. If the email is correct but you still get the error then the password you are typing in is incorrect.

Remember, the passwords for Our Cat Herder are case-sensitive. So double check you are typing it correctly.

If you have forgotten your password you will need to reset it via https://ourcatherder.com/forgot

Due to the complexity of passwords required by Our Cat Herder it can be difficult to remember them (especially if it is different to your other passwords). Therefore we highly recommend the use of a Password Management program such as Dashlane, 1Password or Google Password Manager. Some of these have a free tier for personal use, while others cost as little as $1 per month. A password manager can help you easily generate and store a unique password that will meet the password complexity requirements that Our Cat Herder has.

I can login, but get an account not verified message

If you navigate to https://ourcatherder.com/forgot and follow the reset process this should allow you to become verified, set a password and login.

Notes

Passwords are case-sensitive. For example Password is not the same as password.

Login details (both email and password) must match exactly otherwise you will not be able to login. In 95% of cases where users cannot access Our Cat Herder either the email or the password being tried is incorrect, even though you may be certain you are typing these details correctly the Our Cat Herder system requires what is typed to match exactly the login credentials it has stored.

If you are using a password manager be sure to verify that the password saved is the correct one. Previously there have been users who thought that they had correctly saved the new password to the password manager but had not. 99% of the time this is not the case but it is worth checking just in case.