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TonyAVL's avatar
TonyAVL
Explorer | Level 4
3 months ago

My friend can't accept my invite to become trusted contact; Dropbox says his email is in use.

I invited a friend to be my trusted contact for my Dropbox vault, but he can't accept the invite. He said that it tells him "email already in use". He tried to log into Dropbox, but then it prompted ...
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Nancy's avatar
Nancy
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
3 months ago

Thanks for posting here, TonyAVL. 

To clarify, did he follow these steps to become a trusted contact? 

If he opens another browser and tries to log in to his Dropbox account with his email address, is he getting an error that he needs to create a Dropbox account instead? And if yes, can he create one then?  

Also, if he’s sent you any relevant screenshots that you attach here, that’d be great (just make sure there’s none of his personal info showing before uploading them on the forum).

Let me know how it goes.

TonyAVL's avatar
TonyAVL
Explorer | Level 4
3 months ago

I didn't get to the screen shots, but it goes as you said.

If he goes to log in, it prompts him to create an account instead. If he tries to create an account, he gets told "email already in use".  Being unable to log into account, and also unable to create an account, he can't accept the invitation.

He's probably got a backup email account he could use, but that creates complexity that I'd rather avoid. In order to access my files, he's got to remember that it isn't under his normal email address. It's only for emergencies, like my death, so it could be years from now. :(

  • Nancy's avatar
    Nancy
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    3 months ago

    Hmm, yeah I see what you mean. If he gets an error saying the email address is in use, this usually means that there’s a Dropbox account already linked to it, but this is a bit odd indeed.

    Has he tried to contact our support team about this perhaps? He doesn’t need to be logged in to a Dropbox account to do this; he just needs to go to this page and fill in the required fields, while also providing the email address in question. 

    You can send me his ticket number here afterwards and I’ll leave an internal note on his behalf, as well.

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