Im trying for years now to change the email address with which I initially created my Epic account.
Although there is an option to to that in the account settings, It wont work in this case.
Because the email address does not exist anymore.
In the past I was trying to get that address changed for having the correct data in my account details.
But now I have come to a situation that effectively prevents me from using Unreal Engine properly.
With that email I also registered my GitHub account back then.
Had all the passwords stored in the browser (and thus subsequently displaced them from my memory). :o
Now my PC broke and I got a new one.
Since I do remember my Epic account password (not that Alzheimer yet), I can log on to the forum.
So far so good.
But since I dont remember my GitHib password I had to create a new GitHub account. (Didnt have much in the old one, so not an issue).
If I now want to link the new GitHub account to my Epic account, a confiormation link is sent to the old email address.
It is not possible to change the email address without a confirmation mail that is also sent to the old address.
The one which does not exist anymore (have I said that before).
That means I cant download the engine source.
All I got from going down the rabbit hole of epic support is an automatic email leading me to the account detail options.
It seems that Epic does not have a workflow in place for cases where the registered email address in no longer accessible.
Sorry if this sounds a bit borderline frustrated, but now that I have a decent machine, I want to code and dig through the engine.
Im all out of ideas what else to do.
I managed to re-register the old email address. (Had tried that when I initially lost it but wasn’t possible back then).
So the email address under which my account is registered exists again.
However confirmation mails are not getting through.
Is it possible the email address is somewhere blacklisted for some reason?
Other mails are perfectly delivered to that address. I could revive my original GitHub account (the one linked to the Epic account).
So I’m not sure now to leave it as is because it works or if something is “wrong” with my address on the Epic server.
So in this case I’m extremely lucky that I was able to re-register my old email address. But the fundamental problem is one still worth solving.
Sometimes mail providers just cease operations. In my case I lost the original address back then because the provider (unannounced) deactivated a whole bunch of accounts after a security breach. So I couldn’t migrate to a new address in an orderly fashion.
@ClavosTech
The bounce back would not work in cases where the email address technically still exists but the user forgot the password.
Free mail providers are not really feeling compelled to help in these cases. In my case though it was over a year before i I could now re-register it.
And only because no one else with my name got it first.
As for authentication. I even wouldn’t mind a phone/SMS based check. Like Skype, Steam, YouTube, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, etc. are doing.
Credits:
@rsteinbach for suggesting trying to re-register the old address. cookie @TimHobson who also gave me advice on his Friday evening time. What a trooper!
