Blogger Accounts, And Inadvertently Created Accounts

Occasionally, in Google Blogger Help, someone reports an odd problem.

I changed the email address on my account, and when I logged in again, it said that I had no blogs. Now, I can't manage my blogs. Help!

or

I have two blogs, but I can only see one in my dashboard! When I log onto the older one and click on the "dashboard" link, it takes me to my new blog.

These complaints come from bloggers who don't realise that your email address is part of your Blogger (Google) account in two ways.

1. As the account name.
2. As a contact mechanism, for emailing password resets and other important communication.

There's no problem, as long as the account stays as it is when created, and as long as the email account associated with the account name stays active. What sometimes happens is a blogger will get a new email address, and will change the email address in the Blogger (Google) account. This will change the contact email address (#2 above), but will not change the account name (#1 above). Other times, the blogger will click on the wrong link, when logging in. And occasionally, a cookie or other security setting will contribute to this problem.

Oblivious of the possible problems, the blogger will try to login using his new email address as the account name, and will be told

The email you provided does not exist.

and below that

Don't have a Google Account?
Create an account now.

Here is where much confusion starts.



Now somewhat confused

I know this is the email address.

the unhappy blogger selects "Create an account now.", creates an account with the right email address, and logs in. Now, he has what he should have done in the first place, except for one major detail.

The blog(s) are still owned by the old account.

Now, he sees an empty dashboard, with the advice

You are not a member of any blogs. Create one now to start posting!

and below that

Create Your Blog Now

Even more confused, the blogger clicks on "Create Your Blog Now", and starts setting up the blog again. Only this time, he sees

Sorry, this blog address is not available.

Now, he has become a very unhappy blogger. This problem can be corrected, but a bit of work is required.

1. Understand the above scenario.
2. Use Blogger / Google tools, and identify all accounts that you've setup.
3. Ensure that the dashboard view that you see is up to date, by clearing cache, cookies, and active sessions, and restarting the browser.
4. Starting from the unwanted Blogger (Google) account (generally the one with the original email address), transfer ownership of the blog(s) to the wanted account (generally the newly created account with the new email address).

If you're here because you just deleted the blog - and you can't un delete because you have multiple Blogger accounts, you have a similar, and equally frustrating procedure in your immediate future.

But the process of correcting the problems starts with understanding how the problems occurred, in the first place. That sometimes requires introspective thinking, and the lack ofthat is frequently why you end up reading this, and similar evidence of confusion.