Error: this email is already taken

The address already exists on a record you probably cannot see. Search on the address itself, not the name.

The address already exists on a record you probably cannot see. Search on the address itself, not the name.

Symptoms: which of these did you see?

Four wordings, one cause. Zendesk phrases it differently depending on where you were.

• This email is already taken. Try another email
• This email address is already used by…
• Error saving user: Email: … is already being used by another user
• Is in use by a user. Remove it from the user before adding it here

It happens when creating a user, when adding a second address to an existing one, when promoting a customer to an agent, and when configuring a support address.

Every address is unique across the whole account

An address can exist once, on one record, as either a primary or a secondary identity. It cannot be on two people, and it cannot be a person and a support address at the same time.

That last combination is the one people do not expect: the address your customers write to cannot also be the identity of an agent or end user.

Resolution steps

1. Click the magnifying glass at the top right and search for the address itself, not the person's name.
2. On the results page choose Users, then open the profile you find.
3. Decide which case you have, from the list below, and act on that.

Searching on the name is what hides this. Search finds people by their primary address, so an address sitting as somebody's secondary identity never shows up that way.

Which case you have

See also

• Merging duplicate users
• How do I update users in bulk