Can I sign in with a secondary email address

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No. Sign-in uses the primary address, which explains a good share of "I cannot get in" reports.

What secondary addresses do

They let mail from that address reach the right record. Somebody writing from work or from home is recognised as the same person, with one history.

That is their whole purpose, and it does not extend to signing in.

What they do not do

Sign-in, password resets and notifications all use the primary address. Attempting to sign in with a secondary one fails as though the account did not exist.

Why this catches people

Somebody who mostly emails from one address assumes that is their account. The error gives no hint that the address is on the record but not the primary one.

Worth checking early when somebody cannot sign in.

If they need to use that address

Make it the primary. The old one stays as a secondary, so mail from it still arrives correctly, and nothing is lost.

Tell them which address to use

Rather than resetting a password that was never the problem. One question, "which address are you typing", resolves this in seconds.

With single sign-on

Your identity provider decides, and it matches on the address it sends. If that is the secondary one, the sign-in either fails or creates a new user, so the mapping needs to send the primary.

See also

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