Managing Multiple UAH Email Accounts

An entity account belongs to an organization instead of a person. These accounts are used at UAH for departments (like oit@uah.edu), specific roles (such as cio@uah.edu), committees, student organizations, etc. Some people refer to these as departmental accounts.

You are not doing anything wrong. This is an expected change. In the past, Google's "Add Account" feature let you log into multiple accounts. Now, our central UAH login system (SSO) gives your browser a single "passport" when you sign in (e.g., your chargerID@uah.edu "passport").

When you try to log into a second UAH account (like department@uah.edu), our system sees you already have the first "passport" and creates a conflict.

The old "Add Account" feature will no longer work for switching between two different UAH accounts.

What are my options?

The solutions in the OIT Recommendations section below list the new, official ways to manage these accounts.

Why does this happen?

Your browser can only hold one "UAH passport" (your SSO login) at a time.

1. When you log into your main chargerID@uah.edu account, our UAH login page gives your browser a "passport" that identifies you.
2. When you try to log into department@uah.edu, Google sends you back to the UAH login page.
3. Our login page sees your existing "passport" and immediately sends you back, confirming your original identity, not the new one.

This mismatch will prevent you from logging into the second account.

Those who need to access the full account can still access it by only using the username and password (no Multi-Factor Authentication/Duo is required). To avoid sharing an account (which isn't secure), we strongly recommend using Mail Delegation instead of sharing passwords. Please see the Account Delegation (only affects email) section below for more information.

Just like your personal account, any app using the entity account's old authentication will stop syncing eventually. When you're prompted to log in again, you should do so. If problems occur, you can remove and re-add the account in the client. See our related article about how that's done here.

If you use the entity account's department@uah.edu address to "Sign in with Google" for an external service (like Lucidchart, Docusign, etc.), this will continue to work. You will simply be routed to the UAH SSO page to log in.

You may have been using a password that was set in the Google account specifically (not using the UAH account management systems). If you're not sure what the password is, please contact the OIT Help Desk for assistance. You may email us at helpdesk@uah.edu, visit us at the Salmon Library on any weekday that UAH is open between 8 and 5, or call us anytime at 256-824-3333. If you call and are prompted for how we can help you, simply say "agent" to reach a person.

No. With this change, the official UAH password is the only one that's valid for this account. If you aren't sure what password is, please contact the OIT Help Desk for assistance. You may email us at helpdesk@uah.edu, visit us at the Salmon Library on any weekday that UAH is open between 8 and 5, or call us anytime at 256-824-3333. If you call and are prompted for how we can help you, simply say "agent" to reach a person.

No. You’ll not be prompted to Duo but you will see the login page change from the Google one to the SSO one. This only applies to entity accounts. SSO isn't the same thing as MFA. You can have SSO without MFA if that's how OIT configures the account.

There are a few ways you could access the full account (Drive plus everything else).

1. Preferred: Log into the entity account using a different web browser (for example, use Firefox if you normally use Google Chrome). This is typically the easiest way to avoid confusion about which account you're logged into while working.
2. Use a private/incognito window to log into the entity account. See this article for more information. This is especially useful when you only need quick/temporary access to a single secondary account. Once you log into any UAH Google account in your private browser session, you'll be logged into that one for all of your private browser windows until you close all private windows.
3. Use multiple profiles in your web browser. See this article for details on how to do that. It's best for situations in which you need full and long-term access to all apps while logged into the secondary account.  

This is the most secure and convenient method if you primarily need to read, send, and manage the entity account's email.

• What it is: The entity account "delegates" access to your main UAH account. A link to its inbox will appear in the top-right menu of your own Gmail. You can manage its email from your own inbox without ever logging out or having to log into the entity account. This is highly recommended when sharing access with others (who don't need the calendar, drive, etc.) because you don't have to give them the password.
• Best for:
  • Managing a departmental inbox (e.g., helpdesk@uah.edu)
  • Sending emails "from" the entity account
• How to Set It Up:
  • The entity account must first be configured to allow delegation.
  • You can then follow these instructions to set up and access the delegated account.
• Notes:
  • Delegation is for Gmail only. It does not provide access to the entity account's other Google apps. It isn't just for accessing the inbox; it's for all of the email.
  • Many people choose to also establish a forward in the entity account so that email that is sent there also goes to at least one other person so the messages aren't overlooked. See this article for more information about Google mail forwarding.

This requires a two-part setup:

1. Log into the entity account and share the calendar with those who need to manage it. See this article for more details on how that's done.
2. An email is sent to the person with whom the calendar has been shared; they should click the Add this calendar link in that email.

There are a few ways you could access the Google Drive content for the entity account.

• Use a method described above for full access to all apps.
• Adjust file sharing practices so that the files weren't only managed by that entity account, such as:
  • Any files that are shared with that account holder could be also shared with the individual account(s) who need the content.
  • The files in the Google Drive could be moved to "Shared Drives" so that the content is collectively owned by a group of users.