Gmail Confusion via Blogger

October 21, 2011 8:16 AM

Help me not lose my original gmail account.

I'm working with a designer who created a blog for me on Blogger. She did all the design work after logging onto Blogger under her gmail address. Now that the blog is almost ready to go live, it was time to switch it over to my gmail address as a login so I could edit, add posts, etc. However, Google/Blogger didn't accept my usual gmail address for whatever reason, so we used an old AOL e-mail address of mine instead, and that worked to access Blogger.

When I just tried to check my email using my usual gmail address that all my contacts have, I got the messages below asking me to fill out a form and create a what seems to be a new gmail address.

I don't want a new e-mail address since all my contacts have the old one. I only want to use the AOL login to access Blogger. Before I do anything irrevocable, what option/action do I take to keep on using my original gmail address as before, though not for Blogger? Yes, Department of Stupid Internet Questions, Senior Division.

You're currently signed in to your [e-mail] (not my real AOL moniker) Google Account.
If you complete this form, you'll be adding Gmail to this account, and your Gmail address will become your primary account username.

If you would prefer, you can create a separate Google Account for Gmail. You'll be logged out of [e-mail] and then be able to create your new account.

posted by Elsie to Technology (3 answers total)

Once you're logged into Google with a particular account for one service, you're logged in for all other services. Just log out and log back in with your original GMail address and you'll be good. There's a way to be signed into multiple accounts at once, which may help you out if you end up needing to switch between your two accounts oftetn.
posted by zsazsa at 8:24 AM on October 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

Best answer: OK, so you have:
Google user A - A Blogger account that uses your AOL username
Google user B - your original Gmail account

It looks like you are signed into Blogger as User A. When you go to Gmail, it sees that you are signed in as a Google user, but that you haven't created a Gmail account. That's why you see the You're currently signed in to your [e-mail] Google Account, f you complete this form, you'll be adding Gmail to this account, and your Gmail address will become your primary account username.

What it's telling you is that "Hey, you have a Google account that currently only exists as a Blogger account, do you want to expand that Google account to have Gmail as well?".

If you want to check your orginal Gmail email (User B as above), you need to sign out of Google completely so that Google doesn't see you signed in as User A. You may be able to do this on the Blogger site (i.e. sign out of Blogger). Them go to gmail.com and log in as normal to your original Gmail account.

As for why you couldn't log into Blogger originally using your Gmail account, I have no idea.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:25 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you click through one more link from where zsazsa sent you, you'll find Google's advice for using multiple Google accounts with products that don't support multiple sign-in. Sadly, I think this includes Blogger.

I've had a similarly frustrating experience with YouTube. I had a YouTube account under my old email, and Google wouldn't let me switch it to my new email address. So now I log in to my (new) email in Firefox but upload things to my YouTube account in Safari. This is cumbersome and annoying and I hope Google is working on a solution.
posted by thehandsomecamel at 10:45 AM on October 21, 2011