1. Home
  2. Membership Management
  3. Error message: Email Address is not Unique

Error message: Email Address is not Unique

No two Contact Records can exist with the same email in Member365. If someone tries to use an email that already exists in the system, they will receive an error message informing them that the email address is not unique.

What should you do when this happens?

Most of the time, you can pull up any Contact Record as an Administrator if you have its email. The search bar will tell you who the email belongs to.

In some instances, however, you will not find any Contact Record associated to the email in question. When this occurs, you should check the Contact Delete Report.

If an existing member can’t log in for inexplicable reasons, follow these steps as well, since it could be the same issue.

Checking the System

If you can’t find a Contact Record in the system, proceed to the next sub-header.

If you receive an “Email Address Is Not Unique” error message, the first step is to check your system.

1. Use the search bar at the top of the Administrator Dashboard to check whether a Contact Record exists with the email in question.

Image showing the search bar feature, from the Administrator Dashboard, using an email to locate a Contact Record.

2. If a Contact Record appears with the email in question, perform an assessment. Ask yourself whether this Contact Record is legitimate.

Image showing a Contact Record, with an arrow pointing to the "Edit Contact" button on the left-hand side of the page.

If the Contact Record belongs to the member in question, let them know that they already have a profile in the system. Reset their password if necessary.

If the Contact Record looks like a dummy record, and has no relevant information on it, click the ‘Edit Contact’ button and change the Primary Email field to free up the email address.

If the Contact Record simply belongs to someone else, let your prospective member know that they need to use a different email address.

Contact Delete Report

When you delete a Contact Record in Member365, it is only soft deleted. As an Administrator, you can restore soft deleted contacts at any time.

As such, however, a contact that is soft deleted still takes up its corresponding email address. 

If an email address is not unique, but you can’t find a corresponding Contact Record in the system, then the email is most likely tied to a Contact Record in the Contact Delete Report.

1. From the Member365 Administrator Dashboard, click ‘Contacts’ at the top of the screen.

Image showing the bar at the top of the Administrator Dashboard, with a box around the 'Contacts' button.

2. Click ‘Reports’ next to ‘Contact Reports’ on the page that follows.

Image showing the 'Reports' button next to 'Contact Reports' on the management page for Contacts.

3. From the list of reports, click ‘Contact Delete Report’.

Image indicating the button for 'Contact Delete Report' on the list of Contact Reports.

4. Look for the email address in question from the list of deleted contacts. Use your discretion as an Administrator to determine how to proceed.

One option is to delete the Contact Record permanently.

You could also restore the Contact Record if you think it was deleted by mistake, or if it used to belong to the member who is trying to register.

Another option might be to restore the Contact Record, edit its contact info to free up the email address, then soft delete the record again.

If, however, the email address does not correspond to a Contact Record in your system nor in the Contact Delete Report, then you will need to reach out to our Support Team.

 

Congratulations, you now know what to do when you see an “Email Address is Not Unique” error!

Was this article helpful?

Related Articles