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Hello, developers. I’m new to the forum, and this is my first ever post. Before getting to the heart of my topic, I respectfully request that your patience as I learn the proper use of this forum. I have read and take seriously the following: (1) the community guidelines, (2) the warning above, and (3) numerous help articles. Having read these, I’ve made a good faith effort to make a best guess as to where this post might belong, but if I’ve gotten it wrong, and need to take this somewhere else, please point me to the right place. Now, on to my topic.
In brief, I’m experiencing all kinds of trouble lately on and off with logging into - and using - ChatGPT. I first created my account in May 2026. I was using it regularly, and everything was going smoothly until early August when I detected malware on my computer. ChatGPT was super helpful in walking me through the process of remediating it. I reinstalled Windows on my PC, and now I have a fresh new OS environment. I’ve been slowly restoring my computer by reinstalling apps and customizing settings (sorry this is a long story). And that is when I started experiencing weird login issues with my ChatGPT account.
I have attempted so many troubleshooting processes over that it has started consuming large amounts of time, and it would be difficult to try and reproduce for you here all the different things I’ve tried. But here has been the overall pattern: my ChatGPT will throw some error message. I will follow the suggested steps to resolve it. Sometimes they seem to work, and sometimes they don’t. A representative sample of things I tried: clearing browser cache, turning off VPN, using private windows, turning off browser extensions, and using a different browser. I tried changing my password, but I was unable to do that because the option is not even present in my account - apparently I am email verification only, not password-based (I’d happily try changing my password if I were presented with the option).I even tried slowing down and refraining from tampering more with my account - waiting multiple hours (sometimes overnight) before re-attempting to log in. I even chatted with ChatGPT itself about these matters, and I followed all its suggestions on what to do and what to avoid. No matter what I tried, ChatGPT seemed unhappy with my usage behavior. I then was fortunate enough to submit a support request and receive a helpful response. After that, I set up MFA using SMS, and my account started behaving normally again, much to my relief. But this normal behavior lasted for less than a day.
Here is what I’m running into now when I attempt login. I enter my login email, receive an email code, enter that code, and then it takes me to where I’d normally send an SMS code, but the option is grayed out, and it says “This option is temporarily unavailable.” I tried waiting 30 minutes and reattempting. That didn’t work.
Then I noticed something. Earlier today, I had booted my PC in Ubuntu using a bootable usb. Then I exited and booted back up in Windows. There was a website I tried to visit, and it blocked me because it said my date and time were wrong. Ubuntu uses UTC, and I had forgotten to re-sync when I booted back up in Windows. So I thought maybe that was one problem ChatGPT was noticing, so I re-synced my clock and tried again and was still prevented. Right now I’m in another holding pattern, waiting some hours before re-logging in.
Sorry for the rambling details, and thanks for staying with me in this post. I’m not necessarily asking for troubleshooting help here, although, I’m open to any guidance you may have. What I really just want to say is that I’m exasperated trying to figure out - and conform to - whatever ChatGPT considers “normal behavior” so that my account remains usable. I’m in the middle of time sensitive projects, and I have valuable data and progress stored in my ChatGPT account, and I keep getting surprised by roadblocks of various kinds. Access to my account has become unpredictable. Does anyone have any advice?
Gratefully,
Nick