Help Needed: Recovering Data and Transferring OpenAI Account Linked to a Deactivated Email

Community
1

Hi everyone,

I’m facing an issue and would appreciate your help or advice.

I registered my OpenAI account about two years ago using my work email address, which has since been deactivated after I left the company. Unfortunately, I no longer have access to that email.

Here’s the problem:

  • I can still log in to my account using my two-step authenticator, but I’m unable to receive any verification codes sent to the now non-existent email address.
  • I’ve accumulated two years’ worth of valuable chat history and data that I cannot afford to lose.
  • OpenAI Support has informed me that they cannot transfer data or switch the email address associated with the account.

I’ve been told that I can export my account data, but this feature only sends the export link to the registered email—one I no longer have access to.

Does anyone know of a way to:

  1. Retrieve/export my data without access to the registered email?
  2. Change my account’s email address while keeping all chat history and subscription details?

I’m willing to provide proof of identity or any other required details to verify my ownership of the account.

This data is incredibly important to me, and I’m hoping someone in the community might have encountered a similar issue and found a solution. Any help or suggestions would mean a lot!

Thank you in advance!

Best,
Sergio

4 Likes
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Tbh if you registered it with your work email, doesn’t that make it property of that company?

I would ask the company to give you access to the mail. Isn’t that obvious?

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No, I use that for personal purposes and not for work-related tasks. Regarding access, the company has removed my work email address, so it no longer exists. I even confirmed this with my manager.

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Yeah, but adding a mail account takes not even 5 minutes. Ask them to recreate it so you can receive the link and they can delete it again…

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It unfortunately, not an option (

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I think there’s a lesson to be learned here about not using your work email for private stuff :sweat_smile:

As I see it, you have three options:

  1. What @jochenschultz said.
  2. Delete the old account and start fresh with your own email.
  3. Continue using the old account and hope that OpenAI will invent a process for changing an email address that you don’t have access to.
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Does this imply that out of millions of OpenAI users, no one has ever lost access to their email, and there is no process in place for such situations?

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Have you been to preferences and tried adding a secondary mail?

https://community.openai.com/u/sergio11/preferences/account << shoud be here

I just tried that and could then set the new mail as primary email…

Add Alternate Email << just click it

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Thank you! I’ve already done that, but it seems this might only apply to the community account and not the original one. Let’s wait and see if it updates later.

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Hello,

I’m sorry to necro this thread, but I found it because I’m having a very similar issue only it involves a school email that no longer exists because I’m no longer a student there. I’ve had my OpenAI account for almost 4 years now and also have a lot of valuable data saved for projects I’ve been working on for years that I absolutely cannot lose.

I know my password. My problem is that I’m suddenly being prompted to enter a verification code that is being sent to a, now, nonexistent email address.

I did add an alternate email, however, for some reason it’s not giving the option to use that email address instead (perhaps because it’s also tied to another OpenAI account?) I just don’t know what to do. I don’t understand why the option to change email addresses on your account was never created and if I lose all of that data, I will be devastated, honestly. I’ve got a lot going on and if I lose that, it will be the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m not exaggerating. I need to be able to login to my account.

1 Like