Username contains random characters (and cannot be changed)
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I am trying to change my account username to 424friends but it will not let me, even though the username does not exist. Please can someone help me? The current name (which I did not choose) is 424friendsc6bc2874f7 but I need it to be 424friends
I don’t have a site with WordPress.com yet
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Hi, the issue is that the URL is already used, so that exact name isn’t available. Sorry about that!
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Oh — I do want to add, though, you can change your display name even if the username doesn’t suit you well:
https://wordpress.com/support/change-your-username/ -
I see. The site was under my personal account instead of under the 424Friends account. I’ve deleted the site now but the username is still showing as unavailable. Is there something else I still must do in order to change the username to 424friends?
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Hello there,
Is there something else I still must do in order to change the username to 424friends?
This should be possible via these instructions here: https://wordpress.com/support/change-your-username/ should this username be available.
When making this change, what error message are you seeing exactly?
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When I try changing my username to 424friends it says “Choose a different username. This one is not available.”. But if I try logging in with that username it says “that user does not exist”. I know for sure that nobody else has ever used that username before, and I removed the site on my other account which had the URL 424friends so it should be working now but it isn’t.
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Hello there,
It looks like that username is unavailable in this instance.
I know for sure that nobody else has ever used that username before
If this was in use by someone else, and then the username changed, then this would cause this username to become unavailable.
my other account which had the URL 424friends so it should be working now but it isn’t.
What is the full URL mentioned above? We can look to retrace some steps.
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The full URL is https://424friends.wordpress.com/
Is the reason for not being able to change my name to 424friends now, because the site does not get deleted until 30 days after making the request? (pretty sure I read this somewhere) -
Hello there,
Is the reason for not being able to change my name to 424friends now, because the site does not get deleted until 30 days after making the request?
Deleting a site permanently removes it and you’ll never be able to re-use its WordPress.com address, even after 30 days.
I can’t see this site connected to this account, so if it’s with another account that you control, restoring that site can be requested via this link https://wordpress.com/help/contact
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I’ve requested to have the site restored using the account that owns and created the site. It said it was linked to another wordpress.com account which is impossible. Please can you fix all of these issues with your service. Nothing appears to work correctly and I am on the verge of using any alternative at this point.
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It looks like the site was restored already, so that seems to be working properly now.
The issue is that the site
424friends.wordpress.comis owned by the other Administrator account.Some background: when a WordPress.com user signs up for an account, we reserve the URL of their username. So if they signed up for the username of
exampleuser, we would reserveexampleuser.wordpress.comfor them. The same holds true for sites created; if a website is created under the user accountexampleofexampleuser.wordpress.combefore the userexampleuserexists, that username would not be available for the same reason.The only thing I can think of that might work around this limitation is if the other Administrator user on the
424friends.wordpress.comsite transfers ownership to you. Then, since you would now own that site, you may be able to change your username to424friends. Here are the steps the other Administrator would need to do to transfer ownership to you:https://wordpress.com/support/transferring-a-site-to-another-wordpress-com-account/
Then, try to change your username again. If that does not work, unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to change that and you will need to choose a different name.
I know that’s not the best solution, but it’s worth a shot. Let us know how it goes.
Thanks!
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Thank you so much! Transferring ownership worked and allowed me to finally use the name! WordPress really needs to update the way it’s systems/databases work. For a company that is considered best in it’s industry to have such flawed and outdated systems just makes me wonder how much longer they can remain successful.
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424friends, this one is an intentional limitation: we don’t want non-site owners taking over the username that matches a site. Once we knew you owned the other site, there was a solution.
Hoping that helps!
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