Username Marked as Taken but No Public Profile Exists – Need Help

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  cachegoblin · Member · Jun 2, 2026 at 10:44 pm

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  I am unable to use the username “abc”. When I check its availability using another account associated with my current contact email, the system displays the message: “Sorry, that username already exists!”

  However, when I visit https://gravatar.com/abc, I receive the following error:

  “Uh oh. Page not found. Sorry, the page you were looking for doesn’t exist or has been hidden.”

  Could you please clarify why the username appears to be reserved but does not have a publicly accessible profile?

  I no longer know which email address may be associated with this username. If possible, please check whether the username is currently active and whether the associated account is still in use. For privacy reasons, I am not requesting the full email address, but any information you can provide about the account’s status would be helpful.

  If the username has been abandoned, is inactive, or is otherwise unavailable without active use, please review whether it can be released and made available. I am interested in using this username to maintain a consistent online identity and to reduce the risk of impersonation or confusion.

  Please escalate this request for review and let me know whether the username can be reclaimed or made available. Thank you.
  
  Note: The username used in this post (e.g., “abc”) is only an example to illustrate the issue. The actual username in question is different and refers to a similar availability conflict where the system reports the username as already taken, but no active or publicly accessible profile can be found.

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  melvend5 · Staff · Jun 3, 2026 at 4:26 am

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  Hi @cachegoblin,
  

  Thanks for following up.

  I checked this further, and the site abcd.wordpress.com appears to be associated with the same email/account you’re using to post here. It also appears to have been created recently, not in 2014.

  For Gravatar, you’ll need to sign in with your WordPress.com account to create or manage your Gravatar profile. Since Gravatar and WordPress.com accounts are connected, your Gravatar profile URL/username is tied to your WordPress.com username. If a username is already taken or reserved, it may not be available even if there is no visible public Gravatar profile for it.

  If you’re trying to manage the Gravatar profile connected to this same account, please sign in at Gravatar using the same WordPress.com account/email address you’re using here.

  If you believe there is a separate older WordPress.com account from 2014 with a different email address, then the correct next step would be to continue through the secure Account Recovery process:

  https://wordpress.com/support/account-recovery/

  Also, please keep this issue to one forum thread moving forward. Creating multiple posts about the same issue can make it harder to track what’s already been reviewed and may cause confusion or duplicate replies.
  
  For security reasons, we can’t verify ownership, recover accounts, release usernames, or discuss account-specific details publicly in the forums.

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  cachegoblin · Member · Jun 3, 2026 at 5:06 am

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  Hi @melvend5

  Thank you for the clarification.

  I believe there may be some confusion regarding the account in question. The WordPress.com account currently associated with this forum profile is different from the account I am referring to, and I prefer not to share details about that account publicly for security and privacy reasons. The site abcd.wordpress.com is not the account I am trying to recover.

  I am referring to a separate, older account that I created around 2014, which used a different username and possibly a different email address. At the time I created this forum post, I no longer had access to the original account details. However, I have since identified the email address and was able to sign in to that account. My current issue is that I am unable to create or use a Gravatar profile with the username “abcd.”

  Regarding the other threads, they relate to different issues and are not connected to this one.

  Thank you for your assistance.

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  cachegoblin · Member · Jun 3, 2026 at 5:14 am

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  The following issue still requires assistance:

  Thread: https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/wordpress-gravatar-username-conflict-account-recovery-issue-help-3/#post-4105635

  To avoid any confusion, as you mentioned, please reply in this thread so that all information related to this matter remains in one place.

  Could you please review the issue described in the linked thread and advise on the next steps or take any necessary action?

  Thank you for your assistance.

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  cachegoblin · Member · Jun 3, 2026 at 5:22 am

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  @melvend5

  To simplify the issue:

  I have access to the WordPress.com account that owns the site https://xyz.wordpress.com, which was created in 2014. Since the site uses the subdomain “xyz”, I expected to be able to use the corresponding Gravatar profile URL https://gravatar.com/xyz.

  However, when I signed in to Gravatar using the same email address associated with that account, I was prompted to create a new Gravatar profile. The system automatically assigned a username beginning with “null12345…”, and I cannot change the username or profile URL to “xyz”.

  My question is: why is the username “xyz” unavailable when I have access to the WordPress.com account that owns the xyz.wordpress.com site?

  Is there a way to link the existing account to the “xyz” Gravatar profile URL, recover it, or otherwise resolve this issue? If not, could this be escalated for further investigation?

  Thank you.

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  themagicrobot · Member · Jun 3, 2026 at 6:20 am

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  The username abcd was taken 21 years ago. I can’t see a username xyz here. As far as I am aware WordPress.com doesn’t allow usernames as short as three letters. I doubt you can even register a four letter username these days.

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  aradhysingh · Staff · Jun 3, 2026 at 6:34 am

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  Hi @user, the reason you’re unable to use that username is likely because it has already been used to create an account. WordPress.com usernames must be unique, and even if someone changes their username, the original one is not released for reuse. This is done to prevent impersonation, so once a username has been used, it cannot be registered again, even if it’s no longer active.

  However, this restriction does not apply to subdomains. A subdomain simply adds a prefix to your main domain and is not required to be globally unique in the same way usernames are.

  I hope this provides an input!

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  cachegoblin · Member · Jun 3, 2026 at 7:32 am

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  Hi @themagicrobot,

  Thanks for your post.

  I used “xyz” as an example; it is not the actual subdomain or username I want.

  My question is: I have access to myusername.wordpress.com, but when I try to set my Gravatar username to “myusername”, it does not work. I would like a solution that allows me to use the same username consistently across WordPress and Gravatar.

  Again, “myusername” is only an example and not the real username.

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  cachegoblin · Member · Jun 3, 2026 at 7:47 am

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  Hi @aradhysingh, thanks for the response.

  When I checked the Gravatar profile URL (e.g. https://gravatar.com/myusername) manually in the browser, it showed a 404 “Uh oh. Page not found” error. Is this because the same name is already used as my subdomain, e.g. myusername.wordpress.com?

  I was hoping to use “myusername” as my Gravatar profile URL as well. Why am I unable to make “myusername” my Gravatar profile URL?

  Also, just to clarify, I’m not using a custom domain name. Only myusername.wordpress.com.

  Is there any conflict with the WordPress subdomain “myusername”?

  How do I claim “myusername” in Gravatar?

  NB: Just to clarify, I used “myusername” only as an example here. Please don’t assume that is the actual username I’m referring to.

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  staff-lexi · Staff · Jun 3, 2026 at 11:10 pm

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  Hi @cachegoblin,

  The subdomain and the username are two separate things. Your site address myusername.wordpress.com is just the subdomain attached to that site, it does not reserve myusername as a WordPress.com or Gravatar username for you.

  Your Gravatar profile URL is built from your actual WordPress.com account username, not from any subdomain you happen to own. So if your account’s real username is something like null12345…, your profile URL will be gravatar.com/null12345…, regardless of which sites are connected to that account.

  The 404 you see at gravatar.com/myusername means no Gravatar profile is currently using that exact slug. But that does not mean the name is free to take. Once a WordPress.com username has ever been registered, it stays reserved permanently to prevent impersonation, even if the account is inactive and the Gravatar profile is hidden or empty. That is why you cannot claim it for a new account or rename your existing one to it.

  A few things you can do:

  • You can customise your Gravatar display name, profile fields, and add a vanity link inside your Gravatar profile, even though the underlying URL slug stays tied to the account username.
  • If your goal is just a clean public link to your Gravatar, you can share gravatar.com/{your-email-hash} or use the profile QR code feature.
  • If the older account you mentioned is one you actually owned years ago, you can try recovering it here: https://wordpress.com/support/account-recovery/

  Hope that clears things up.