FaceBook password

[angus]

I've lost my log-in information....

hahaha.  Been there.  Done that. 

Next time you read a TIME magazine article that says that facebook has six billion users, remember that you have at least five accounts.  I probably have created at least seven of them.

Just start again.  No one will hold it against you.

[angus]

https://www.facebook.com/login/identify?ctx=recover

Yes, this is the way to get your password back.

I would not listen to angus.  

You don't listen to anyone.  We all know that.  But if you can't remember your password or the email account that you created just for the purpose of creating the account, or you don't have that email account any more for any of various reasons, then you can't get back in.  Relax, it's okay.  It allows facebook to claim yet another user.  Good for business, I suppose.

Clarence, once you do get back in (either because you created another account or because you managed to remember the email address you used when you created the original one) I suggest that you log into it on at least two computers and tell it to "remember" the password.  That's what I do.  Several computers at home, and one of them in my office always "remember" it.

Now, the US Election Atlas Forum is a little more forgiving, mostly because there's a human behind it.  I've gone away for months, and then got back and try to log on and find that I can't remember my password.  Then I realize that the email account that I used to create the US election atlas forum account ten years ago I haven't had in at least nine years.  So I just send an email off to Dave Leip directly.  I've done this twice in ten years, and both times he was gracious enough to assist me in the matter.  There may be a human face behind Facebook but I have never looked deep enough to find it.  That one never mattered as much.  Mostly it's just a place to share photos.  In fact, the only reason I created my account was to see photos of my middle-aged friends' children, and they use facebook to post them.  So I'd create the account just to see them, then a year later I'd have forgotten the password I used and no longer have that email account that I created just for that purpose, etc.  So I'd have to create a new account.  It's no big deal really, unless you're one of those persons who has stored thousands of photos on there.  In that case, you'd better hope that the email account you used when you set it up still exists.

[angus]

I was unaware of the fact that clarence lost both his email and password; from his post, it seems as if he just forgot his password.

Why would you make such an assumption?  Short of ageism, anyway? 

If it's just a matter of forgetting a password, then it's no different than his medical insurance or his Scottrade account or his bank account or his Amazon account.  He just provides the date that he grew his first pubic hair or had his first girl-snogging or whatever his security question is, and he checks his email account and ultimately gets to reset the account password.  Isn't your worldview large enough to allow you to suppose that even septuagenarians understand that?  The fact that he felt compelled to ask for advice here suggests to me that it is more catastrophic than that. 

I suppose that there's at least one humanoid running facebook.  If he can connect with that individual, speaking in that individual's preferred language, then he might be able to convince that individual to assist him in the recovery.  On this website it's not that difficult.  I'm not sure about facebook.

[angus]

It seems odd for you to assume that just because he's older, he must have forgotten both his password and his email address.

ha!  Well played.

Still, I have to say that it has happened to me many times.  It wasn't so much "forgetting" an account.  You know how it is.  You use your email account to create some account.  Years later, when you're working somewhere else, you decide to go to that account--doesn't matter whether it's amazon, facebook, Dave Leip's US Election Atlas Forum, whatever--but you realize that the email that you used when you set up the account no longer exists, or you don't have access to that domain.  If it's Amazon or Facebook, who cares?  Just set up another account.  If it's Dave Leip's US Election Atlas Forum, though, then it's another story.  We're all pretty obsessive here.  Man, I gotta be able to access my ancient posts.  In that case, you just email Dave Leip.  

I can honestly admit that I have set up at least five facebook accounts.  I suspect that many others have as well.  Who cares?  It's no big deal.  Facebook wasn't intended to be a file storage repository anyway.  Hopefully people aren't using it for that purpose.  

[angus]

Thank you every one!!! I ended up locating it in a document I had saved a long time ago.

Damn straight.  I have my bank PIN tattooed on my forehead, backward.  That way as I approach the drive-through ATM I just have to look up at the rear-view mirror to see it.