Lost LDS Account Passwords

There have been a few threads on this before, but they all seem outdated now due to various changes, so I thought that I'd check for recent advice...

Basically, it is becoming fairly common for us to have a youth, who hasn't used their LDS Account in YEARS sometimes, to not know their login credentials. I can't figure out the best way for them to reset it. Some of them made accounts years ago for various reasons, but haven't tried to log into it since then.

For the recovery options, the only two choices it gives are to enter the Mobile Number associated with the account (many of them didn't have cell phones when they created the account and therefore there isn't one associated with it at all) or the email address. I find that they often have no idea which email it was under years ago. You can put whatever in and it just says to check and see if you got an email to reset it. And then tells you if you don't get it, then it either isn't associated with an account or to check your spam. There are no other instructions after that as to what to do if you have no idea what the email was or can no longer get into that email account.

Long ago, we could reset these by using their MRN and birthdate, but that no longer appears to be an option.

So, where do I send them? Do they have to call the Global Helpdesk or something? It just seems odd to me that on the Recovery page, there are basically no instructions to follow for what to do if you don't know what the email was when the account was created. It is basically "enter the original email or... nothing."

Thanks for any ideas on the proper way to reset these when the email is unknown/lost.

jgoggan wrote:There have been a few threads on this before, but they all seem outdated now due to various changes, so I thought that I'd check for recent advice...

While there have been some changes to the technology, the only real change is that the option to recover the account using a MRN has disappeared. Otherwise, all old advice is still correct.

jgoggan wrote:So, where do I send them? Do they have to call the Global Helpdesk or something?

Correct.

jgoggan wrote:Thanks for any ideas on the proper way to reset these when the email is unknown/lost.

Calling the Global Service Center is the sure way.

However, I have had success with changing their email on their membership record to an email they now have access to (and which isn't already associated with another Church account). After you do that as a clerk it should send an email to that account to verify the address. Once the email address is verified they may be able to use that email address to recover their account. It's possible that the parent may also be able to edit their email in the Directory to the same effect.

So, you are saying that the individual email in MLS is linked to their main account? So changing it there would change it for the LDS account and then doing a recovery to there might be possible?

I guess I didn't realize that they are linked in that way. I don't think they used to be linked like that. It always seemed like the MLS phone/email was independent from their LDS account itself in the past.

Good to hear that they might be linked now. I'll try that. Thanks.

jgoggan wrote:I guess I didn't realize that they are linked in that way. I don't think they used to be linked like that.

They were not linked originally. But several years ago they consolidated things so that each individual only has a single email and they linked the membership and Church account emails at that point.