What happens if my OpenID provider goes out of business?

Question

Question: I tried to log-in with my OpenID provider, the log-in screen says: "Unable to log in with your OpenID provider: No OpenID endpoint found." And indeed, it appears my OpenID provider is no longer operating. What do I do?

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StackExchange sites use OpenID to verify your identity. You can choose to use one of the many OpenID providers when you first sign-up for an account (you may already be a member of a service that provides OpenID service, such as Google, Facebook, and Wordpress.com, to name a few that is supported on our log-in interface).

OpenID offers a unified authentication platform which makes it easier on users: you only need to remember the log-in for one particular website and reduces password security risks, and it makes it easier to control the sharing of your private information.

On the other hand, separating the authentication from StackExchange does mean that it is possible for problems on third party websites to lock you out of your account. Yes, it has happened before.

Answer 1

To prevent the above described scenario from happening:

1. Use an OpenID provider that you trust. I can safely say that Google will probably around for the next few years. Some other OpenID providers, not so much.
2. If the only OpenID service you use is StackExchange, consider using StackExchange as the OpenID provider! You won't lose anything in terms of convenience, and as long as StackExchange is around, you won't be locked out of your own account.
3. Note that multiple OpenID credentials can be associated to the same StackExchange account at the same time (you can visit your own user page, and click on "my logins" near the top right to manage your credentials). So if you so choose you can even add a StackExchange credential right now even if you have been using other services up until now.

If you have already run into the problem: please follow the instructions here. In particular, if you have confirmed that your OpenID provider no longer exists, you should create a new account and flag for moderator attention to request an account merge. explaining in the flag message that your OpenID provider is no longer available. We may contact you further to verify your identity before we make the merge.