90% of the members that write us with log in troubles are experiencing user-error issues or temporary glitches in the Internet service, computer or tablet and are able to solve their issues using one of the solutions below. We want your experience to be efficient and quick so please glance through this list before contacting us. We are happy to help and we love helping but sometimes it takes us a few hours to reply to e-mails and help requests and we don’t want you to have to wait that long if you don’t have to :
1. Make sure you are typing in the correct password. Check and make sure cap-lock or number-lock is not activated on your computer. Type in the password again just to make sure it is correct. Do not type in spaces before or after the password.
2. Make sure your auto-fill is not filling in a different password. Even when you type in the password correctly, auto-fill can cause trouble and instantly fill in something different. This “different” may be an old password or a password for another site or page.
3. Try using a different browser (instead of Safari try Firefox or Chrome for example). Then e-mail us and let us know that one of the browsers is not working for you.
4. Do a “hard refresh” on the page. If you do not know how to do a “hard refresh” you will need to consult this page here. A “hard refresh” is different from just refreshing the page or opening it again.
5. Try again in 5-20 minutes. Sometimes there are Internet glitches that fix themselves – usually within 5-20 minutes. Literally half of our “login support” e-mails are related to this issue. In fact, we often receive two e-mails “at once”. The person will e-mail once for help and then e-mail again in 15 minutes saying, “everything is OK now”. Even if you tried once two weeks ago and then tried once two weeks later. Sometimes ONCE on the same day is not enough depending on your device, your computer speed, your Internet connection (the weather?), and other factors beyond our control.
6. Reload the page. Shut the page and open it again. This means – Completely restart things. Log out, shut down the tab or window and leave the website. Then open it again in another tab. You can even shut down your computer and re-start to make sure.
7. Make sure your Internet did not time-out. Sometimes mine times-out and anything I was doing during that time does not work. It may go online again soon after but it will cause trouble with whatever I was doing at that time.
8. Try the “reset password” option on your account. Then be sure to check your SPAM/BULK/JUNK mail because sometimes the reset message will go to that location instead of your inbox.
9. You may already be logged in but trying to go to the wrong pages. If you see your name at the upper right hand top of the page then you ARE logged in. Trying to view the wrong page may be easy to do on a small mobile device where all the tabs are closer together and harder to read. If you are seeing your name and you are already logged in but are still ending up back at the navigation page or with error messages then please use the member navigation tabs at the top of the page and click on the appropriate name for your membership. If you are logged in it will allow you to access that page.
10. Keep in mind that if you are accessing from a mobile device the only way to view your pages is to use the pull-down navigation menu at the top of the page because the side-bar will not always show on every mobile device. On a computer, once you log in you should see a navigation side-bar on the side of the page.
11. NEW! There is an issue that has popped up a few times over the past year that causes people to be logged into their own WordPress account rather than our website. This happens if you: have a WordPress Blog, have a WordPress website or have commented or belonged to someone else’s Worldpress site and had to log in (and are using the same username and password with us). This causes people to be “logged in” and see their name at the top of the page (because they are logged into WordPress) but they cannot access our site. If you think this may be the case with you then please follow the instructions in #9 below.
12. We recently heard from a member that she was not able to re-set her password from her tablet but was able to do it from her computer. This is not the case for everyone but it is worth a try.
13. Perhaps your mobile device settings are not allowing you to view the correct page once you log in. If you are trying to log in with a mobile device another “trick” to use is to view the site as a “full site” instead of mobile site or to access the website through an app that allows you access as if you are on a computer (I use one called “Browser” sometimes for other websites even though I don’t need to use it for this one).
14. If none of the above solutions work please let us know at: CustomerService@TheBEarthInstitute.com. When you contact us we will need to know your username and password and as many details about your issue as possible including what exact URL you are not able to access, what error message you are receiving, how you are logging in, what web browser you are using, and if you are using a tablet, phone or computer. WE CANNOT HELP WITHOUT THIS INFORMATION.
