Sign in FAQs
Many of your queries can be answered online by visiting our Help page, or, if you hold an account with us, your Manage My Account area.
Contents
1
Why sign in?
2
Having a problem with sign in?
3
How to sign in?
Why sign in?
Signing into the Guardian gives you a better experience of our website and apps. You’ll be able to leave comments, subscribe to editorial newsletters and opt in to our marketing communications. You should only need to do it once on each of your devices to stop seeing “sign in” messages.
If you support the Guardian, either through a subscription, a regular payment or have made a recent contribution, signing in also means you will no longer see frequent messages asking you to support our journalism. If you are a subscriber to the Live app, you will still see support messages when you are signed in on our website. We are currently working to make sure your subscription is recognised across all of our platforms.
For subscribers, signing in to the Guardian’s apps and website will give you access to your paid-for features, such as ad-free browsing. Take a look at our product page to see what you get with your subscription.
Why am I still seeing banners/ads?
Please make sure you are logging in with the email address that you registered with. If this does not work, sign out of your Guardian account by going to the Guardian homepage and selecting ‘My account’ and then ‘Sign out’. Then sign back in with your email address and password. If that doesn’t resolve the issue, contact us.
What does signing in mean for my data?
When you sign in, it means we are able to better collect and store your personal data. We use this for many reasons, from understanding how our users engage with our journalism to informing the marketing and advertising that we tailor to you.
Ultimately, this allows us to publish the journalism that you read on our sites and apps. Our owner, The Scott Trust, exists to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian. This means that all profits from our journalism, marketing and advertising are reinvested back into the Guardian and its reporting.
If you’d like to find out more about how we use your data, please take a look at our privacy policy.
Why are you trialling mandatory sign in?
Building deeper relationships with readers helps with our strategy in many ways: it can help us provide better reader experiences, deepen engagement with our journalism, grow our supporter base and strengthen our advertising proposition. Previous trails have asked readers to sign in voluntarily and we’ve seen positive results, with growing numbers of readers signing in and signing up to our newsletters.
Will you make sign in mandatory going forward?
We are currently trialling how to increase the number of signed-in users and will continue to evaluate the best way to do this whilst ensuring Guardian journalism remains free to access. We haven’t made any firm decision whether we should make sign in a permanent feature of the site, any long term decision will be guided by the results.

Having a problem with sign in?
Accessing articles
Over the next few weeks, some users on the Guardian website will see a notice asking them to register their email address and name in order to continue reading. Find out more about these sign in trials here.
What is email validation?
When you register with the Guardian, we will send you an email asking you to validate the email address you gave us during the registration process. The email we send you will contain a link to a web page. Click on the link, or cut and paste it into your browser, and you will be shown a page confirming that your registration details are now finalised, and your account has been validated.
Why do I need to validate my email?
The validation process allows us to establish that the email address is genuine, and that you didn’t make a mistake when entering it. It is essential that we have your correct email address in case we need to contact you.
The link in the validation message will only be active for 30 minutes.
How can I stay signed in?
If you tick the ‘Keep me signed in’ box on our sign in form, we will use a cookie so that when you visit the site on the same computer you are automatically signed in. We don’t recommend that you tick this box on shared computers or on computers in public places like libraries or an internet cafe.
If you’re having trouble staying signed in. Your browser may be blocking or deleting cookies. Please check the cookie settings in your browser to confirm that you are accepting cookies, and check that you aren’t running any browser extensions or add-ons which may be clearing them. Private browsing or incognito mode may also impact sign in.
What do I need a username for?
Some services on the Guardian require you to have a username (also sometimes known as a screenname or a nickname). This will appear on your profile page, and next to any comments you leave on the site. It is how other readers will identify you.
How do I change my username?
We think that one of the best ways of promoting good online community behaviour is to provide people with an identity that can be consistently recognised by the community. It also means we can provide you with a profile page which keeps a stable human readable URL.
You will be able to change your username if you see an option to do so at this link. Your username can only be changed once. So please think carefully before making your change.
How do I delete my account?
It’s possible to delete your account by going to:
profile.theguardian.com/delete
and following the online instructions. You will need to sign in first.
I’ve forgotten my password
If you have forgotten your password, you can ask for it to be reset. Go to our Forgotten password page, enter your email address and press ‘Reset password’, and we will send you instructions by email on how to reset it. If you have any other problems with registration, click here to contact the User Support team.
Why do you log IP addresses?
All websites need to know your IP address in order to be able to send information back to you when you request a web page. At the time you register with theguardian.com, we keep a record of that IP address. We log IP addresses in order to keep track of any misuse of our sign in and registration system.
Can I create a Guardian account without sharing my real email address?
Yes - The Guardian supports Apple sign-in which allows you to hide your email address. If you select ‘Sign In With Apple’ you can choose to either share your email address, or keep it private by selecting ‘Hide My Email’.
If you choose to keep your email hidden, Apple will generate a unique email address to share with The Guardian, and any communications from The Guardian will be automatically forwarded to your real email address. If you would like to see the unique email address that Apple has assigned to you, you can view this in your Apple ID account.
Please note that if you have an existing Guardian account, but choose to subsequently sign in with Apple whilst hiding your email address, these two accounts cannot be linked. So, you may find that you have two separate accounts. You can choose to update your preferences and share your email with the Guardian at a later date, in your Apple ID account.
How can I revoke access to the Guardian from my Apple ID account?
If you would like to stop using your Apple ID to log into The Guardian, you can do this by signing into your Apple ID account page and managing your apps. You can find more detail on this on Apple’s support website.

If you revoke access for The Guardian, you will be automatically signed out. In this event, The Guardian will retain any data previously shared, and you can regain access at any time by choosing ‘Sign In With Apple’ again and signing back in - this will re-link your accounts. If you would instead like to delete your account entirely, we recommend that you delete your Guardian account first, before revoking access in your Apple ID account.

How to sign in?
On the desktop site
Click on the “sign in” icon in the top left hand corner of the screen.
Enter your email address and press “next”, or sign in with your Google or Facebook account.
On the next page, you can enter your password and click “sign me in”.
You may wish to tick “remember me” to avoid having to enter this information in the future. Do note that some browsers’ automatic sign-in options will skip the page that allows you to do this. To avoid this, please enter your email address manually
NB: You cannot sign in to the desktop site using your Subscription ID, please use your email address and password instead.
On the mobile site
Tap the “sign in” option that will appear at the top right or left of the screen depending on your screen size.
Enter your email address and press “next”, or sign in with your Google or Facebook account.
On the next page, you can enter your password and click “sign me in”.
You may wish to tick “remember me” to avoid having to enter this information in the future. Do note that some browsers’ automatic sign-in functions may skip the page that allows you to select this option. In this case, please cancel the automatic sign-in option and enter your email address manually.
NB: You cannot sign in to the desktop site using your Subscription ID, please use your email address and password.
In the standard Android Live app if you are a print or digital subscriber
Tap on the menu icon (three horizontal lines) on the top left-hand corner of your screen
Tap on the cog icon
Enter your email address and password associated with your subscription and press sign-in, or sign in with your Google or Facebook account
After signing in, if you can’t see your subscription please contact us to resolve the issue.
In the standard iOS Live app if you are a print or digital subscriber
Tap on the head-and-shoulders icon on the top lefthand side of your screen
Enter your email address and password associated with your subscription and press sign-in, or sign in with your Google or Facebook account.
In the Daily if you are a digital or print+digital subscriber
Within the Daily you will be asked if you are already a subscriber, by selecting sign-in you will be prompted to enter your Guardian account details.
From here, enter the same Guardian account details associated with your digital subscription.
In the Guardian Weekly Digital Edition if you are a Guardian Weekly subscriber
The Guardian Weekly Digital Edition can be found here
The first time you access it, you will need to enter your email and create a password for the Guardian Weekly Digital Edition. This is different from the password you might use to sign in to the Guardian’s desktop or mobile sites, or in the app.
You will also need to enter your subscriber ID and postcode. If you don’t have a postcode enter your surname into the postcode box.
On subsequent visits, you should be able to sign in with your email and password
You may wish to tick “remember me” to avoid having to enter this information in the future
You haven’t answered my question...
You can contact our User Support team directly. They are based in London, and are there to help you with any problems you might have using the registration system or the site as a whole. Click here to contact the User Support team
If you’re having a problem with your contribution or subscription, please contact our Customer Service team.
If you still need help
Our User Support team in London will try to assist you. Send an email to: userhelp@theguardian.com
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