--- title: "Change or reuse a User's email address" space: "Framework" url: "https://docs.frappe.io/framework/help/change-or-reuse-a-users-email-address" updated: "2026-10-22" --- The **Email** field on a User record is disabled as soon as the User is saved. To change it, use **Rename**, not the field itself. This changes the user's login address immediately: it signs them out of every device, and the old address stops accepting sign-ins or password resets, though their password stays the same. ## **Why the Email field is disabled** A User's email is not just a field. It is also the User's unique ID (its document name) - Frappe sets `name` to the email address when the User is created. Every record that is written against a User, assignments, permissions, document ownership, the `Created By` and `Modified By` columns, is linked by that ID. Changing the field directly would break those links, so Frappe only allows the change through **Rename**, which updates the ID and every record that points to it in one operation. ![](/files/pasted-image-3qt4g4gv.webp) ## **Change a user's email address** ### **Before you start** - You need the **System Manager** role. - You cannot rename the **Administrator** or **Guest** accounts - see [If you renamed the only admin account by mistake](https://claude.ai/epitaxy/local_fa854d71-1fc5-49a9-943d-ab6184605138#if-you-renamed-the-only-admin-account-by-mistake). ### **Steps** 1. Go to **User List** and open the User whose email you want to change. 2. Click the **Menu (⋮)** button at the top right of the form. 3. Select **Rename**. ![](/files/pasted-image-t14k1h8e.webp) 4. In the **New Name** field, enter the new email address. ![](/files/pasted-image-snm5kak0.webp) 5. Click **Rename**. Frappe updates the User's ID and every linked record (assignments, permissions, document history) to the new address. This can take a few seconds on a user with a long history - do not close the tab while it runs. ## **What happens after the rename** - **The user is signed out everywhere.** Frappe ends every active session for that user, on every browser and device, the moment the rename finishes. - **The password does not change.** The user logs back in with the new email and their existing password. There is no automatic password reset email. - **The old email stops working immediately**, including for **Forgot Password**. If someone tries it, they see `User does not exist` - this is expected, not an error, because that record no longer has that name. - **Document history is preserved.** Comments, assignments, and the `Created By` / `Modified By` trail on existing documents still show the user correctly, under the new email. ## **Can two Users share one email address, or reuse a disabled user's?** 1. An email is the User's document ID, so it must be unique across every User, including disabled ones. Trying to create or rename a User to an email already in use, even a disabled user's, fails with a message that the ID already exists. If several people need to read mail sent to one address, for example a shared `sales@` inbox, give each person their own User with their own unique email, and point every one of those addresses at the shared inbox from your mail provider: a distinct alias for each person (`sales-priya@`, `sales-arjun@`), or a plus-addressed variant of the same address (`sales+priya@`) if your provider supports it. Each User still gets a real, unique login address, and all of them land in the same inbox. As a last resort, if you cannot create more addresses, a System Manager can turn on **Allow Login Using User Name** in **System Settings → Login**. Users can then log in with their Username instead of their email, so the email itself can hold a placeholder value. This only changes how they log in - they still will not receive system email notifications sent to that placeholder address, and the email must still be unique per User. ## **If you renamed the only admin account by mistake** The literal **Administrator** account can never be renamed - Frappe blocks it outright. So "the admin account's email changed" always means a System Manager-level User was renamed or recreated, not the Administrator itself. If you still have a working session or another System Manager account: 1. Log in with the **new** email address and the **same password** the account had before - the rename did not reset it. 2. If you do not know what the new email was changed to, ask another System Manager to open **User List** and find the record by name, phone number, or role, then share the current email with you. If no one has access to any System Manager account: - On Frappe Cloud, open your dashboard, go to **Notification → Requests**, and approve a site access request from Support so they can look up or reset the account from their end. - With server access, a System Manager can reset the Administrator's own password directly: `bench --site [site-name] set-admin-password [new-password]`. This resets Administrator's password, not a renamed user's - use it to get back in as Administrator and fix the renamed account from there. ## **Related** - [Change existing user's email ID or Rename User](https://docs.frappe.io/erpnext/change-existing-users-email-id) - [I'm not receiving a password reset, login link, or two-factor authentication email](https://docs.frappe.io/framework/help/im-not-receiving-a-password-reset-login-link-or-two-factor-authentication-email)