Claim an Account

Modified on 11 August

What does it mean to claim an account?


An unclaimed account is an account on RunSignup that has an email address but no password associated with it yet so the user is unable to log in. Claiming an account means that you are setting a password for it so that you can log in and view your event registrations.


Why claim an account?

  • 1) You have a registration in your name and would like edit the information for it.

  • 2) You would like to merge the information associated with the unclaimed account with your existing RunSignUp account (that way you can manage all of your registrations/memberships/etcetera with a single login).

  • 3) You would like to add this registration as a secondary account to your existing account.


If you registered for a race without creating an account on RunSignUp, or if you were manually imported into a race by the race director, then you may have the option to claim that account.


You can send yourself a claim account email, or one may be sent to you from the race. If you are receiving a claim account email that you didn’t send to yourself, then it was likely sent by the race. You can either claim your account by following the instructions in the email, or you can ignore the email, and leave the account unclaimed. You can always claim the account later, by sending yourself another claim account email.


The benefit of claiming your account would be that you will have access to your registration information, and you can view or edit particular aspects of your registration if applicable.


Please note that an account can only be claimed by a user if it has an email address associated with it. If a registrant signed up or was imported into a race without an email address listed, then the account cannot be claimed until the race director indicates an email address associated with the account, or manually sends you a claim account email.


If you find yourself unable to claim an unclaimed account, then please contact the race directly, and supply them with your email address. Be sure to ask them to either add your email address to your unclaimed account, or ask them to send you claim instructions to that email address. You can contact the race by going to the “Race Page”, scrolling down to the “Race Contact Info” section, and filling out the “Questions” form.


SENDING CLAIM INSTRUCTIONS

The first step in claiming an account involves sending claim instructions to the email address of the person claiming that account.There are couple different ways in which this can be done if you are a runner, as well as a way for race directors to send out claim instructions to their participants.


Method 1 (for Runners)


The easiest method for claiming accounts can be done by going to https://runsignup.com/ClaimAccounts, entering in your email address, and clicking “Claim”. 

If there are any unclaimed accounts associated with that email address, you will receive the “Claim Instructions” email within a few minutes.




Note: This email will include all of the unclaimed accounts associated with the address you entered.


Method 2 (for Runners)


Another method for claiming an account can be done by using the “Find A Runner” tab of the race for which the user is a registrant. Find the user you would like to claim the account of, and if there is a claim link next to that user’s name (“Is this you?”), then that account can be claimed.



When you click on the link beside the name, a box will pop-up to notify you that the “Claim Instructions” email is about to be sent to that user. If you are certain that you want to send “Claim Instructions” to that user, then click on the button marked “Claim”, and the email will be sent.


Note: This email will only include the unclaimed account for that particular user in that particular event.In order to be sent all of the unclaimed account associated with a specific email address, you will need to use “Method 1 (for Runners)”.


CLAIM INSTRUCTIONS

Regardless of which method you use to send the “Claim Instructions”, the email you receive will consist of the following message:


“You are receiving this E-mail because you or someone else tried to claim an account on RunSignUp linked to this E-mail address. If you did not initiate this request, please ignore this E-mail. To claim your account, click on the link below.”

Below that message, you will either find a link that reads “Claim Account”, or a link(s) that allows you to claim an account for a specified user. When you click on the link of the account you would like to claim, you will be given three options for claiming that account.


Option 1: Create New Account

Option one lets you create an entirely new account for the user you selected. To do this, first make sure that the email address you want associated with this account is correct. Then enter in a password, confirm the password, and hit the button for “Create New Account”.



The new account will then be opened up to you, and if you “Sign Out”, then you can log back in using the newly created account’s email and password.


Option 2: Merge with Existing Account


Option two on the claim account page allows you to merge the selected unclaimed account with your existing account. To do this, begin by logging into your account, and then decide which data you want to be applied to your account after the merge.



For instance, by selecting a radio button in the “Your Account” column of a specific row, then any spot where the information in the “Other Account” column of that row appears on the website before the merge, will be replaced by the “Your Account” selection after the merge (ex: in participant lists, results sections, donation reports, and so on). Similarly, by selecting a radio button in the “Other Account” column of a specific row, then any spot where the information in the “Your Account” column of that row appears on the website before the merge, will be replaced by the “Other Account” selection after the merge.


After selecting the desired information from each account, hit “Merge with Current User”, and you will receive confirmation that the account was successfully claimed. You will also see that your account information has been updated to reflect the selections you made in the previous step (if applicable).


Option 3: Add as Secondary User of Existing Account


The third option for claiming an account lets you add that account as a secondary user on your existing account. For this option, you will need to be logged in under the account that is going to be accepting this secondary user, and then, simply click on the button marked “Add as Secondary User”.



You will then be brought to your profile page, where you will receive confirmation that the account was successfully claimed, and you can find the newly claimed account in your list of secondary users.


ACCOUNT CLEAN-UP

After you are finished claiming all of the accounts that you need to claim, you may end up with duplicate sub-users, or you may need to switch the primary user on your account. If this is the case, then please follow the instructions in “How to Consolidate Accounts”.