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Online surveys  (formerly BOS)

Powerful, flexible online surveys

How can I help a user who can’t log in?

This FAQ is for administrators of Project or Organisation type accounts.

This page provides some tips for Admin users to help:

  1. New users who can’t log in.
  2. Existing users who can’t log in.

New users who can’t log in

When you invite a new user, they are sent an invitation email containing an activation link.  The new user must click on the link and activate their account before they can log in to online surveys at the Sign in screen.

Once the user has activated their account, they cannot use the invitation email link any more and they must log in to online surveys at the Sign in screen.

New users sometimes either attempt to log in to online surveys at the Sign in screen before activating their account, or attempt to re-use their invitation link after activating their account.  In either case, they will find themselves unable to access online surveys and may come to you for help.

Therefore, the first step in helping a new user who can’t log in is to find out whether they have activated their account.

To check whether a user has activated their account:

  1. Find the user in your user list.
  2. Click on their username.  This will open the Edit user screen.
  3. Check whether the Active box is ticked.
    • If the Active box is not ticked, the user has not clicked on the activation link in their invitation email.
    • If the Active box is ticked, the user has successfully activated their account.

If the user has not activated their account (the Active box is not ticked):

  1. Advise the user that they should check their email (including spam/junk folders) for their invitation email.
  2. If they have not received the invitation email, check that the email address you entered for them is correct, and click the Resend invitation email button.
  3. If you click ‘Resend invitation email’ and receive the message “Maximum number of invites sent”, contact the online surveys Support team for assistance.

If the user has activated their account (the Active box is ticked):

  1. Advise the user that they should discard the invitation email and log in at https://admin.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/accounts/login/
  2. Check that the user is using the email address as registered in online surveys to sign in.  Some people use several different versions of their email address – online surveys will only accept the version that is registered to their user account.
  3. If the user is unable to remember their password or their password does not seem to work, advise them to click on Forgotten password on the online surveys sign in page.  They will need to enter their email address exactly as it is registered in online surveys to send themselves a password reset email.

Existing users who can’t log in

The most common reasons that an existing user cannot log in are:

  1. They are not logging in at the correct website – direct them to https://admin.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/accounts/login/.  Account activation links and forgotten password links will only work once, and a user cannot use them to log in again once the account has been activated or the password has been reset.  Users should also not attempt to use links to online surveys found in their browser history or use the Back button to return to online surveys once they have signed out – they should always sign in at the URL above.
  2. They are not using the correct email address – check the email address registered to their user account in online surveys and ensure they are using the correct one.
  3. They have forgotten their password – direct them to the Forgotten password link on the online surveys sign in page.

I have followed the above steps and the user still can’t log in

Please contact the online surveys Support team for assistance.