The email address entered already exists in the system.

System administrators may encounter this error when attempting to manually create an account in their organization for a user who has an existing account with another organization.

If a user has the necessary permission to do so, they can merge their existing account with another account in your organization.

If the user does not have the option to Merge Accounts, you will need to enable the Ability to merge Account permission for the user's role.

Merging the user account

If you haven't already created an account for the user, create a new account with a username and password.

Merging an account deletes it from Schoology, but the user retains access to their courses, groups, and content from the account.

1. Ask the user to log into the account associated with your organization.
2. Select your account, and then choose Settings.
3. Click Merge Accounts.

4. Enter the login credentials of the individual account.

5. Click Validate Account.

Merging accounts using Claim Domain

Additionally, you can work with your webmaster or tech team to Claim Domain.

1. Select Tools, and then choose. School Management.
2. Choose Integration.
3. Select Claim Domain.
4. Enter your organization's website URL and follow the prompts to claim your domain. 

You can use this integration feature to prevent users with your domain from registering for an individual account on Schoology. You can also merge existing accounts through the Import area after you claim your domain.

User accounts from different organizations

If the user you want to add to your organization already exists in a different account, you cannot use the previous processes to merge the accounts.

In this case, the user can deactivate their old account and create a new one using their email address, as emails must be unique across active accounts. They may need to reach out to the support contact at their old organization for assistance with this.

Alternatively, if users want to maintain access to their previous accounts, they may also link the two accounts together.