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Troubleshooting email-based authentication problems
Troubleshooting email-based authentication problems

This article helps diagnose and troubleshoot common reasons for email-based authentication not working.

Updated over a week ago

Trouble Logging In?

If you went to the 4U Platform login page, provided your email address and received a single-use verification link by email but the link gave you an error message, then there are a number of possible reasons why the login did not work.

This page will help you determine the reason and resolve the issue.

Potential Reasons

Reason 1 - you are using a different browser

For security reasons, it is required that your single-use verification link is used from the same browser as you were using when you requested the link. If you attempt to use the single-use verification link on a different browser, you will get an error message.

This can happen if, for example, you went to the login page on Chrome but when you click on the single-use verification link in your email, the link automatically opens up in Edge. If something like this happens, then right-click on the link in the email, copy the hyperlink, and then paste the url it into your original browser. It should then work.

ℹ️ If this is not working, please ensure that the link that you copy matches the link in the email and does not, for example, contain extra characters at the end. This can happen if you are manually selecting and copying the url and accidentally include additional portions of the email.

Reason 2 - the verification link was already used or is expired

All verification links that are sent by 4U Platform are single-use and have an expiration time (indicated in the email). If the link has previously been used or if the link is unused but expired, then it will not work.

If you think this might be the case, we recommend deleting any verification emails that you previously received from 4U. After you've done that, go back to the 4U Platform login page and provide your email address and a fresh valid verification link will be emailed to you.

Reason 3 - the verification link included in the email was altered by your company's security systems

The best way to determine if this is happening is to view the actual link in the email you receive by right-clicking on the link and selecting the option to copy the hyperlink. Paste the link somewhere you can view it (e.g. into a browser).

If the link starts with anything other than https://www.4uplatform.com/ then the link is being rewritten by your company and this is likely the source of the problem.

In order to resolve this issue, your company's IT team will need to be involved. We encourage them to contact us at support@4uplatform.com but, generally speaking, the options available are:

  1. Switch to Single Sign On (SSO) authentication. See our SSO onboarding documentation. This is recommended whenever possible as it is a more seamless experience for the user.

  2. Update your company's email security rules to allow list links to 4uplatform.com so that they are not re-written to go through a proxy server. (Note, this is different from allow listing traffic to 4uplatform.com at a firewall/network level.)

Depending on your company's organization, option 2 might be quickest for them but, in the long term, we recommend switching to SSO.

Still Need Help?

Please contact us at support@4uplatform.com and we'll do the best we can to resolve your issues as fast as possible.

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