Can't reset AdobeID account password because email no longer valid

[Smee2]

I am currently using a second AdobeID that I just created, to ask this question, because my real one is insisting on a password reset.  Unfortunately, during the years I have had this ID, the email account used for it has become defunct and I cannot use it, hence I cannot access the password reset email that Adobe keeps sending when I try to log in.  (Big mistake to to make the actual ID an email address - why do they do this, it is silly)

I talked on the support chat line to someone from Adobe, who promised they would change the email account for me, to a new one that I nominated, but that was over a week ago, and they have done nothing. 

So, I am still stuck.  I cannot authorise the Adobe Digital Editions software on my new computer and so cannot read or access any of my books.

[sjpt]

I am afraid if Adobe won't help, there is nothing much to do.

I suggest you contact them again (probably via Live Chat, see ~~~ below) and maybe the different agent you get will be more helpful.

Don't forget you will be contacting live chat using your new ID, not the old one that you need to recover.

You must make that 100% plain to them, otherwise they may well end up resetting your new ID instead.

There are two parts to the reset:

1. you need to have a new password that you can use (without going via the standard email recovery mechanism).
2. you need to associate the account with a new email address, eg for future passowrd recovery.

Getting a usable password is the most important. 

You can log in using the email Adobe have on record for the account even if that email is out of date.

The only need for an up to date email is for password recovery.

The second may prove a little awkward if you have already associated a new account with the email you want to use.

You cannot have two accounts associated with the same email.

So you must 

1. either, use some other valid email for the old account; maybe a variant of the new email
   (for example, fred@gmail.com and fred+adobe@gmail.com will be treated the same as far as gmail is concerned, but different as far as Adobe is concerned.
2. or, change the email associated with your new account first, then change the email associated with the second

(Big mistake to to make the actual ID an email address - why do they do this, it is silly)

Partly true, but even if the id had been something else they would still have had your old email address on record for password recovery,

and so you still wouldn't have been able to perform the password recovery.

~~~

Adobe Live Chat: http://www.adobe.com/support/chat/ivrchat.html,

or as a slight short cut try http://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?product=digital-editions&topic=using-my-product-or-service

Choose a topic (any topic), and then click on 'I still need help';

then you should see 'Chat with an Agent' at the bottom of the page.

'Ask our experts' will indeed just lead you back to this forum.

Sometimes you will get ‘Sorry! All agents are busy— please check back soon.’

Don’t refresh the page, just hang on and it should eventually go to ‘Chat Now, and agent is available’.

[Smee2]

"(for example, fred@gmail.com and fred+adobe@gmail.com will be treated the same as far as gmail is concerned, but different as far as Adobe is concerned."

I don't understand this part.  Does gmail ignore everything after a plus sign?

Also, I meant to mention or ask--  why did they initiate this password reset anyway?  I have never logged in with an incorrect password. Everything was working fine.  If they do it periodically for no reason, then that's even more annoying.

Is there no email address I can contact?   That's really poor if Adobe have no email contact address for problems like this.

[sjpt]

Yes, gmail ignores the part after the +.   Other email providers have similar rules for generating variant addresses.

That is useful for generating pseudo-addresses when logging onto different sites as it helps identify which site was responsible for unwanted emails.

(Not guaranteed to work, it the site knows google's rules it might resort to the base name without the +, but often helps).

And can also be useful for having 'alternate' Adobe IDs with only one email.

There was a major security breach at Adobe a couple of months ago.

I think that was the point they required a password reset on all possibly compromised accounts.

They warned people at their registered email address ~ but not helpful when the email address is out of date.

As far as I can see Adobe has telephone and Live Chat support but no email support.

I have just noticed an error in my Live Chat instructions above.

I said Choose a topic (any topic), and then click on 'I still need help';

It seems that some topics will lead to an offer of Live Chat, but some topics won't.

So just try topics until live chat is offered.  'Signing into my Account' seems to work to offer live chat.