Access Code Issues (Can't login)

Ardaghion

Anyone having trouble accessing the game on PC (Not Steam) due to access codes not being received? Wondering if there's an activation system issue.

I have a few PC accounts and am unable to get the emails for the access codes on any account. I know the emails work, are correct and can access my account via the web. The emails aren't being sent to spam or being blocked.

Ardaghion

I have 9 accounts on PC that I can't login to, hopefully I'll hear from the "specialized team" soon.

My ticket number is 241213-003027. @ZOS_Kevin maybe someone will want to move this to the help section. I opened this as a question in case it was a wider issue but so far I've seen no other reports or acknowledgments.

Ardaghion

I have submitted a support ticket so we shall see if there are any issues.

I have tried everything in the help section although I haven't tried to use an email address from another provider.

Support changed my email to a different address with another provider I have. Still no luck. They are going to send the ticket up the chain because nothing has worked so far.

I reinstalled the game during the outage which is why I'm getting the access code requests when I try to login. Maybe the activation/access code system is broken after the outage.

xlucentb14_ESO

I'm having the same issue on PC. It's been a couple days now and I still haven't received anything from ESO. Oddly, though, I had to change the password for my forums.elderscrollsonline.com login in order to reply to this and received the link for that within seconds.

Ardaghion

xlucentb14_ESO wrote: »

I'm having the same issue on PC. It's been a couple days now and I still haven't received anything from ESO. Oddly, though, I had to change the password for my forums.elderscrollsonline.com login in order to reply to this and received the link for that within seconds.

With everything that's happened, I doubt this issue will be resolved before Monday. The forum login doesn't appear to have any connection to the game.

Mophett

I got the same problem.
It would seem they are not sending out emails probably due to server crash / power outage the other day.
I was fine yesterday and one other guild player reported having this problem but come today I have it too now.

Mophett

Just to report I am having this problem on EU server.

aussie500

Also keep in mind, sometimes it just gives you the wrong message and no access code was ever sent, it just had some other problem that was preventing you logging on.

LadyGP

Yeah there is something where you can type in the wrong password or whatever and get that message but one doesn't actually get sent. It's an odd situation that has happened to me like twice over the last year or so.

I can't remember the exact conditions to trigger it though.

TaSheen

It's exactly that - you type too fast or hit a wrong key when inputting the pw, and you get the message that you need to put in the access code.

So far as I remember, there isn't actually an access code sent with that situation; all you need to do is get out of the dialog box and re-enter the password correctly.

Ardaghion

aussie500 wrote: »

Also keep in mind, sometimes it just gives you the wrong message and no access code was ever sent, it just had some other problem that was preventing you logging on.

I'm pretty sure that isn't the issue here, there are quite a few people having the same issue. All seem to have ticket numbers and have been helped by support. In my case they said they were referring the issue to a specialized team.

My client is communicating with the login server, it shows an error if I put in an incorrect password. If I put in the correct password I get a request to enter an access code. If I put in an incorrect access code I get a response that the code is incorrect and to find the email with the correct access code. So the challenge response system is working.

I think the only issue is that the email delivery system isn't working correctly, possibly only on the login server. If I try to change my email address in my account I also never get the email for an activation code. So the email address never gets changed. Support manually changed my email address and that didn't help, so it's not my email providers that are at fault.

Ardaghion

TaSheen wrote: »

It's exactly that - you type too fast or hit a wrong key when inputting the pw, and you get the message that you need to put in the access code.

So far as I remember, there isn't actually an access code sent with that situation; all you need to do is get out of the dialog box and re-enter the password correctly.

That's also not the issue here, lots of other people are seeing this issue. I also use a password manager so I'm not fat-fingering it. If the wrong password is entered I get a message to that effect, not the access code message.

Alastrine

It will give you that message if you type your password or login name incorrectly, and of course since it isn't the right account info you'll never get the code or email.

This sounds different though, given it's across a number of accounts. Was a problem quite awhile back and it took some time to get sorted. Don't know that I ever heard what the problem was, it was so widespread... one day it was just announced as fixed and it was gone.

Hope you all get it resolved soon!

Mophett

I tested it another way by trying to log onto my Elder Scrolls online account vis web browser and as they will always send a email code to log onto that.

No code ever arrives.

So some of us are getting completely locked out.

Fischblut

PC EU. Yesterday and today I've tried to log into the web site. Access code just never arrives



If I click on the "I didn't receive a code", a little message with a timed status bar appears stating that "Successfully sent". If I put mouse cursor over it, the status bar timer stops. I've been holding cursor over it for a minute or two just to see if the code mail will appear in this time - but no, the code never arrives.

Duskbinder

Mophett wrote: »

I tested it another way by trying to log onto my Elder Scrolls online account vis web browser and as they will always send a email code to log onto that.

No code ever arrives.

So some of us are getting completely locked out.

Same here. I can play the game fine (already authenticated, no code request when logging in), but if I try to access the account page, or make a store purchase, the code request never arrives.

Never had an issue with receiving the code previously. (PC EU)

Adernath

Same for me, good to know that others seem to have a similar problem right now. Let's hope they figure out what's going on... I can log in on the website with my credentials.

thesilverball_ESO

Same. I never get a code which I need.

thesilverball_ESO

I'm on NA Server.

Duskbinder

Just wanted to add an update. My partner tried to login to their account on the website and received the code e-mail just fine.

Their email is a Gmail account and mine an iCloud one; might it be some sort of routing issue to certain providers?

Also, I've discovered that I can still login to the website when using my twitch credentials.

Ardaghion

Duskbinder wrote: »

Just wanted to add an update. My partner tried to login to their account on the website and received the code e-mail just fine.

Their email is a Gmail account and mine an iCloud one; might it be some sort of routing issue to certain providers?

Also, I've discovered that I can still login to the website when using my twitch credentials.

Well, I had some hope it was fixed but I still can’t get the access code email and login.

All of my ESO account’s email addresses are to my personal domain. These are all aliases to a permanent mailbox that can receive email directly. I’ve tried changing one account to the mailbox but I never receive that activation email either.

Support asked to change my account to an alternate email. I had them use an iCloud address but that didn’t help.

I haven’t tried changing my info on the website here. I can login but I don’t know if I’d get the email. It might be a different sender/server than the game uses

Circuitous

Ardaghion wrote: »

Anyone having trouble accessing the game on PC (Not Steam) due to access codes not being received? Wondering if there's an activation system issue.

I have a few PC accounts and am unable to get the emails for the access codes on any account. I know the emails work, are correct and can access my account via the web. The emails aren't being sent to spam or being blocked.

I've been having this exact same problem. I was on a different PC and couldn't get an Access Code. Worked with Support, and ultimately they changed my account's email address to see if the Access Code would arrive there. Unfortunately, I was back on my home PC by the time that happened, so I tried to change my email back... and now I can't receive the email to change the account. It's been a mess.

In case anyone's taking a look at tickets, mine is 241211-000052.

Ardaghion

There are also quite few people in this server thread that have put in tickets and notified @ZOS_Kevin that they are awaiting some resolution.

I was told by support that the ticket was sent to a specialized team to deal with the issue and that they would contact me. After the email was changed by support, for testing, the ticket I opened was gone from the support login. Seems to be an issue with tickets being tied to your email address.

I speculate that these issues won't be resolved until at least Monday, I don't imagine these kind of tickets have the same priority level as an emergency level "servers powered off without warning" issue.

DewiMorgan

@ZOS_GinaBruno you may want to put up one of those outage info banners, since the Access Code system seems to have been down for four days.

If it's a systemic issue:

• No new users can get into the game. They'll come here to find out of there's an issue, so a banner might at least retain some of them.
• Nobody can update their email in their profile details.
• And as in my case, nobody can install the game to a new machine, upgrade their OS, etc without getting locked out of their account.

Tickets reported to @ZOS_Kevin over in "Servers are back up folks!" thread include:
241212-000761
241213-002390
241213-002599
241213-003027
241213-003995
241214-000284
241214-002466
241215-004375 (mine)

(If it's not a systemic issue... maybe a gmail one? Anyone here affected whose account email isn't through gmail? Or maybe a mailserver misconfig? Though mail.elderscrollsonline.com's MX, SMTP, rDNS etc seem fine according to what little I know).

Ardaghion

DewiMorgan wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno you may want to put up one of those outage info banners, since the Access Code system seems to have been down for four days.

If it's a systemic issue:

• No new users can get into the game. They'll come here to find out of there's an issue, so a banner might at least retain some of them.
• Nobody can update their email in their profile details.
• And as in my case, nobody can install the game to a new machine, upgrade their OS, etc without getting locked out of their account.

Tickets reported to @ZOS_Kevin over in "Servers are back up folks!" thread include:
241212-000761
241213-002390
241213-002599
241213-003027
241213-003995
241214-000284
241214-002466
241215-004375 (mine)

(If it's not a systemic issue... maybe a gmail one? Anyone here affected whose account email isn't through gmail? Or maybe a mailserver misconfig? Though mail.elderscrollsonline.com's MX, SMTP, rDNS etc seem fine according to what little I know).

I have my own personal domain and use my own email servers. Support changed my email to an iCloud address and I still didn't receive an access code.

I've looked into some of ZOS/ESO network systems and it appears that the login server authenticates a user's credentials. I'm not sure of the system that verifies access but access code emails come from an enterprise email provider in San Francisco, CA called sendgrid. The login server must generate the access code and format a template email that get's sent out from sendgrid.com.

I think the access code is being generated since entering an incorrect code will return a failure. The lack of receiving these emails coincides with the major outage at the login servers. While I don't know the actual cause it could easily be some service that that wasn't started correctly.

While I've never worked in IT in a data center, I've had lots of experience with scheduling and playout servers (Windows Server & Linux) in video broadcasting as an engineer. In some cases, if servers are brought back up after a power outage the time service might not sync and some other scheduled tasks won't work correctly or authentication services fail if the server time isn't correct.

But this is just speculation, there are any number of issues that could occur, especially when interfacing with a 3rd party email provider.

Edit: If anyone is curious why support emails are working, they appear to come from Right Now Tech (an Oracle company) in Phoenix, AZ. The company looks to handle customer support, so probably not ZOS employees but a 3rd party provider.

Circuitous

I don't think it has anything to do with the game server outage the other day, as I was trying to log in before that and failing.

Ardaghion

Circuitous wrote: »

I don't think it has anything to do with the game server outage the other day, as I was trying to log in before that and failing.

Could be a coincidence but most of the tickets occurred after the outage and the servers came backup, I haven't seen many tickets from before that time. I can't be entirely sure as in my case I didn't need an access code until I did a reinstall when the servers were down.

I was having an issue a few days before the outage though and tried a reinstall then and didn't have any trouble getting an access code for 9 PC accounts. I had trouble because I have 1 Steam account and 9 PC non-Steam accounts. If I just created 9 more Steam accounts I wouldn't have this issue.

evymyu233

Fischblut wrote: »

PC EU. Yesterday and today I've tried to log into the web site. Access code just never arrives



If I click on the "I didn't receive a code", a little message with a timed status bar appears stating that "Successfully sent". If I put mouse cursor over it, the status bar timer stops. I've been holding cursor over it for a minute or two just to see if the code mail will appear in this time - but no, the code never arrives.

same,and a few hours later, I received several emails.

Duskbinder

Ardaghion wrote: »

Could be a coincidence but most of the tickets occurred after the outage and the servers came backup, I haven't seen many tickets from before that time. I can't be entirely sure as in my case I didn't need an access code until I did a reinstall when the servers were down.

I upgraded my PC hardware a couple of weeks ago (29 Nov), which triggered the in-game code e-mail. That one appeared in my inbox, so, for me at least, this does appear to be a more recent issue.

DewiMorgan

Circuitous wrote: »

I don't think it has anything to do with the game server outage the other day, as I was trying to log in before that and failing.

This issue isn't a "failing to log in" issue, this is a "failing to get an Access Code emailled" issue, which seems to have started on the 12th.

Serpentwing

DewiMorgan wrote: »

Circuitous wrote: »

I don't think it has anything to do with the game server outage the other day, as I was trying to log in before that and failing.

This issue isn't a "failing to log in" issue, this is a "failing to get an Access Code emailled" issue, which seems to have started on the 12th.

And they stopped reply on the tickets I had no more replies .