Notifications Going to Old Email Address - Not Updated

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1

I updated my email address in my Huggingface account, but it does not update with discuss.huggingface.co. discuss.huggingface.co states “Email can be updated from authentication provider.” It has been about 10 days now since my update. When/how can discuss.huggingface.co notifications be updated?

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2

Same is happening to me! Anyone knows how to resolve it?

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3

I’ll list what seems doable, but personally, I think contacting Hugging Face Support is more reliable and faster… [email protected]

0. Goal

You want:

  1. Your Hugging Face Hub account to use your new email.

  2. The forum at discuss.huggingface.co to:

    • show the new email under your account, and
    • send notifications only to that new email.

Because the forum is a separate Discourse instance that trusts an “authentication provider,” you have to (a) fix the upstream account and (b) either get the forum to resync or ask support to fix it. (Hugging Face Forums)

Step 1 – Verify what the forum currently thinks your email is

  1. Go to https://huggingface.co/static-proxy/discuss.huggingface.co.
  2. Click on your avatar (top right) → “Preferences.”
  3. In the left sidebar, go to “Account.”
  4. Look for the “Email” field.

Typical situation:

  • It shows your old email.
  • Under/next to the field you see a message like
    “Email can be updated from authentication provider.” (Hugging Face Forums)

This confirms two things:

  • The forum is using Discourse SSO (Single Sign-On).
  • You cannot change the forum email directly; it depends on the upstream provider.

If it already shows your new email, but notifications still go to the old one, then the issue is likely with your email provider (forwarding or aliasing) rather than Hugging Face, and you should check filters/forwarding rules there.

Step 2 – Make sure your Hugging Face account actually uses the new email

You must be sure that the upstream account (what Discourse calls the “authentication provider”) is fully updated.

2.1 Update the primary email on the Hugging Face Hub

Hugging Face has a specific flow for switching your primary email:

  1. Go to the Hub (main site): https://huggingface.co.

  2. Click your avatar → “Settings” (or go to the “account settings” page directly).

  3. In the Account section:

    • Find the “Additional emails” area.
    • Add your new email address there.

  4. Check your inbox at the new email address and click the verification link that Hugging Face sends.

  5. After the new email shows as “verified,” click the vertical three-dot menu next to it and choose something like “Set as primary.” (Hugging Face Forums)

  6. Confirm that:

    • The new address is now labeled “Primary.”
    • The old address is no longer primary (you may optionally remove it if you want).

This method (add → verify → set as primary via the 3-dot menu) is the recommended way; replacing the primary email directly in the text field can revert back, as several users reported. (Hugging Face Forums)

2.2 If you log in with GitHub / Google / another SSO provider

If you usually click “Sign in with GitHub,” “Sign in with Google,” or use an enterprise identity provider:

  • Check the email in that provider’s account settings as well.
  • Some SSO setups send the IdP email to Discourse; if that email is still the old one, the forum might keep using it even if the Hugging Face Hub shows the new email. (Discourse Meta)

Practical rule:

  • Update email in both:

    • Hugging Face Hub (as in 2.1), and
    • Your IdP (GitHub / Google / corporate SSO), if that’s what you use to sign in.

Step 3 – Force a fresh login and SSO resync

Once you are sure the upstream account has the correct email, you want Discourse to re-read it. Whether this works depends on how Hugging Face configured Discourse (there is a setting called sso overrides email / auth overrides email), but you can still try. (Discourse Meta)

  1. Log out of the forum:

    • On discuss.huggingface.co, click your avatar → “Log out.”

  2. Log out of the Hub:

    • On huggingface.co, also log out.

  3. Clear cookies for both sites:

    • In your browser’s settings, clear cookies for huggingface.co and discuss.huggingface.co, or open an incognito/private window.

  4. In a fresh session, first go to https://huggingface.co and log in again:

    • Use the method that reflects your updated email (updated IdP or updated HF account).

  5. From the Hub, go to the forum:

    • Click any “Forum” link or visit https://huggingface.co/static-proxy/discuss.huggingface.co directly; it should auto-login via SSO.

  6. Check the forum email again:

    • Go to “Preferences → Account” and see if the email field now shows the new email.

Possible outcomes:

  • If the email field now shows the new email, the SSO resync worked, and future notifications should go to the new address.
  • If it still shows the old email, the Discourse instance is likely configured not to override email after the first SSO login or the integration is misconfigured. At that point, it is out of your control and you need staff intervention. (Discourse Meta)

Step 4 – Optional temporary mitigation (stop mail to the old address)

While you are waiting for a proper fix, you can reduce unwanted mail to the old inbox.

4.1 Change notification settings in the forum

Even though the underlying email is wrong, you can lower the volume:

  1. In discuss.huggingface.co, go to “Preferences → Emails.”

  2. Turn off or reduce:

    • “When someone replies,”
    • “Activity summary,”
    • “Watching/Tracking” notification emails, etc.

This will reduce, but not necessarily eliminate, emails to the old address.

4.2 Email-side filters or forwarding

On the provider that owns your old email:

  • If you still have access:

    • Set a filter/rule to archive or delete messages coming from @discuss.huggingface.co or @huggingface.co.

  • If you do not have access:

    • You cannot change filters, so you have to rely on Hugging Face support to change the account email (next step).

This does not solve the root cause but can help until support updates the email in their systems.

Step 5 – Contact Hugging Face support with a good, specific request

Given that the forum itself cannot be updated by you and the relevant thread has no staff solution as of November 2025, the realistic fix is to ask Hugging Face staff to update your email or fix the SSO/Discourse configuration on their side. (Hugging Face Forums)

5.1 Where to write

For account / website issues, Hugging Face generally routes users to:

Either address should reach their support team; if you try one and get no response for a while, you can send a concise follow-up to the other.

If you are in an enterprise SSO setup (Okta, etc.), your organization might have access to [email protected] as per enterprise docs. (Hugging Face)

5.2 What information to include

Providing a complete, precise request makes it much easier for support to help you in a single round:

  1. Your Hugging Face username (and link), e.g. https://huggingface.co/<username>.

  2. The old email currently shown on the forum.

  3. The new email you want everything changed to.

  4. Confirmation that:

    • The new email is added and set as primary in the Hub (attach a cropped screenshot if possible). (Hugging Face Forums)
    • If relevant, the IdP (GitHub/Google/corporate) also shows the new email.

  5. A description of the forum bug:

    • Mention the exact message: “Email can be updated from authentication provider.”
    • Explain that you updated your Hugging Face account’s email, waited, and relogged, but the forum still lists and uses the old email.

  6. A link to the forum topic about the issue:

  7. Explicitly ask for:

    • Either: manual update of the email associated with your Discourse user to <new email>,
    • Or: a fix to the SSO configuration so that the forum email matches your primary Hugging Face email.

You do not need to mention internal Discourse settings (auth overrides email); just describe the symptoms clearly.

5.3 Example email draft (you can adapt)

Subject: Forum notifications still going to old email address

Hi Hugging Face team,

My Hugging Face username is <username> (profile: https://huggingface.co/<username>).

I recently changed my primary email address on the Hugging Face Hub from <old email> to <new email>. The new address is verified and set as primary in my account settings. However, on discuss.huggingface.co my account still shows <old email> with the message “Email can be updated from authentication provider,” and forum notification emails are still being sent to <old email>.

I have tried logging out of both the Hub and the forum, clearing cookies, and logging back in, but the forum email did not update.

Could you please update the email associated with my forum account to <new email> and/or align it with my Hugging Face primary email?

Related forum topic describing the same issue:
https://huggingface.co/static-proxy/discuss.huggingface.co/t/notifications-going-to-old-email-address-not-updated/14723

Thank you for your help.

Adjust details to your situation (e.g., mention if you no longer have access to the old email).

Step 6 – Edge cases

6.1 You have lost all access to the old email

Mention this explicitly in your support request:

  • “I no longer have access to <old email> (it was a previous organization’s address).”

There are multiple public threads where users with lost email access are told to contact support and provide extra information so their identity can be verified. (Hugging Face Forums)

Be ready to prove ownership of the HF account (e.g., via SSH key, PAT, or other means, depending on what support requests).

6.2 You own organizations or resources under the old email

If that old email was associated with organizations, Spaces, or billing:

  • Support may need to ensure that changing the email does not break ownership or access.
  • This is another reason to let them handle it via the official support channels, rather than trying to circumvent with a new account. (Hugging Face Forums)

Step 7 – Last resort: create a new account (not recommended unless necessary)

If, despite multiple attempts and reasonable waiting time, nothing changes and support is unresponsive, the strict last resort is:

  • Create a new Hugging Face account with your new email.
  • Log into the forum with this account so future notifications go only there.

Downsides:

  • You lose your existing forum post history, likes, trust level, etc.
  • Your models/datasets/Spaces remain attached to the original account unless moved.
  • It complicates your online identity (two accounts).

Because of these drawbacks, this should only be used if support cannot or will not correct the existing account.

Short bullet summary

  • First confirm what email the forum is actually using in Preferences → Account.
  • On the Hugging Face Hub, update your primary email by adding it under “Additional emails,” verifying it, and setting it as primary via the 3-dot menu. (Hugging Face Forums)
  • If you use GitHub/Google/corporate login, update the email there as well.
  • Force SSO to resync by fully logging out of the Hub and forum, clearing cookies, and logging back in, then re-check the forum email. (Discourse Meta)
  • If the forum still shows the old email, the issue is on the Hugging Face/Discourse configuration side; contact [email protected] and/or [email protected] with detailed information and a request to update your forum email. (Hugging Face)
  • Use forum notification settings and/or email filters as a temporary mitigation while waiting for support.

Selected links for further reference

  • HF forum: “Notifications Going to Old Email Address – Not Updated” (the exact issue you mentioned) (Hugging Face Forums)
  • HF forum: “Updating primary email address” – explains the “Additional emails → verify → 3-dot → Set as primary” flow (Hugging Face Forums)
  • HF docs: 2FA recovery section, showing [email protected] as a support contact for account issues (Hugging Face)
  • HF forum: “How can I contact with the Hugging Face team?” – states that website-related issues can go to [email protected] (Hugging Face Forums)
  • HF forum and other pages mentioning [email protected] as a support address for account and technical issues (Hugging Face Forums)
  • Discourse Meta: “SSO and changing email addresses upstream” – explains how Discourse can (or cannot) sync email from SSO, which is exactly the underlying mechanism here (Discourse Meta)