Two things send people here. The business has changed hands, or has a new manager, and the account needs a new owner. Or Thrive says an email address is already in use when they try to add someone. The two are related, because an owner change can run into the second one.
Moving ownership is something we do for you — there is no button for it. This page tells you what to have ready, and what the "already in use" messages mean.
Who the account owner is
Go to Settings → Access Control. The owner is the person listed with the small Account Owner caption under their email. Their row is the only one you cannot click into and edit.
The owner is not just a label:
The owner has every permission, automatically, and does not need a role to get it. Some owners have no role at all. Someone who was invited first and made owner later keeps the role they already had — ownership is recorded separately from roles.
Removing someone's role does not transfer ownership or take away the owner's permissions. The owner's row stays in the Access Control list either way. Move ownership first, then tidy up the old users.
Changing the owner — what to send us
There is no self-serve way to change the owner. Start a chat with us from the app or the help center and include:
Which account — the business name, or the account id if you have it.
The current owner's email address.
The new owner's email address.
One thing to do before you write to us:
The new owner must already have a Thrive login. If they are not in Settings → Access Control yet, add or invite them first and let them accept the invitation. Once they can log in, we can make them the owner.
Ownership is not a permission setting, so the change does not alter anyone's role. Existing roles stay as they are. Review the former owner's access once the transfer is done.
A quicker alternative, when the login is staying put
Sometimes one person is simply replacing another and the same login can carry on — a single-owner business handing over, for example. Then the current owner can change the email address on their own login to the new person's. That is self-serve and takes effect straight away. Go to Settings → Profile, or choose User Profile Settings from the menu under your profile picture at the bottom of the sidebar.
Three things to know before you do it:
This renames an existing login. It does not change which login is the account owner. The same login still owns the account, under a new address, and its password does not change.
It works only if that email is not already a Thrive login. If it is, you will get one of the messages below. Invite that person instead, then ask us to move ownership.
It renames that person on every Thrive account they belong to, not only this one. If the owner also has a login on another business's account, do not use this route.
You cannot change someone else's email address through Access Control. The email box in the Edit User drawer is read-only once the user exists. Each person changes their own on the Profile page.
"Email already in use" — Where you see it, and what to do
One person can belong to many accounts. That is normal and supported: they log in once and pick the account they want. When someone already has a Thrive login and you want them on your account too, invite the login they already have rather than creating a second one for them.
Adding or inviting a user (Settings → Access Control)
"This email is already in use. Please change it and try again", or Email already in use under the Email box — that person is already in this account's user list, or it is your own address. Close the drawer and check the list.
"An invitation with this email already exists" — an invitation has already gone to that address on this account, and it is either still outstanding or already accepted. A canceled invitation does not cause this.
"This email is already in use. Password field has been cleared to send an invitation." — this is the useful one. It means that person already has a Thrive login somewhere else, so Thrive cannot set a new password for them. It has cleared the password box for you. Press Save again to send an invitation to join your account with the login they already have. That second request can still fail, and will tell you if it does.
Changing an email address (Settings → Profile)
"There was an error in updating your profile. email: This email address is already taken. Please choose another." — that address is already a Thrive login. The message arrives across the top of the page.
If you typed the address all in lower case, the end of that message may read "email: This field must be unique." instead. It means the same thing.
Signing up for a new account
You may see "A user with that email address already exists on Thrive. Please try logging in or resetting your password." Log in with that address instead of signing up again. If nobody remembers the password, reset it from the login page.
Connecting Thrive from a sales channel's app store (Clover, Square, Shopify or BigCommerce)
These messages come up when Thrive tries to create a new account for you as you connect from a sales channel, and the email it was handed already has a Thrive login.
From Clover: the Thrive login page, with a message headed User Already Exists — "Please log in to your existing Thrive account and try setting up your integration again."
From Square, Shopify or BigCommerce: an error page headed Whoops! — "This {sales channel} location has already been linked to Thrive. Please log into the Thrive account you previously created."
Either way, log in to Thrive first, then add the integration from inside Thrive.
The "Whoops!" wording also shows for a different problem, so it does not always mean an email clash. The same sentence appears when the sales channel location itself is already connected to a different Thrive account. That page also shows a Merchant ID, as does the page for an integration that has been disabled. If you see a Merchant ID and you are sure the location is new to Thrive, send us that id.
Still stuck?
Start a chat with us from the app or the help center. For an ownership change, send the three things listed above. For an "already in use" message, send the exact wording you see and the screen you were on. Tell us what you were trying to do — add a user, change your own email, or sign up.