Please read this tale with a sense of humor ;-) If you ended up on this page by searching for “Arduino account deactivated” or “Arduino wrong email/username or password” or similar, you can skip down to “Potential Solution” to see what you might be able to try…
Background
I created an Arduino account back in 2012 and popped in to the forum from time to time when I was working on a project. My last forum login was 2018. While I wasn’t using their forum often, I still had an Arduino UNO on my desk at work. I use it throughout the year to test 16-bit C code. I just had no reason to post about that mundane use in the forum, so I hadn’t been logging in.
In 2026, I got a new Arduino UNO R4 WiFi. When I tried to check out Arduino Cloud, I found my login did not work. Password recovery never sent a new password, and trying to sign up for a new account told me my username was already in use. Some quick searches revealed Arduino now deactivates accounts if you they are not being used often enough.
Support to the rescue! Well, not really…
I contacted support. They told me they could not reinstate my account. They said I needed to sign up with a new e-mail and create a new username. I pushed back on this. I’ve been using the same e-mail address since 1995 and see no reason to create a new one just for Arduino. Support merely pointed me to their Terms and Conditions:
10.5 Should User be inactive for twenty-four (24) months, Arduino may close their Account for inactivity. The posts made via the inactive Account will remain on the Forum and Project Hub for a period of five (5) years and will continue to identify User during such period via username, and after such five (5) year period such posts will become de-identified by deleting all Personal Data which may directly identify User.
https://www.arduino.cc/en/terms-conditions/
Imagine not visiting Burger King for two years, then seeing some new marketing from their CEO that makes you want to go back and try the new Whopper… and the store tells you:
“Sorry, you haven’t been to Burger King in over 24 months, so we will not allow you back in unless you change your identify.”
Now, I’d like to point out that we agree to weird Terms and Conditions all the time. And companies will change their terms and conditions on us, all the time. We either accept the new terms or stop using the service. This seems fine. They can have whatever terms they wish and those of us that just click “I agree” without reading them can suffer the consequences — such as having your account deactivated.
If I had it to do all over, I would have just set a reminder to “Log in to Arduino” once a year. Problem solved ;-)
Can a company violate its own terms?
Remember, humor. If you are getting wound up by any of this, just remember it’s just some text on a random blog you stumbled into…
The 10.5 section I was pointed to says two things:
- “Should User be inactive for twenty-four (24) months, Arduino may close their Account for inactivity.”
Yep, they certainly did that. It has been over 24 months since I logged in. They are in compliance. Though, they say “may” so I wish they would have decided to not may for mine. - “The posts made via the inactive Account will remain on the Forum and Project Hub for a period of five (5) years and will continue to identify User during such period via username, and after such five (5) year period such posts will become de-identified by deleting all Personal Data which may directly identify User.”
This one seems to be in violation, since 7+ years after my last login, all my information is still there – user profile, profile page, my posts, etc., all attributed to em.
I am bummed they honored #1 which was a “may”, but pleased they did not honor #2, which is a “will”.
Can a company be in violation of their own terms and conditions? Asking for a friend… ;-)
I went back and forth with Arduino Support a few times and eventually was transferred to someone in the “CX Education & Maker Support Team”, whatever that is. They finally gave me a solution, which might be a potential solution for you.
Potential Solution
If your Arduino Forum account is deactivated and you are unable to get back in using a password reset, try this:
- Sign up for a new non-forum Arduino account: https://login.arduino.cc/login
- You can use your existing e-mail (the one that is deactivated in the forum) but you will need to create a different username.
- Once you have this new account, you can then go to the forum and it will associate your old forum account with this new account via the same e-mail.
Now I can log in using my old e-mail address, and still have my old username in the forum. Only my main Arduino login has a different username.
Hope this helps!