Create your account

How creating a TDACorp account works, step by step, including what you see when registration is closed or limited.

On this page

You create a TDACorp account on the Create your account page. It needs only an email address you can read. You prove the address is yours, then you choose a password, and you can add a passkey in the same step. You cannot sign in, and nothing is usable, until you finish those steps, and finishing does not sign you in: you sign in as a separate step afterwards. The wording quoted on this page is the English text. The pages and the emails follow your language, see Languages.

Whether you can create an account yourself depends on the deployment you are using. This page describes what you see in each case. It does not say which case applies to any particular deployment, because that can change at any time.

Before you start#

Use an address you can open right now. The message you need is sent to it as soon as you ask.
Use the same browser for every step on this page. A code only works in the browser where you started creating the account, and the password step that follows continues from the same browser.
You also agree to the Terms and acknowledge the Privacy notice by creating the account. The page links to both under the email field.

The steps#

Open the Create your account page. It says Start with your email address. You will verify it, then choose a password. (A passkey is optional.) Where the sign-in offers Google or GitHub, buttons for them sit under a line reading or; see Sign in with an external provider.
Type your address in Email address and select Create account. For a few seconds the page may say Checking your browser. This can take a few seconds. Wait for it to finish.
The page changes to Check your email and says If this address can be used, a message is on its way. Open the link in it to continue.
Open the message titled Confirm your email address and select Confirm your email. The page that opens is also titled Confirm your email address. Select Verify this address.
The page says Your email address is verified. and moves on to Choose a password: Choose a password to finish creating your account. You can add a passkey as well. Type the password twice and select Create account, or select Add a passkey and finish to add a passkey too. See Add a passkey.
When the account is ready the page says Your account is ready. Select Continue to sign in and see Your first sign-in.

When the account is created it is given a starting username made from the part of your email address before the @. You can change it or remove it later; see Name, username and bio.

If you would rather type a code#

The message also holds a code. If you did not open the link, go to the Verify your email page and type the Code from the email (eight digits), then select Verify. Type the code in the browser where you started creating the account. The message says the link and the code expire at the time it names and that each works once.

If nothing arrives#

On Check your email, Nothing arrived? has a Send again button. After you use it the page says If this address can be used, another message is on its way. If you typed the wrong address, select Use a different email address.

The page says the same thing whether or not the address can be used. That is deliberate: it does not tell a stranger whether an address already has an account. If you already have an account, the message you receive may say so and point you to sign in instead of asking you to verify. Nothing in that message changes anything.

If the link or code does not work#

The page says This link or code is not valid any more. Ask for a new message. A link works once and expires. Go back to Create your account, ask again, and use the newest message.

What you see when registration is not open#

The page checks whether new accounts can be created before it shows the form. There are two closed states.

What the page says	What it means
Registration is closed and New accounts cannot be created here right now.	Self-service sign-up is not open on this deployment.
Sign-up is temporarily limited and Too many accounts were created today. Try again later.	A limit on new accounts has been reached for now. Come back later.

Both states show a notice: If someone invited you to an organization, open the link in your invitation email. An invitation is a separate way in. Its page is titled Join an organization. If the invited person has no account yet, it asks them to Choose a password and offers Create account and join. If they already have one, they are asked to sign in, then open the invitation link again. Where the invitation is for a different account than the one you are in, Sign in with another account is offered. After you accept, the page says You have joined the organization.

A link to the sign-in page, Already have an account?, is at the bottom of the page in every state. The sign-in page offers Create an account only while sign-up is open. See Signing in.

What can go wrong#

What you see	What to do
Too many attempts. Try again in a wait such as 45 seconds, 57 minutes or 2 hours.	Wait that long. Repeated requests are refused for a short time.
The check on your browser does not finish	Try again.
No message after Send again	Check spam, then confirm the address. If the message still does not arrive, try again later.
This browser cannot create a passkey. at the password step	Select Create account to finish with the password alone, or use a browser that supports passkeys.
No passkey was created. You can try again, or create the account with the password alone.	You dismissed the passkey prompt. Try again, or select Create account.