Overview

The "We encountered a problem - Error adding identity ... The identity provided by your VCS service is already associated with a different account. Please try logging in using that account or contact us for further help." error typically occurs when the VCS account you are trying to connect to CircleCI has previously been authorized. 

Why Does This Happen?

This error usually occurs when you have tried signing up through the GitHub or BitBucket account authorization option in the past, and then try to link that same GitHub/Bitbucket user to an account that was signed up via email.

Another reason could be that your VCS account you are trying to link is already linked to another email authentication account.

Solutions: 

To resolve this issue, please unlink the current connection between CircleCI and your VCS also known as unlinking your user identity. You can find step-by-step instructions below on how to unlink your user identity. 

Unlinking your User Identity

If you are signed in to CircleCI using your email + password, you will need to do the following to unlink your GitHub account. 

1. Sign out of CircleCI

2. Clear your browser Cache 

3. Sign in to CircleCI from a fresh browser by authenticating with your VCS(GitHub or Bitbucket)

   1. To do this, you will need to Click the "Signed up for CircleCI with GitHub or

      Bitbucket before September 2023?" button found on the login page : https://circleci.com/vcs-authorize/

      
      

From here you can disconnect your VCS connection  by following the steps below: :

1. Navigate to your user settings page when signed in as the user which is incorrectly/previously linked.

2. Click the red Disconnect button under the VCS section you wish to unlink for either GitHub or BitBucket.

3. Confirm your selection and explicitly confirm this action by typing DISCONNECT in the provided field to confirm

Upon confirming the disconnect action, you will be redirected back to the CircleCI login page to log in with the account you wish to connect.

To reconnect your VCS to CircleCI: 

If a user chooses to reconnect their VCS with CircleCI, they can easily do so. 

If you have not signed up for CircleCI using your email + password, we recommend doing so. You can Sign up by clicking the "Sign up" button here: https://circleci.com/signup/

If you already have a CircleCI account that uses your email + password, please sign in. You can then navigate to your user settings page and connect your VCS using the CircleCI Classic GitHub OAuth Integration and/or CircleCI BitBucket OAuth Integration. 

Alternatively, If a user previously signed up with Github or Bitbucket before September 2023, they simply need to login with Github to reconnect.

Additional Notes

• The above VCS management functionality is currently available only for Classic (GitHub OAuth and BitBucket) organizations.

  • However, we are excited to announce that we will soon be implementing a similar set of connection and disconnection options for Stand Alone organizations (such as those connected with the GitHub App and GitLab integrations)

• Please note that you may need to recreate any Personal API Tokens after deleting your user identity on your user settings page

PLEASE NOTE: Disconnecting a user might clear any user keys that have been generated for any of your projects with this user, so you will potentially need to regenerate these once the user is reconnected.

Additional Resources:

• How to Manage Your VCS Connections with CircleCI and delete your user identity
• How to Perform a Re-Authentication