Folding Forum

Hi everyone,

I'm a long‑time contributor to the Folding@home project, and I’m hoping someone from the moderation or admin team can help me with an account issue.

During the COVID period (around 2020) I started contributing actively, and with a single machine I briefly reached the global top‑1000. Unfortunately, after the transition to a newer F@H version, my client is no longer linked to my original account, and I no longer have access to the email address I used at the time.

I would like to recover or identify the account associated with my contributions.
For privacy reasons I won’t share sensitive details publicly, but I can provide verifiable information directly to an admin or moderator (e.g., approximate contribution totals, username patterns, hardware details, timestamps, etc.).

If someone from the team could assist me or point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you in advance for your help and for the continued work on this project.

With kind regards,
Paul

Overlord wrote: ↑Mon Feb 23, 2026 7:47 pm Hi everyone,

I'm a long‑time contributor to the Folding@home project, and I’m hoping someone from the moderation or admin team can help me with an account issue.

During the COVID period (around 2020) I started contributing actively, and with a single machine I briefly reached the global top‑1000. Unfortunately, after the transition to a newer F@H version, my client is no longer linked to my original account, and I no longer have access to the email address I used at the time.

I would like to recover or identify the account associated with my contributions.
For privacy reasons I won’t share sensitive details publicly, but I can provide verifiable information directly to an admin or moderator (e.g., approximate contribution totals, username patterns, hardware details, timestamps, etc.).

If someone from the team could assist me or point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you in advance for your help and for the continued work on this project.

With kind regards,
Paul

Are you sure you are not mixing up the email you used to get your passkey, and the actual email you now require to set up an account?
I don't think we are able to remind you your email address. There would be no way you could prove that account is actually yours.

In 2020 there was no registry of usernames, they were not necessarily unique, and they were not linked to email addresses. So if you recall the username from then, that is the first step. Any passkey would have been recorded in the passkey database based on the username and email address you used to request it. If you have an old install still available it would also be in the config.xml file and can be copied from there. If you do need to get another, just use any email and any username and a new one will be sent. The username used in the passkey request does not need to match what you use in the client.

The accounts now available, but currently optional for the v8 client would not have existed in 2020, or for several years afterwards. So if you want to use one for the current client version just set up a new account with whichever email you want to use. Though F@h has experienced some issues sending the account verification email and token through to some email services. Without that account you can still enter your username and passkey into the client to use locally on your machine.

Thank you, that's the way to go then!
I still have my passkey and username from then, and indeed username is not unique, but ID is right?

Overlord wrote: ↑Mon Feb 23, 2026 9:08 pm Thank you, that's the way to go then!
I still have my passkey and username from then, and indeed username is not unique, but ID is right?

If you have username and passkey, then you are good to go. Use whatever email you want, create the account, log in to that account from fahclient v8, go to account settings (top right corner) and enter your username, and paste your passkey in relevant fields. Make sure to double check the passkey, and also add team number you would like to fold for. Now the passkey should be saved within that account, and unless you delete your account, you won't lose your passkey anymore