[BUG]Magic-link email login redirects to onboarding for existing Max subscriber — fifth public report of same backend auth-routing failure
Preflight Checklist
- [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
- [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
- [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code
What's Wrong?
Magic-link email login on claude.ai consistently redirects to the onboarding flow ("Let's create your account") for an active Claude Max subscriber, instead of authenticating into the existing account. The backend appears to fail to map the verified email to the existing Max account record and drops the session into the new-user onboarding flow without surfacing any error.
This is the same auth-routing pattern documented in #36797, #39788, #51002, and #57164. At least the fifth paying Max customer publicly affected by what appears to be the same underlying backend identity-mapping failure.
Account Context
- Account email: admin@fundacionnuevaconsciencia.com
- Subscription: Claude Max — active and currently being billed
- Functional session: Claude mobile app, still authenticated with full Max access (confirms account exists and subscription is active)
- Broken sessions: all desktop and web browser login attempts; Claude Desktop app
Actual Behavior
- Magic-link handshake completes successfully (email verified by the backend)
- Backend fails to recognize the verified email as belonging to the existing Max account
- Session is dropped into the new-user onboarding flow as if the user had no account
- No error message surfaced — silent auth-routing failure
I have deliberately NOT clicked "Create account" on the onboarding page to avoid creating a duplicate account under a different auth provider, as documented in #51002.
What Should Happen?
Clicking the magic link with a verified email that maps to an existing Max account should authenticate the user into that account and route them to the dashboard on claude.ai web and Claude Desktop, exactly as it currently does on the Claude mobile app.
Error Messages/Logs
Steps to Reproduce
- Open claude.ai in any desktop browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge).
- Enter admin@fundacionnuevaconsciencia.com on the login page.
- Open the magic link received at that email address.
- Browser is redirected to claude.ai/onboarding?returnTo=/magic-link with "Let's create your account" and the email shown as verified.
- No dashboard appears, no error message, no path back to the existing account.
Reproduced on:
- Multiple browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge)
- Incognito / private windows
- Multiple physical machines
- No VPN
- After clearing cookies, cache, and deleting all API keys from console.anthropic.com
Claude Model
None
Is this a regression?
Yes, this worked in a previous version
Last Working Version
_No response_
Claude Code Version
N/A — claude.ai web/desktop magic-link auth bug, not a
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
Windows
Terminal/Shell
Other
Additional Information
Important context: This is not strictly a Claude Code CLI bug.
This issue is filed on the claude-code repo per the precedent established in #47290 and #51002, where backend / billing / auth issues required engineering escalation because Fin AI Support could not resolve them. The auth failure described above affects claude.ai web and Claude Desktop, though Claude Code OAuth login is also affected since it uses the same backend identity-mapping logic (see #19160, #31124, #39788). The Claude Code-specific fields above (model, version, terminal) were marked N/A for that reason.
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Related issues — same backend auth-routing failure pattern:
- #36797 (Mar 2026) — Authentication redirect loops to onboarding for existing account with active subscription
- #39788 (Mar 2026) — OAuth login redirects to account creation instead of authenticating existing Max subscription
- #51002 (Apr 2026) — Desktop app connector flow creates duplicate account under same email, locks paid Max subscriber
- #57164 (May 2026) — Google OAuth login redirects to onboarding for existing Max subscriber
This is at least the fifth paying Max customer publicly affected by what appears to be the same underlying backend identity-mapping failure.
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Support path attempted (Fin AI dead-end loop):
- Fin AI Agent on support.claude.com — Conversation ID
215474292054390. Did not escalate; recommended self-service troubleshooting that does not apply (the bug is server-side). - Email to support@anthropic.com — Conversation ID
215474314952347. Only Fin auto-reply received. - Explicit follow-up email requesting human escalation, with written request not to close the conversation by bot. No response.
72+ hours have elapsed since the email to support@anthropic.com with no human responder, matching the timeline reported by other affected Max subscribers in the issues linked above.
Per the public "How to get support" article, Fin AI should hand off to human Product Support when a Pro or Max subscriber explicitly requests escalation. In my conversation, it did not.
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Verification offer:
I can privately provide to official support channels (not in this public issue):
- Account email confirmation
- Paid invoice PDFs (recent months)
- Card last-4 digits
- Account creation timestamp
- Mobile app screenshots showing active Max plan
- Browser console logs and screenshots of the redirect flow
Happy to verify identity, payment method, and account ownership via any channel that is not a dead-end bot loop.
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Requested action:
- Engineer-side fix of the auth-routing logic so magic-link logins for
admin@fundacionnuevaconsciencia.comresolve to the existing Max account on desktop and web. - Confirmation that no duplicate account has been silently created under this email.
- Process fix: Fin AI should hand off to a human Product Support agent when a Pro or Max subscriber explicitly requests escalation, as described in the public "How to get support" article.
/cc area:auth
6 Comments
Found 3 possible duplicate issues:
This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
Update: resolved by following the migas5000 / GiacomoPatella path in #36797. Proceeded through the "Create account" onboarding flow, and the system automatically reverted me to my existing Max account — full Projects, memory, chat history, and Skills intact. No duplicate account was created. Web and desktop access fully restored.
Confirming the May 2026 pattern: the backend now correctly recognizes the email and re-routes to the existing Max account on completion of the onboarding flow. Adding myself as the fifth+ public confirmation that this path is safe.
Mobile session (Android) remained authenticated throughout the entire process, as predicted by the independent OAuth token architecture.
'Signing up' with the same email worked fine. Nothing had been deleted. It just put me back into my actual account. All chats, projects and memories were intact.
Claude's login amnesia was one of the scariest online experiences in recent memory. I have hundreds of important chats and projects after mostly moving from ChatGPT. I was about to start backing up chats through the mobile app, which was still working, when I realized it was probably 'just' a sign-in issue.
Showing 'Create new account' when the user tries to log into their existing account is a massive NO-NO. Like going to the bank to withdraw your money, and the clerk says, "Oh, you don’t have an account here. Would you like to open a new one?"
<img width="598" height="470" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6add6682-46ee-46ae-bf6b-f7eb1891a443" />
+1 — another paying Max subscriber hit by this exact backend identity-mapping failure. Adding a fresh data point since this keeps recurring.
Symptom (identical to OP): magic-link login on claude.ai web verifies my email successfully, then drops me on the “Let’s create your account” onboarding page as if no account exists — no error, no path back to my account.
Proof the account exists and is active: my Claude Code CLI is fully authenticated and working with Max access under the same email (confirmed locally in the CLI config). So the account, subscription, and email are all valid server-side — only the web/app magic-link auth routing is broken.
Tried: multiple browsers, incognito, cleared cache, multiple devices — no change. Fin AI support only loops and will not escalate to a human, despite the public “How to get support” article stating Fin should hand off to human Product Support when a paying Max subscriber explicitly requests it.
I have not clicked “Create account” (avoiding the duplicate-account trap in #51002).
Re the invalid label: this is mislabeled as off-topic, but per the precedent in #47290 and #51002 it belongs here because the same backend identity-mapping logic underlies Claude Code OAuth login too. Please route to area:auth for an engineering fix and confirm no duplicate account was silently created.
Happy to verify account ownership, invoices, and payment method through any non-bot channel.
Confirming another affected Max subscriber with the identical signature: all desktop browser logins (Chrome + Safari, macOS) and Claude Code CLI redirect to “Let’s create your account,” while my mobile app session remains authenticated with full Max access — so the account clearly exists and the subscription is active and billed. Same silent auth-routing failure described here and in #36797, #39788, #51002, and #57164. Onset ~July 15, persisting daily since. Two support conversations filed and a direct email to [support@anthropic.com](mailto:support@anthropic.com) 3 days ago — only bot replies, no human. I have deliberately not clicked “Create account” to avoid the duplicate-account outcome in #51002. Happy to verify identity, payment, and account ownership privately through any official channel. Requesting the same engineer-side auth-routing fix and human escalation the threads above have asked for. /cc area:auth
Adding another data point to this pattern. I have been locked out of claude.ai for about three months due to what appears to be the same magic-link issue described here. After more than two unsuccessful months with Fin (Anthropic's AI support bot) and finally reaching a human support agent with their help, over about two weeks I found a workaround that now appears to work:
This worked on both Intel i11/Windows 11/Firefox and AMD Ry7/Windows 11/Edge. Flagging in case the "isolated session + manual paste" detail is useful for narrowing down the root cause — it suggests something about session state or link-click handling contributes to the failure, on top of the backend identity-mapping issue already discussed above.