### Preflight Checklist - [x] I have searched [existing issues](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3Abug) 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? Disconnecting and reconnecting the Gmail connector in the Claude desktop app broke authentication for my existing, active, paid Claude account. Every logi

[BUG] Gmail Connector Re-authentication in Desktop App Breaks Login for Existing Paid Account. All Surfaces Route to Onboarding

Status Open

Maintainer reply None cached

Activity 14 comments · opened Jul 8, 2026

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?

Disconnecting and reconnecting the Gmail connector in the Claude desktop app broke authentication for my existing, active, paid Claude account. Every login surface now routes to the claude.ai/onboarding “Let’s create your account” page, with my email shown as verified, instead of authenticating into the existing account. No error is surfaced and there is no path back to the account.
This is the same backend identity-mapping failure documented in #36797, #39788, #51002, #57164, #60022, and #71262. Mine is the connector-triggered variant, closest to #51002.

Environment
• Claude Desktop, macOS
• Claude mobile app, iOS
• Chrome, plus additional browsers tested
• Claude Code CLI fields: N/A. Filed on this repo per the precedent in #51002 and #57164, where backend auth and billing issues required engineering escalation because Fin AI Support could not resolve them.
Evidence the account exists and is billed
Anthropic charged my card on the same day the issue began. Receipt and invoice numbers, card last four, and account creation details available privately via official support channels.
Ruled Out
• Mobile app reproduces the issue, sharing none of the desktop browser’s cache, cookies, VPN, or extensions
• Chrome Incognito (no cookies, no extensions): reproduces
• VPN disabled: reproduces
• Site data cleared for claude.ai, claude.com, anthropic.com: reproduces
• Individual plan, so SSO and provisioned organizational seats are not applicable
Not Done, Deliberately
I have not clicked “Create account.” Per #51002, doing so creates a duplicate account under the same email with a different auth provider and locks the user out of the original paid account.
Support Path So Far

What Should Happen?

Re-authenticating a connector should not affect Claude account session identity. Any subsequent login with a verified email that maps to an existing paid account should resolve to that account, not fall through to the new-user onboarding flow.
Actual Behavior
All login surfaces (Claude Desktop, Chrome, additional browsers, Claude mobile app) route to the onboarding / account creation page. The account exists and is actively billed.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Have an existing, active, paid Claude account (individual plan).
Be signed in on the Claude desktop app.
Settings, Connectors, disconnect the Gmail connector.
Reconnect Gmail, authenticating with the same Google account tied to the Claude account.
Observe: subsequent logins on desktop, web, and mobile all route to claude.ai/onboarding and display “Let’s create your account” with the email shown as verified.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

11 Comments

yaronshamai · 1 month ago

Still waiting for your response please

yaronshamai · 1 month ago

I am hitting this exact bug and I am completely locked out of my active, paid account. Please help.

Reconnecting the Gmail connector in the Claude desktop app broke my login. Every surface now routes to the "Let's create your account" onboarding page with my email shown as verified, instead of resolving to my existing account: desktop app, multiple browsers, and the mobile app.

I run a business on this account. Everything is stuck. I cannot access my projects, my skills, or my work, and I cannot operate while this is broken.

I have tried everything a user possibly can, and it all reproduces the same onboarding redirect:

Mobile app (shares no browser cache, cookies, VPN, or extensions)
Chrome Incognito
VPN disabled
Cleared site data for claude.ai, claude.com, anthropic.com
Full OAuth revoke and re-grant (removed Anthropic's access in my Google account, then a fresh sign-in)

I have NOT clicked "Create account," because #51002 shows that creates a duplicate account and locks you out of the original permanently.

This is a server-side identity mapping failure, not a client problem. It matches #36797, #39788, #51002, #57164, and #60022, which is at least six paying customers hit by the same backend auth bug over several months, and it is still not fixed.

Please triage this and assign it to the auth team. Paying subscribers are being locked out of active accounts with no way to recover on their own. I need help getting back into my account.

Timrcook · 1 month ago

I have a similar issue: I cannot access claude on my windows lap top app without it defaulting to the onboarding page despite using the email verified to my existing Max Plan account. The same applies if I try and access claude.ai. I have got access to Claude through my iphone and ipad, but I need the windows access in order to run my business effectively. The windows access was working perfectly well 3 days ago. I also need help to get back into it please.

yaronshamai · 1 month ago

Please let me know if you found any solution @Timrcook

Timrcook · 1 month ago

Hi @yaronshamai,

Thanks for reaching out, no I have not found any work around yet. I can still access Claude on my iPhone and iPad which is suboptimal. I might try accessing Claude from a different windows device to see if that makes a difference, if it does then I will replace my laptop. I suspect it won't make a difference though.

The impact is quite acute: it's like having a critical member of staff on extended sick leave.

I am also going to see if Gemini and CGPT can perform the Claude tasks to the same or better level because I can't afford to lose productivity.

I'll let you know if I get a breakthrough, please let me know if you do too.

Tim

Tim Cook
Managing Director
Mobile: +44 7831180080 & +971 544653364
Email: @.*
Website: www.kafué.io
London & Dubai
Kafuae International LLC -FZ is a company registered in the UAE 2423036.
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Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2026 10:21 am
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Cc: Tim Cook @.>; Mention @.**>
Subject: Re: [anthropics/claude-code] [BUG] Gmail Connector Re-authentication in Desktop App Breaks Login for Existing Paid Account. All Surfaces Route to Onboarding (Issue #75638)

[https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/270919430?s=20&v=4]yaronshamai left a comment (anthropics/claude-code#75638)<https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/75638#issuecomment-4950214077>

Please let me know if you found any solution @Timrcook<https://github.com/Timrcook>

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Timrcook · 1 month ago

Panic over: I have found that when you are routed to the onboarding page and then "sign up" to the new account using your existing account email, that once claude asks you for your date of birth and name that it opens up your existing account.

Tim Cook
Managing Director
Mobile: +44 7831180080 & +971 544653364
Email: @.*
Website: www.kafué.io
London & Dubai
Kafuae International LLC -FZ is a company registered in the UAE 2423036.
Kafue Consultants Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales No 12238494
Registered office: 9 Thorney Leys Park, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 4GE, United Kingdom
This e-mail is to be treated as confidential and the information in it may not be used or disclosed
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________________________________
From: yaronshamai @.*>
Sent: 12 July 2026 10:21 AM
To: anthropics/claude-code @.*>
Cc: Tim Cook @.>; Mention @.**>
Subject: Re: [anthropics/claude-code] [BUG] Gmail Connector Re-authentication in Desktop App Breaks Login for Existing Paid Account. All Surfaces Route to Onboarding (Issue #75638)

[https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/270919430?s=20&v=4]yaronshamai left a comment (anthropics/claude-code#75638)<https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/75638#issuecomment-4950214077>

Please let me know if you found any solution @Timrcook<https://github.com/Timrcook>

yaronshamai · 1 month ago

Are you sure? Im afraid to try @Timrcook

Timrcook · 1 month ago

It worked for me, but I was already logged in on my iphone and ipad and could not have been logged out of my claude account by following the new onboarding sign up approach according to Gemini, and it has worked.

Tim Cook
Managing Director
Mobile: +44 7831180080 & +971 544653364
Email: @.*
Website: www.kafué.io
London & Dubai
Kafuae International LLC -FZ is a company registered in the UAE 2423036.
Kafue Consultants Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales No 12238494
Registered office: 9 Thorney Leys Park, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 4GE, United Kingdom
This e-mail is to be treated as confidential and the information in it may not be used or disclosed
except for the purpose for which it has been sent. If you have received it by mistake please let us know
and delete it from your system. E-mails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free
as they can be intercepted, amended, lost or destroyed, or contain viruses. E-mails sent or received
by our systems maybe monitored or recorded to ensure effective system operation and for other lawful purposes.
________________________________
From: yaronshamai @.*>
Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2026 4:26 PM
To: anthropics/claude-code @.*>
Cc: Tim Cook @.>; Mention @.**>
Subject: Re: [anthropics/claude-code] [BUG] Gmail Connector Re-authentication in Desktop App Breaks Login for Existing Paid Account. All Surfaces Route to Onboarding (Issue #75638)

[https://outlook.office.com/mail/inbox/id/AAkALgAAAAAAHYQDEapmEc2byACqAC%2FEWg0A459G5%2BErwEKIkmzeoKqmIQAHcefcTwAA?nativeVersion=1.2026.630.300]yaronshamai left a comment (anthropics/claude-code#75638)<https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/75638#issuecomment-4951167763>

Are you sure? Im afraid to try @Timrcook<https://github.com/Timrcook>

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mladen-lyra · 1 month ago

Confirming a second reproduction of this, with what looks like a more specific trigger: re-authenticating the Google Drive connector with a DIFFERENT Google identity than the one the Claude login uses.
Sequence:

Claude account on Max plan, normally signed in via Google. Full account details are in my support ticket (number below).
On 16 July 2026 (desktop, macOS) I disconnected the Google Drive connector, which was authenticated with the same Google identity my Claude login uses, and reconnected it authenticated with my second Google account, a Google Workspace identity on a different domain, to access a shared drive. The connector flow completed normally with no error shown.
From the next login onward, every desktop and web login (claude.ai and the macOS desktop app) lands on claude.ai/onboarding showing “Let’s create your account” with my email shown as verified at the bottom. The existing account is never resolved.
Reproduces with both Google sign in and the email verification code, in incognito, with cleared cookies, VPN off, extensions off, across browsers.
A pre-existing iOS app session on the same account still works fully (history, memory, billing all present), so the account record is intact and only the login side email to account mapping appears broken.
I have not clicked “Create account” given the duplicate account lockout described in #51002.

Support ticket: 215475123424517
Hypothesis for whoever picks this up: the connector OAuth re-grant with a second Google identity appears to overwrite or shadow the identity mapping used at login, so the verified email no longer resolves to the existing account and the flow falls through to signup. Happy to provide timestamps, a HAR capture, or account specifics through the support ticket.

mladen-lyra · 1 month ago

Resolved.
Tim’s approach above worked.

pgerfaux-cmyk · 1 month ago

I have the exact same issue and Tim’s approach above worked as well for me

Showing cached comments. Read the full discussion on GitHub ↗

[BUG] Gmail Connector Re-authentication in Desktop App Breaks Login for Existing Paid Account. All Surfaces Route to Onboarding

Preflight Checklist

What's Wrong?

What Should Happen?

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Claude Model

Is this a regression?

Last Working Version

Claude Code Version

Platform

Operating System

Terminal/Shell

Additional Information

11 Comments

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