Managing more than one Google account

As you may already know, your ECnet account gives you access to Google Apps at Emerson. When you log in to Canvas, you are automatically logged in to google.emerson.edu, so that creating and sharing documents via google.emerson.edu is a seamless experience. However, you probably also have your own Google account that is separate from your ECnet account, be it for Gmail, Youtube, or any of countless Google services. Using more than one account for Google-provided services can be tricky and even confusing, especially if you click a link to a document on google.emerson.edu, but your browser's already logged in to your personal (non-Emerson) Google account. Below, we'll go through ways to help reduce confusion and error messages.

Keep Them Separated

One approach to managing multiple Google accounts is to keep them separated:

• Log out of your personal Google account before logging in to Canvas, or before clicking to open a document that was shared to your Emerson email address.
• Use one browser for your personal Google needs, and reserve a secondary browser for using Canvas and google.emerson.edu. However, to keep things separate, you may need to copy/paste URLs of links just to be sure you open them in the correct browser.

Multiple Sign-In

Multiple sign-in is a feature that Google offers to allow users to have a browser signed in to multiple Google accounts at the same time within the same browser. This is a work in progress from Google, so while it is very useful, it is not always seamless, and not all Google services support it. Follow the steps below to use multiple sign-in:

Sign in to more than one account

1. Sign in to a supported Google service, such as Google Drive.
2. Click your name or email address at the top of the page.
3. Select Add account from the drop-down menu.
4. A sign-in page will open. Here you can:

• Sign into a Google account, or
• Sign in to your Emerson account: Simply type your @emerson.edu address in the Email field and click Sign in. Your browser will load the Google Apps at Emerson login page, where you can sign in with your ECnet credentials.

Switch between accounts using multiple sign-in

Now that you have signed in to more than one account in the same browser, switching between these accounts is easy: Click your name or email address at the top of the page, then click the email address you'd like to switch to from the menu.

Additional items to note

If you attempt to use your personal Google account on the google.emerson.edu landing page, you will receive a permissions error message, because this page can only be accessed by Emerson accounts. Follow the steps above to add or switch to your ECnet account to proceed.

If you sign out of one account while using multiple sign-in, you will be logged out of all of your Google accounts.