Change User Name In 2.0

[Dj.Bea]

I made mistake in User Name when installing 2.0 update. How can i can change it ?

[GreatMarko]

You can't, as it forms part of the security certificate for your device.

 

You would need to uninstall and then re-install Sync again to be able to specify a new username

[Dj.Bea]

Yes it's what i've done. 

 

Not very happy with this 2.0

Why no button "change user" ? 

[Moe]

Because then you would have people changing their name the whole time and you could get confused who is who and if that person is who he says he is.

[GreatMarko]

Not only that, but it would also break the connection with other devices in your "My Devices" mesh, so you folders would stop syncing. Or in the case of folders outside of "My Devices", if you'd shared a folder link with someone and then changed your username, it would invalidate the link.

 

For these reasons, and the reason I stated previously, there is no "Change username" button, and the only way to change your username is to uninstall & then reinstall Sync.

[ancylostomiasis]

Same issue here. I find the entire design clueless. When prompted I actually thought it was to identify the machine not my "usership". Apropriate info is not given here, apparently.

[mexter]

Not only that, but it would also break the connection with other devices in your "My Devices" mesh, so you folders would stop syncing. Or in the case of folders outside of "My Devices", if you'd shared a folder link with someone and then changed your username, it would invalidate the link.

 

For these reasons, and the reason I stated previously, there is no "Change username" button, and the only way to change your username is to uninstall & then reinstall Sync.

 

But that would imply that your username is basically a primary key. Why wouldn't they just make your user ID a alphanumeric string like a folder key and allow you to change your display name? Having an unchangable name isn't security, particularly when you can uninstall and reinstall with a different identity. If you wanted to pretend to be someone else, you wouldn't use your main identity anyway.

 

Why not instead allow usernames to be changed, but include some sort of "transaction history" button when somebody wants to share something. You click on that to find out what previous dealings you've had. Something simple like, "You originally linked with UserX on DATE. UserX changed their username to UserY on DATE."

 

If Sync is really using a username for the linking, then there are much bigger problems than folder limits or unskipable trials.

[iswrong]

But that would imply that your username is basically a primary key. Why wouldn't they just make your user ID a alphanumeric string like a folder key and allow you to change your display name? Having an unchangable name isn't security, particularly when you can uninstall and reinstall with a different identity. If you wanted to pretend to be someone else, you wouldn't use your main identity anyway.

 

I fully agree. The name is not a part of security, since anyone could create an identity with e.g. my name. Security is checking the fingerprint via another channel once so that the other identity is trusted by you. The name is just a handy identifier so that you can check who has access and is currently syncing. There is little reason why the name (as opposed to the certificate) couldn't be changed (theoretically(.

 

So, now if someone has to change their name (e.g. a typo or that person got married), the advise is to do a reinstall, request all past collaborators to reshare and accept you as a peer again? I could see how that works when sharing within a family, but at work that'd be very annoying :/.

[mexter]

So, now if someone has to change their name (e.g. a typo or that person got married), the advise is to do a reinstall, request all past collaborators to reshare and accept you as a peer again? I could see how that works when sharing within a family, but at work that'd be very annoying :/.

 

Unless you're a paid subscriber, in which case I suspect you are married to that identity. 

[iswrong]

Unless you're a paid subscriber, in which case I suspect you are married to that identity. 

 

I haven't gone Pro yet, but this doesn't seem to be a problem:

 

Note that you can reclaim a previously granted seat from any user at any time and share it with somebody else. In that event, the user who had held the seat before you reclaimed it will lose access to all of Sync PRO functionality.

 

 

Source: http://help.getsync.com/customer/portal/articles/1901273-getting-sync-pro

[mexter]

I haven't gone Pro yet, but this doesn't seem to be a problem:

 

 

Source: http://help.getsync.com/customer/portal/articles/1901273-getting-sync-pro

 

I think you misread this. Reclaim doesn't mean you can change the identity. It just mean that you can take the seat away. Your own identity can't be changed. Neither can theirs. The only difference is that they could start again from scratch and create a new identity and then you could grant them one of your seats. 

 

So you're user1 and you bought and extra seat. You grant your seat to your employee, s**tfaced2012. But it's 2015 and they're embarrassed about looking anachronistic and want to change their identity. To do that, user1 has to reclaim their seat, and they have to uninstall Sync removing all user preferences, then reinstall Sync with their new identity s**tfaced2015. 

 

User1 is the owner of the seats. So if that identity is to be changed you would probably have to contact Sync support. I'm not completely sure on this, but from what I've read it looks like if it's possible at all, you would lose any of your saved share links and have to recreate everything from scratch. 

[dis]

I've uninstalled and re-installed Sync 2.0 in Win7U and my user name is not changing. How do I uninstall in such a manner that I can re-install specify a new user name different from before?

[GreatMarko]

I've uninstalled and re-installed Sync 2.0 in Win7U and my user name is not changing. How do I uninstall in such a manner that I can re-install specify a new user name different from before?

 

After uninstalling, you may also need to manually remove your %appdata%\Roaming\BitTorrent Sync folder

[Dj.Bea]

After uninstalling, you may also need to manually remove your %appdata%\Roaming\BitTorrent Sync folder

 

It's why i prefer a bouton "change user".  For uninstall... you have to search what folder to erase.

[Revearti]

After uninstalling, you may also need to manually remove your %appdata%\Roaming\BitTorrent Sync folder

 

Are you able to change your username / fingerprint the same way if you're a registered Pro user?

[RomanZ]

@Revearti

Yes, you can. Just note that you'll have to setup folders from scratch and apply your license again.

 

@Dj.Bea

We want to implement it in future.

[Neurone]

Resetting or changing identity is simple but currently you need to do it outside the Bittorrent Sync client.

• Stop the client
• Delete the folder %APPDATA%\BitTorrent Sync or rename it (i.e %APPDATA%\BitTorrent Sync_IdentityXXX) if you want get it back later
• Start the client again

Sync will create a new folder and it all begins as it was the first time you start the application. When you want to use a new identity or restore the old one, just stop the client, delete or rename back the app folder - saving also the current one with another name if you care - restart the client, and voilà.

 

This operations don't affect files inside your local folders and you can share them again using your preferred identity.

 

Please note: in this way you can override the 30 days PRO trial limit so please act fairly.

Edited August 22, 2015 by Neurone

[RomanZ]

@Neurone

Note, that in this case all your folders are gone and you have to re-share them with all your devices from scratch. You can achieve pretty much same (except trial reset) if you choose "unlink device" from my devices - see screenshot below.