Multiple Microsoft and Google Accounts Accessing

Owned by David Blood
Last updated: Feb 26, 2024 by Susan Palmer
3 min read



Before You Start

Traditionally, you can only be signed in to one account per service (such as Google or Microsoft), per browser. Modern services and browsers have features to facilitate accessing multiple accounts:

  • Microsoft supports signing in to multiple accounts and switching between them.

  • Google supports signing in to multiple accounts and switching between them.

    • In Gmail, you can also switch to accounts you've been delegated access to.

    • In Google Calendar, you can be granted access to a calendar such that actions you take on that calendar appear to come from the owner of the shared calendar.

  • You can use your browser's Profile system to create separate, persistent containers for additional accounts you frequently have credentials for and use.

  • You can use your browser's Incognito or Private Window to get a temporary "blank slate" for accessing a service as an infrequently-used account you have credentials for.

Microsoft

To sign in to an additional Microsoft account while already signed in to at least one Microsoft account:

  1. Go to https://myaccount.microsoft.com.

  2. Click your user icon in the top right.

  3. Click "Sign in with a different account".

    1. If clicking does not change the page, start the process over in a new tab.

  4. Click "Use another account", or select the cached account you want to log in as.

  5. Authenticate with the additional account's credentials.

Accessing a Microsoft authentication based service like Canvas should now prompt you to select what account you want to access that service with.

Google

Multiple Account Login

It is possible (but complicated) to log in to multiple Geneseo Google accounts in a browser.

  1. Follow the Microsoft login instructions above with the account you wish to access in Google.

  2. Follow Google's instructions to initiate a sign in with an additional account.

  3. When Google sends you to Microsoft's login system, you should be able to choose a Microsoft account to access Google with.

Google does not send the user information you entered to Microsoft! It only identifies that the user is a valid Geneseo Google user. You will log in to Google as whatever user Microsoft reports back to Google.

Account Delegation

Google has mechanisms for granting access to another Geneseo user's Gmail and Calendar account that they call Account Delegation. We recommend this method because it avoids having to share a password and managing multiple Microsoft account login sessions.

  • Account Delegation in Gmail lets you designate grantees who can access a Gmail account you have the credentials for.

    • After accepting the delegation invite, the grantees can click their user icon in the top right of Gmail and switch to the shared Gmail account without needing the shared account credentials.

    • If you are a grantee, you cannot add additional grantees unless you sign in to the shared account with the shared account credentials. This is most easily accomplished in a Private/Incognito Window.

  • Account Delegation in Calendar lets you share a calendar you have Manage Sharing rights on.

    • If you share such a calendar with the Make changes & manage sharing permission, the grantee will see the shared calendar under "My calendars" in Google Calendar, and will be able to interact with events on that calendar as the owner of the shared calendar.

Account Delegation only works with other geneseo.edu accounts and can take up to 30 minutes to show up under the grantee account. 

Browser Profiles

Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge let you configure separate, persistent containers for your session information called Browser Profiles. This feature generally assigns a profile to each browser window, allowing you to to be signed in to different accounts in different profile windows. Firefox is more complicated - see the link below for more details.

Private or Incognito Browser Windows

This is the simplest method to temporarily login to an additional Microsoft or Google account. They are inconvenient for regular access because they forget all your logins when they are closed.

iOS specific login information

When adding an account to iOS, you are prompted to sign in to your existing account automatically. You can sign into a second account by clicking the back arrow then selecting sign into another account.

 

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