Forum Discussion
My T-Mobile Login Loop Bug
Dear Friends,
I just battled for days (and now overcame!) a login loop issue while trying to log into My T-Mobile.
I post this here on the off chance that it will help some other poor, confused soul, as I was mere minutes ago—and on the so-remote-it-makes-Pluto-look-near chance that it will actually get fixed.
The problem is this...
What appears to happen is that if you try to login with your phone number, y if T-Mobile thinks that you need to reset your password, there is absolutely no way to login to your account. You can't even use the mobile app. (You also can't login to contact support, because that requires logging in to My T-Mobile, and they have no email address you can contact.) (To their credit, I could have called them and attempted the verbal acrobatics of explaining this over the phone to some poor underpaid soul in a call center.)
A story by (riveting) pictures:
First, you try to login to My T-Mobile. It asks you to reset your password. (Side note, the password reset page is completely bizarre, as the checks to see whether your password passes the criteria seem to break in odd and confusing ways; a long password somehow immediately fails all of the other criteria? Anyway, moving on.) After this, you are treated to a nice infinite loop:
After trying this enough times, it may eventually just fail with the following error page:
(Repeating the above multiple times with different web browsers bears no fruit.)
If you try to, say, download the T-Mobile app with your iPhone, you'll be treated to the same process, except instead of a grey screen infinite looping, you get to see the pink app do that. It, too, will eventually give up after several attempts and show you a different error screen:
(Pause here for dramatic effect where you actually believe the error messages and that someone might fix the problem over the course of a few days.)
Now, you might think, why don't you just reset your password upfront? Shortcut the whole process and get to the point, right? Yeah, let's try that:
A-ha! Everything still fails, but you (sometimes) get a mysterious error message: "The provided user_id is not found." This is, of course, malarkey, because you've already provided your phone number and it's found your account and texted you a confirmation code and everything. But it leads us to believe... maybe the phone number is the problem?
So, repeat the above using your email instead of your phone number, and voila, you can reset your password and everything works.
In the minuscule chance that this saga works its way through T-Mobile's bureaucracy and to its developers, I offer you my humble thanks in advance for fixing this confusing hodgepodge of loops and errors.
Yours, loyally,
- A T-Mobile Customer
I'm stuck in a loop aswell and frustrated because my bill went up spontaneously. Can't contact support… continuously asks me to put my password. Had to rest my password, managed to log in through website using new password, but new password doesn't work for app??? What is going on?
Thank you for this walkthrough on fixing the issue. I have tried to login multiple times in the past months but have been to busy to fix this and your guide helped me fix it while I waited on line the phone with support for over half an hour just to have the line disconnect. T-Mobile really needs to take not of and FIX THIS!. Also I noticed your screen shot said Español in the top left. My web also defaults to Español even though I am an English speaking customer in the US. What's up with that?
This is what I get when I try to finish logging in from "Link Phone". Customer service is no help… I currently have to pay as a guest because they will not fix it! They have had me reset my account and ID & Password.. but so far nothing! Yes thank you for posting. Should help some people from going insane. But YAY 2020 and this crap is still here. I had just written a full blown tirade because this type of issue has been happening forever. But I've erased it all and just gonna say they need to fix the issue where their systems can't figure out that both the email and phone number are linked to the same account. Sick of guessing which one to use. I'm just trying to sign up for a T-mobile Money account and its been a few days trying to get an account setup online due to "oops something went wrong" and "invalid credentials" and "you don't have an account yet" .blah blah blah.. Now my password is mangled and I still don't have a T-mobile Money account.
Even using the email, well I get further, but it still doesn't recognize who I am apparently. Now I have to go call them.. AGAIN!
THANK YOU for posting! Very helpful even after over a year.... Maybe fix the bug T-Mobile!??? Sheesh....
September 5 same problem. T-Mobile supervisor admitted this is an ongoing problem with many customers. They haven't figured it out yet. Given the time that has gone by with no resolution, it's not likely to be fixed soon. I suggested they send me a hard copy bill if they want to get paid on time.
Still today SEPTEMBER 2019, I experienced this problem, it seems the T-MOBILE team is not doing enough to fix this bug, the login page is poor and has no options, I used to have the security questions there and they are now gone, and now I fell into this horrible loop with OOPS screens and other BS.
T-Mobile, do something, fix the login, let us choose the password duration and don't force us to change it and fall into this loop, remember, we have other phone companies to go.
I struggled with this for weeks. This post helped me by having me use my email instead of my phone # - so thanks for that.. But it still didn't get me past the "Oops - wires crossed!" BS message.. I finally was able to change my password by resetting it via the browser on my phone. Maybe that worked because it was a new phone..? I don't know why I couldn't reset via a laptop browser or the phone app, but the phone browser worked on the first try. (So lesson may be that once you do it wrong on a device (ie using phone # instead of email acct), that device is not going to succeed. Try going to a different device ... maybe?
Thanks for the heads up. Thanks to the forced (and broken) change password, I wasted so much time in the last few days with the stupid "The provided user_id is not found" error.
This bug is still present in recent and current versions of the T-Mobile Android app. Just read the numerous negative reviews on Play Store, which I bet no T-Mobile app/web developer or customer service pay attention to, since the bug is still present AFTER SIX MONTHS.
The app (which I believe is basically a web browser rendering engine, instead of an app with fixed layout and functions) has been very erratic lately. I keep getting B&W text with no buttons and webpage not available error "http://ma.web2go.com/" ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT
Changing password via web seems to work better on the web, after a few retries (something I've grown accustomed to, which says a lot about T-Mobile's web/app UX quality and reliability).
