Troubleshooting issues with the root user - Amazon Identity and Access Management
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Troubleshooting issues with the root user

Use the information here to help you troubleshoot issues related to the root user of an Amazon Web Services account.

If you can't complete tasks when you are signed in as the root user for the account, your account might be a member of an organization in Amazon Organizations. If so, and your organizational administrator used a service control policy (SCP) to limit the permissions of your account, then all users, including the root user, are affected. For more information, see Service control policies in the Amazon Organizations User Guide.

If you're a root user and you have lost or forgot the password for your Amazon Web Services account, you can reset your password. You must know the email address used to create the Amazon Web Services account, and you must have access to the email account. For more information, see Resetting a lost or forgotten root user password.

When you create an Amazon Web Services account, you provide an email address and password. These are the credentials for the Amazon Web Services account root user. If you aren't sure of the email address associated with your Amazon Web Services account, search for messages sent from @signin.aws or @verify.signin.aws to any email address for your organization that might have been used to open the Amazon Web Services account.

If you know the email address but no longer have access to the email, first try to recover access to the email using one of the following options:

  • If you own the domain for the email address, you can restore a deleted email address. Alternatively, you can set up a catch-all for your email account, which "catches all" messages sent to email addresses that no longer exist in the mail server and redirects them to another email address.

  • If the email address on the account is part of your corporate email system, we recommend that you contact your IT system administrators. They might be able to help you regain access to the email.

If you're still not able to sign in to your Amazon Web Services account, you can find alternate support options at Contact us.