935665 - Confusing UI: Reset Sync password UI asks for Username rather than Email address

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Cloud Services :: Server: Account Portal, defect)

Description

[Patrick McClard;pmcclard]

Steps to reproduce:
- go to https://account.services.mozilla.com/forgot
- Prompted to enter email, but the Input box asks for Username:
- Enter Username rather than email address

Results: 
- Got a message about dinosaurs. 

Expected:
Input box should prompt for Email address, rather than Username. Once I entered an email address the password reset email was sent.

In addition the error response about dinosaurs gives no information as to what went wrong and is very confusing to me as a user.

Comment 1

[Toby Elliott [:telliott]]

A dinosaur error means we had an internal server exception, not something the user can control. Sorry!

The username/email address conflation is historical - a bunch of early users have usernames and not email addresses. I agree that the current terminology is a little confusing, but for most users, the email address is the username.

Unfortunately, the account portal is EOL while we work on the new firefox account auth system, which means we're unlikely to do minor work. I'll leave this bug open in case we end up doing a larger update.

Comment 2

[Patrick McClard;pmcclard]

Thanks for the context Toby. 

The user that I ran into with this issue was putting in a username rather than his email address. I'm guessing he got the internal server exception because his username was not found (it worked when he entered his email address).

Comment 3

[James Bonacci [:jbonacci]]

OK.