I Can’t Add Students: Solving "Username Already Exists"

Hello, fantastic educators! We know you're eager to get your students set up for success on Typing.com. If you're seeing an error message saying "username already exists," no worries! Here’s a quick and fun way to fix it:

• Why it happens. A username has to be unique across the whole of Typing.com, not just your school or district. Common names and plain firstname-surname combinations are often taken already, which is why you can hit this on a brand new class.

• Where you will see it. Any of the three ways of creating accounts: Create a Student, Create Students and Import Student List. Students who join with a self-join link pick their own username, so they hit it themselves and can simply try another.

• See it coming. With Create Students, Review Students shows the username generated for every name on your list before anything is created, so you can spot a clash and change it there rather than after the fact.

• What to try. For a student called Fernando Cote: swap the order (cotefernando), use initials (fcote or fernandoc), or add something of your own such as a year or class code (fernandocote-2019, fernandocote-p4).

• Changing one that already exists. Tick the student on the Students tab, click Student Settings, edit Username on the Details tab and click Save All Changes. Tell them their new username before the next lesson.

Thanks for making learning a blast for your students by using Typing.com. If you need any more help, our support team is here for you. Happy typing!