For anyone signing in, including licensed Collaborators, Organisation Administrators and Participants following an invitation. Signing in does not itself grant an organisation membership or a paid seat.
What you will achieve
Sign in with your own identity and reach the organisation or assigned request you intended to open.
Before you start
Use the Backstory address supplied by your organisation or a trusted invitation. Know which identity provider and email identity your organisation expects. If you have both personal and work accounts with the same provider, take care to choose the correct one.
You do not need another person's account. An administrator should never ask for your password or a verification code to complete this journey.
Sign in
- Open Backstory or the current invitation or task link you were sent.
- On the sign-in screen, choose the appropriate provider. The inspected screen offers Google, Microsoft, GitHub and LinkedIn.
- Complete the provider's own sign-in and any verification it requires. Check the account shown before approving access.
- Allow the browser to return to Backstory. If an organisation selection screen appears, select the intended organisation.
- If the original task reopens, check its organisation and subject before acting. If you reach a dashboard instead, reopen the original trusted task link after checking your identity.
- For a new workspace, follow the organisation-creation journey only if you are authorised to establish one. For an existing workspace, use its invitation or supported join request.
If you need account recovery
The inspected login screen does not provide a Backstory password-reset form. Recover access through the identity provider or your organisation's identity support route, then return to Backstory using the same intended account.
An identity-provider problem and missing Backstory membership are different issues. Being able to sign in to Google or Microsoft does not establish access to a particular Backstory organisation.
Check it worked
Your own identity is displayed and the expected organisation or task is available. A Participant may see only the assigned experience; that does not mean they need a paid seat simply to complete it.
If something goes wrong
| Problem | Next action |
|---|---|
| The provider selected a personal account | Use its account chooser or sign out and choose the approved identity |
| Your organisation is missing | Ask its administrator to check the invited identity and membership |
| An invitation is expired | Request a replacement and use the newest link |
| Sign-in loops or returns an error | Report the time, provider and sanitised message; never copy callback tokens |
Human judgement matters
Do not create a second identity or workspace merely to work around an access issue. Resolving the original identity keeps ownership and records connected to the right person.
What next?
For the wider context, see Find and organise your work. Choose the correct organisation or return to the assigned task. Participants can also use their joining guide.
Get help
Ask your Organisation Administrator about access or the task owner about the content. For a platform error, include this guide reference, the affected page and a sanitised message. Never share passwords, session details or confidential evidence in an open support request.