> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.groupflow.app/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Creating Your Account > Apply to join a group, sign in with Google or Facebook, or claim the account your group already holds Your account is how your group's website knows you. It is identified by your email address, and it carries your member status, your profile, your dues and the notifications you receive. There are three ways an account comes into being: you apply to join the group, you sign in with Google or Facebook, or your group already holds a record of you and you claim it. Applying is the one that makes you a member. ## Applying to join Your group's **Join** page has the button that starts an application; on a group that runs its membership through Meetup, that button takes you to Meetup instead. If you can't find it, go to `/apply` directly. Under **Please enter your email address**, enter the address you want to use, then press **Send the code**. The page tells you "We will send you an email with a code to confirm your email address." The page changes to **Please check your email**. Find the email, and enter the six digits under **Enter the code from the email:**. If the email hasn't arrived, check your junk folder. If you typed the address wrongly, press **Was that the wrong email address?** and start again. Your group writes its own application questions, so what you are asked varies. The questions are grouped into sections, one screen at a time, and your answers are saved as you move between them. Some groups collect dues with the application. If yours does, you are asked for a card before the last screen. On **Confirm Your Member Application**, check your answers and press **Send**. If you saved a card, this screen reminds you that doing so wasn't the last step: "Your card has been saved, but we haven't received your application. Use the Send button below to submit it for review." ### After you apply You see "🎉 You successfully submitted your application!", and the page tells you two things worth remembering: * You can change your answers until the application is approved or declined. Press **Edit your application** to go back in. * If you are accepted, you get a welcome email and a second email with a link that sets your password. That link expires, so use it when it arrives. If it has already expired, you can [reset your password](/member-docs/login-troubleshooting) instead. While your application is waiting, your account page shows **Member status** with a link reading **You have a pending application**. If you are already an active member and open the application page, it says "This page is for non-members only." and offers **Continue to Member Home**. If your membership has lapsed it offers **Renew your membership** instead — a lapsed membership is renewed, not re-applied for. ## Finishing an account that was started for you Sometimes a record of your email address exists before you have ever signed in, and the account behind it was never completed. When you sign in at such an address, the login form asks you to finish it rather than making a second account. Enter your email address, press **Next**, then press **Send login code** and enter the code from the email. Once the code is accepted you are asked to fill the account in. Enter **Your name**, and leave or clear **Email me when there are new events and announcements**. Press **Yes, create my account**. **Nope, nevermind** backs out and returns you to the email field. That screen is headed "No account was found for *your address*. Would you like to create one?" even though a record of the address does exist — what is missing is the rest of the account, not the address. Finishing an account doesn't change your standing in the group. If you weren't a member before, you aren't one now — apply, as above. Your **Member status** on the **Account** page is what to check. If your group holds nothing at all for the address you typed, GroupFlow can't send you a login code, and the login form does not offer to create an account for you. You get an email headed "No account found for this email address" instead. Apply to join, and the application creates the account as part of confirming your address. ## Signing in with Google or Facebook The login form offers **Continue with Google** and **Continue with Facebook** above the email field. If the address Google or Facebook holds for you is the one on your member record, you are signed into that account; if it isn't, a new account is created with that address. There is nothing to connect by hand, and nothing to set up first. If signing in this way lands you somewhere unfamiliar — no membership, none of your history — the address held by Google or Facebook is not the one your group has for you. Sign in with your email address and a login code instead. ## If you are already a member and have never logged in Groups that came to GroupFlow from Meetup may hold a member record for you that has no email address on it. You can claim it: go to `/register-member/email`, enter your address under **Registration**, and press **Next**. GroupFlow emails you to confirm the address, and once confirmed it is attached to your member record. If no email arrives, the page points you on — either to the next step, or to applying as a new member, depending on what your group has set up. ## Your account settings Your **Account** page holds everything about signing in and being reached. Open the user menu on your group's website and choose **Account**. | Setting | Where | What it does | | - | - | - | | **Email address** | Sign-in & security | Press **Change** — or **Set**, if there is no address on your record. The new address isn't used until you confirm it; see below. | | **Phone number** | Sign-in & security | Press **Add phone** or **Change**. Ten digits. | | **Password** | Sign-in & security | Press **Set** or **Change**. At least 8 characters, and it can't start or end with a space. | | **Discord** | Sign-in & security | If your group uses Discord, press **Connect** to link your Discord account, or **Disconnect** to unlink it. | | **Notification preferences** | Notifications | **Manage** which updates you receive and where. | | **Payment cards** | Billing | **Manage** your saved cards and which is the default. | ### Changing your email address GroupFlow doesn't take your word for a new address. When you save one, the form tells you: "Upon save, you will be sent an email to confirm that you own the email account. Your new email address will not be registered until it is confirmed." Two new rows then appear on the page until you finish: * **Pending email confirmation**, showing the address you asked for, with **Resend code** if the email didn't arrive. * **Confirmation code** — press **Enter code** and type the code from the email. Your old address keeps working until the new one is confirmed. Some groups don't let members change their own address at all. In those groups the **Change** button is still there, but saving a new address fails with "Email changes are not allowed for this group" — ask an organizer to change it for you instead. Your photo, your answers, and who can see them. When the password, the code, or the email won't work. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.