If you get a message like this when you log in, it’s referring to how you had an account already registered with Google using that email. Now you have a new kind of Google account with that same email address. Part of the confusion is that you can register any email as a “Personal Google account” – it doesn’t have to be a Gmail or a Google Workspace email account.
In other words, if you see this message it means you have a “personal Google Account” and a “Google Apps account” (now called a “Google Workspace account”) linked to the same email address.
1 – Google Workspace account An account owned by helloari.com
2 – Personal Google Account An account you created with Google
Learn more about “conflicting accounts“:
A conflicting account is a personal Google Account that was created using the email address of a Google Workspace account. A Google Workspace user could have two accounts with the same email address.
If you had old google account and now your email hosting is part of Google Workspace it asks when you login about a personal (or it might be considered a private account as opposed to a corporate Google Workspace account). Some might refer to this as a Google login in Workspace vs a Private account.
There is a way to combine to two accounts: see: support.google.com/a/answer/7062710
But it’s not required. You can just click on that first option “google workspace” and proceed.
This video explains in more detail:
a related error is “user name conflicts with consumer account”. if you get that your next step is to merge the old consumer email account with a new google workspace email account: If you’ve signed up for a Google account using your company email address, and later your company upgrades to Google Workspace, you might encounter a conflict between your old Google account and the new Google Workspace account. This conflict arises when both accounts use the same email address. To resolve this, follow these steps:
PART 1: Conflicting accounts occur when you initially use your company email to create a Google account. Subsequently, if your company switches to Google Workspace, creating a new work-related Google account, both accounts conflict because they share the same email address. If your personal Google account ends with “gmail.com” and has no aliases, it won’t face this conflict.
PART 2: When logging in, Google offers several options to resolve the conflict and separate the two accounts. You can:
- Switch to an account with a Gmail address (exampleemail@gmail.com or another available Gmail name).
- Switch to an account with a different email address (e.g., example@mail.com or any other email address).
- Sign in with a temporary username provided by Google (example%domain@gtempaccount.com).
It is essential to resolve all conflicting accounts. If you opt for the last option, your account will be automatically renamed to the temporary name provided by Google. You will continue to be presented with these options during sign-in until you choose and confirm a permanent solution.
learn more about Merging accounts
