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Question

Unable to sign up/in due to "Invalid email address" error after business plan cancellation and tenant deletion

  • June 3, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 17 views
K

Hi everyone,

I am a former administrator of a Box Business Plus plan.

I am looking for a solution regarding a specific user who can neither sign up for a free account nor sign in due to an email error. I was referred to this community by Box Support, so I am posting here in hopes of finding some guidance.

Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Background]

  1. We canceled our Business Plus plan a while ago.

  2. After cancellation, some users reported they couldn't log in. Since the tenant (enterprise organization) hadn't been fully deleted yet, we contacted Box Support at the time, and they performed a full tenant deletion for us.

  3. Right after that, those users reported they could successfully log in as free accounts, and the issue seemed to be resolved.

[Current Issue]

Recently, another user (who was also a member of our former enterprise tenant) reported that they cannot log in.

I advised them to sign up for a new free account. However, whether they try to sign up or sign in, they receive an "Invalid email address" error on the screen, preventing them from proceeding. (Note: The email address is fully active and working within our company. Let's assume it is [removed by moderator] for privacy reasons).

[Questions / Request for Help]

  • Has any other administrator experienced a situation where a specific email address seems to remain "stuck" or locked in Box's system even after a full tenant deletion?

  • Since this seems to be an issue tied to the specific account status in the backend, is it possible for a Box Community Manager or Moderator to help check and release this email address via private message (DM)?

If anyone has encountered this or knows how to get this sorted out, I would love to hear your advice.

Thank you in advance for your help!

      1 reply

      Jey Bueno Box
      • Jey Bueno Box
      • Community Manager
      • June 3, 2026

      👋 Hi ​@Kyohei, welcome to the Box Community! Thanks for providing such a clear background of the issue.


      When an enterprise tenant is canceled, individual email addresses previously managed under that tenant can remain "stuck" or associated with the deactivated organization in our backend. This prevents those users from signing up for a new free account or logging in, resulting in the "Invalid email address" error you are seeing.


      As you mentioned that our Support team has already performed a full tenant deletion, it is possible that the affected user previously signed up and deactivated their account, which is now blocking them from signing up or logging in again. For reference, a deactivated account is typically deleted from our system after 120 days.


      To resolve this issue, the affected user will need to reach out to our Support team directly via the Box Support Portal. If they are unable to sign in to submit a ticket, they can use this request form.


      Our Support team will check the account status and determine if the email address is eligible to be reactivated or released from the backend system.


      While the Community Team is always happy to guide you, manual account changes must be handled securely through our official Support channels.


      Thank you, and we look forward to getting this resolved for you soon!

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