Confession time...

[#1]

As a Jira Administrator, I spend a lot of time in the Atlassian ecosystem, but until today I had no idea that I could link my personal Atlassian account with my company account.

I've been switching between accounts manually and just accepted it as part of my daily workflow.

After discovering the account linking feature, everything became much easier.

If you're struggling with multiple Atlassian accounts, don't worry. Take a moment to explore your account settings because there may be a much better way to manage them than constant sign-ins and sign-outs.

It's one of those small discoveries that can save a surprising amount of time and frustration.

Sometimes even experienced admins learn new tricks!

[Cengiz Akyildiz]

I still prefer to keep them separate. Once you merge them, your account becomes a managed account, and you lose some control over it. Depending on your organization's security policies, you may not even be able to spin up a new test instance to evaluate new products or apps. It's a trade-off: while merging can simplify account management, it also reduces your flexibility and independence. Cheers!

[Josh McManus]

Yes! Unfortunately this was a brand new feature and still had some bugs when I was getting laid off of my last job, meaning my community contributions ended up orphaned under my work user account. Be sure you do this before you need it!

Also, @Cengiz Akyildiz this really only applies to your Community user...you're not merging accounts, you're linking them together. You can have a Managed user linked to your Personal account and your Personal account remains as the "owner" of your community content. Your work account has its permissions and management and your personal remains separate and doesn't have an impact on the Atlassian apps.

[Cengiz Akyildiz]

Ok, this seems to be new. It looks like it could be a useful addition for community interactions. Thanks for the clarification, @Josh McManus 

There have been a lot of changes around accessing and managing Atlassian Cloud environments lately. Even the API landscape has become quite confusing—there are now multiple APIs for user accounts, and the right one depends on factors like the user type and an organization's user management strategy. Because of that, I'm still approaching these new capabilities with a bit of caution :)

[Viswanathan Ramachandran]

Hi @Sonal Malik 

It's a Aha moment. Personally, I would like to keep accounts separate. 

While this feature is cool, it is far too hidden.

• The Problem: Many users and admins confuse linking with merging and out of fear of mixing corporate and personal data, they resort to inefficient workflows (like constant sign-outs or multiple browser profiles). If you are currently active on your personal account (browsing the Atlassian Community) and you click a link to a corporate, the system breaks.

While organisations block certain controls with their security policies, for ex: you cannot access community portals from your corporate network. Instead, I also like to see a smart UX Bridge feature.

Rather seamlessly routing you, the system usually gives you a harsh Access Denied or 404 Page Not Found error. This would recognise that you have a linked corporate account in the background and say: "Hey, you cannot access your personal account from here" and vice versa, "You cannot access your corporate account from here". 

This would help the users trying to find risky workarounds.

[zoltanersek _outpostlabs_dev_]

I always enjoy discovering little small features that make my life better,

I'd love some improvement around clearer visibility into which identity is currently "active" myself

[Brita Moorus]

We’ve all had those “wait… this existed all along?!” moments 😅 Thanks for sharing, I’m sure this will save a few fellow admins some frustration 💙

[Dave Mathijs]

What are the benefits of linking your personal and work account?

I use the Atlassian Community with my personal account because I want to keep my contributions should I ever decide to switch employer.

On the other hand, many Atlassian Events / Webinars required a business email address meaning that if I register with my work account, I don't get kudos here.

What actually happens if you link both personal and work accounts? If you work account is managed and deactivated at a certain point, will you also lose access to your personal account?