Hello,
It's been almost a decade since I logged into my account and I need to access a repo that used to be in it. However, when I go to BitBucket it says "We couldn't log you in".
It seems I might have a similar issue where my account was marked as inactive. Is there a way to resolve this?
Hi @Eric Ling ,
Try an incognito window first, extensions off. That error also shows up when something strips the referrer header, and it takes a minute to rule out.
If it still fails after ten years away, it is almost certainly a dormant account. When Bitbucket moved to Atlassian account login (2017 or so) the accounts that never logged in afterwards got parked, and a parked account can't log in or reset its password on its own. Only Atlassian can wake it up. Raise a ticket at support.atlassian.com/contact with the old email address and the exact error. If the form won't take it because there's no paid plan behind the account, post in the Bitbucket questions forum here with the same details, Atlassian staff pick those up and have reactivated accounts that way before.
One heads up before you go through all that: if the repo was Git it will still be there. If it was Mercurial it's gone, Bitbucket dropped Mercurial in 2020 and support can't restore those anymore. Only hope then is an old local clone or, for public repos, the Software Heritage archive.
Let us know if incognito changes anything.
Hi @Eric Ling
One important detail to add to Christos' answer.
Atlassian's 2026 cleanup also affected inactive Free Bitbucket workspaces containing Git repositories. Those remaining deactivated after May 15 were scheduled for permanent deletion.
Even if Atlassian reactivates your account, repository recovery isn't guaranteed.
Ask Bitbucket Support to check whether your account is dormant and whether the original workspace still exists.
Best,
Arek🤠🧙♂️
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