password

I don't have a password and email address associated to my CoCalc account, but I need one.

There is still some functionality of CoCalc that requires having an email address/password login associated to your account. One example is getting an API key; however, if this is your motivation, note that we just implemented a new way to get an API key for any account, even one without a password: (1) sign out, then visit this URL: https://cocalc.com/app?get_api_key=me, or just visit that URL in a new private browsing session, then (2) wait a moment and the URL will change to https://authenticated/?api_key=sk_mysecretkey#. Your API key is sk_mysecretkey.

If you make your CoCalc account using your Google, Facebook, Twitter or GitHub account, then you might not have an email address associated to your CoCalc account, and definitely won't have a password.

1. Setting a password

To set a password, click Account in the upper right, click on the Preferences tab, then click "Change password...". Where it says "Current password (leave blank if you have not set a password)" in the first blank, indeed do that: leave blank (unless, of course, you have already set one!). Enter the password you want for login to CoCalc in the second box, leaving the first blank, and click "Change password". Now you have a password.

2. Setting an email address

You might not have an email address associated to your CoCalc account, e.g., depending on what information is in your profile. If you don't, and would like to associate an email address to your CoCalc account, make sure to first set a password (see step 1 above). Next go to Account -> Preferences, click "Change Email", and enter your email address and the password from step 1.

Caveat -- two-factor authentication

CoCalc Email address / password authentication currently does NOT support 2-factor authentication. The only way currently to protect your CoCalc account with 2-factor auth is to only use Google/GitHub/Facebook/Twitter, and to use 2-factor for that account. In any case, if you use email/password authentication for a CoCalc account, please use a strong random password.