Cannot login due to staff leaving business

Shopify Discussion
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Topic summary

Main issue: A business cannot access its Shopify store because a former employee set it up with their email and two‑factor authentication (2FA) tied to their phone. The business has the ex‑employee’s email and tried password reset, but 2FA blocks login.

Key questions and concerns:

  • Whether Shopify can close the current store so they can start fresh.
  • How to add the company’s email to the existing store without current access.
  • If creating a new store would prevent them from taking control of the original store.

Support and actions:

  • Difficulty finding direct Shopify support; the AI assistant wasn’t helpful initially.
  • Update: The business reached Shopify chat support and hopes to regain access soon.
  • Community advice: Confirm who registered the domain (likely the ex‑employee) and contact the domain registrar to claim ownership to prevent cancellation or redirection.

Status: No final resolution yet; account recovery is in progress with Shopify support. Securing the domain is an urgent, parallel action item.

Summarized with AI on January 8. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi, we have a Shopify store which was set up by a former employee. We’ve been unsuccessful at gaining access to our store as the ex-employee set it up with their email and two-factor authentication to their mobile. We have access to the ex-employee’s email address and tried to reset the password, but as there is 2FA which we cannot access and so we are unable to get into the account.

We cannot find a Shopify Support email or number and the AI bot on Shopify Help is not helpful.

We’ve been trying to get access to our shop for many months and don’t know what else to try. Please help

2

We can’t the employee was dismissed under extreme circumstances and we are not able to discuss with the employee for legal reasons. Is there any way we can close our shop so we can start fresh?

3

sorry not quite sure what that means. But how do we add our email to the current shop so we can access our shop, who can I give our email to get this sorted

4

But if we can’t access the current store, even if we set up a new store surely we won’t be able to authorise taking control of the original store?

5

Who registered the domain name (this is likely to be the company name or the store name, e.g. www.???.co.uk)??)

Don’t put the persons name on here! I just want to know if this was also the employee?

6

I believe it was also the employee. I’ve managed to get through to Shopify chat support so hopefully, this will be resolved and can reaccess our store soon.

7

You will also have to call the Domain registration company and claim ownership of the domain otherwise It would be easy for your ex-employee to cancel the domain, or worse, redirect the domain elsewhere.