Last updated: 10 September 2026
Practical answers for the awkward account, invite, billing, and deletion situations that come up in real family and community use.
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Three different actions people often mix up
Use opentribe.ai/download. When Tribe is live on Google Play, that page opens the store listing. Until then it shows a coming-soon state — invite emails already point here so you do not need a new invite when Play goes live.
First-time sign-up with no pending invite creates a starter tribe and makes you its Lead keeper. That is intentional so you can begin uploading immediately. If you were meant to join someone else’s tribe instead, ask them to invite your email, then open Tribe again so the invite can be accepted.
Yes. One account can join many tribes as Contributor or Viewer. Leading a second tribe as Lead is a special case — see “I want to lead two tribes” below.
Pending invites stay attached to your email until they expire, are revoked, or you sign in and they are redeemed. When you sign in with that email, Tribe can redeem all still-valid pending invites for that address. You may therefore join both Tribe 1 and Tribe 2 if both invites are still open.
What the inviting Lead should do: If you no longer want someone in Tribe 1, revoke their pending invite in Settings → Keeper invitations before they sign up. If they already joined, remove them from Tribe keepers.
Invites only redeem when the signed-in email matches the invited email exactly (same address, not a different alias unless it is literally the same string).
Invites are time-limited (currently about 7 days) and Leads can revoke them. Ask the Lead to send a fresh invite. There is also a limit on how many pending invites a tribe can have at once.
Neither has to win. If both invites are still valid when you sign in, you can become a keeper in both tribes. Use the tribe picker to switch between them.
You can belong to both. If you do not need the accidental starter tribe:
No. Tribes are private and invite-only. Someone who is already a Lead (or who can ask the Lead) must invite your email.
Tribe sign-in is email-code based. If you cannot receive codes at that address, you cannot sign in as that account. There is no password reset path that bypasses email.
What to do:
Prevention: Keep a trusted secondary keeper, designate a successor while you still have access, and export important archives periodically.
Same problem as lost email access. Before you lose the address:
We do not currently offer in-app “change account email” while keeping the same identity. Treat the email as the account key.
Do not assume two emails automatically merge. They are separate accounts.
Ask the Lead to remove you and re-invite as Contributor, or change your role if the tribe already supports role updates from Settings. Only the Lead can raise access.
In Settings (for Contributor keepers), use the member link / change-member flow to pick a different unclaimed member when available. If another keeper already claimed that person, ask them to release or correct it, or contact the Lead. Member claims are about identity in the archive, not about account ownership of the tribe.
Add them as a Member (person in the archive). Only give a Keeper invite to people who should sign in and manage or browse with an account.
If a successor was already designated and can still sign in, they should accept succession in Settings. If there is no reachable Lead and no successor, contact admin@opentribe.ai with tribe details. Prevention matters: always keep at least one other trusted keeper and a designated successor.
As current Lead, cancel the pending succession in Transfer leadership, then designate someone else. If they already accepted, ask them to transfer leadership back.
Today, creating / leading a second tribe as Lead is constrained by product rules (one Lead-owned tribe path per account email in normal use). Practical options:
A tribe must never be left without a Lead keeper. Use this matrix before you leave, delete a tribe, or delete your account.
| Action | What it removes | Account stays? | Tribe stays? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leave tribe | Your membership in this tribe | Yes | Yes |
| Remove keeper | Someone else’s membership (Lead only) | Their account stays | Yes |
| Transfer leadership | Nothing — roles swap after the successor accepts (you become a Keeper; they become Lead) | Yes | Yes |
| Delete tribe | Entire tribe and archive for everyone | Yes | No |
| Delete account | Your Tribe account and sign-in identity | No | Other tribes you do not lead stay |
In the app, Keeper may appear as Contrib and Guest as Viewer.
| Action | Lead Keeper | Keeper | Guest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leave this tribe | Blocked — transfer first (or delete the tribe) | Allowed | Allowed |
| Remove another keeper | Allowed (not yourself) | No | No |
| Transfer leadership | Yes — designate a successor; they must accept | Only if designated: Accept / Decline | Only if designated: Accept / Decline |
| Delete this tribe | Yes | No | No |
| Delete own account | Blocked while Lead of any tribe | Allowed (if not Lead elsewhere) | Allowed (if not Lead elsewhere) |
Before deleting your account: for every tribe you lead, either transfer leadership (and wait for acceptance) or delete that tribe. Until every Lead seat is cleared, account deletion stays blocked so no tribe is left without a Lead keeper.
Tribe deletion is immediate and permanent. Records, members, invites, and search data for that tribe are removed. There is no in-app undo.
If you exported recently, recreate the tribe and re-upload from your export / originals. Contact admin@opentribe.ai quickly if you believe a support-assisted recovery path might still exist for your case — do not assume backups are available.
Ask the Lead to invite you again. Leaving removes your keeper access; it does not delete the tribe’s content for everyone else.
If you are Lead of one or more tribes, deletion is blocked until each of those tribes has a new Lead or is deleted. The app should list the blocking tribes. For each:
Then return to Settings → Delete account and type DELETE to confirm.
Only a Lead can remove other keepers. If you were removed, you lose access until re-invited. Content you uploaded generally remains in the tribe archive unless separately deleted.
The Lead pays the tribe subscription. That covers shared storage and each keeper’s monthly AI credit allowance while the subscription is active. Individual keepers can buy their own credit top-ups.
The tribe becomes read-only: you can usually still view existing content, but uploads, edits, and AI features stop until the Lead resubscribes. Contributors and Viewers cannot restart the subscription themselves.
Play purchases are tied to the store account on the device. Sign into the purchasing Google account on that device and use Restore purchases, or repurchase under the correct account. Tribe cannot move store entitlements between Google accounts.
No. Monthly allowance and personal top-ups are not a shared pool. 1 credit ≈ 1 chat turn.
Delete the record from the archive as soon as possible (Contributor or Lead). Deletion removes the file and related generated text from the tribe’s active archive. Also tell other keepers not to export or reshare it.
Answers are grounded in your tribe’s records and can be incomplete if uploads are missing, mistagged, or poorly transcribed. Add or correct the underlying record, then ask again. Do not treat Chat as a legal or medical authority.
Lead keepers can use Settings → Data export → Export full archive. Non-leads should ask the Lead. Tribe is not a substitute for your own backups of irreplaceable originals.
There is no automatic tribe merge today. Practical approach: pick a surviving tribe, export from the other, re-upload / recreate members carefully, then delete or archive the duplicate tribe once verified.
Email admin@opentribe.ai and include:
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