Ask Springshare

Are you unable to log into LibApps? Here are some helpful troubleshooting tips.

1. Confirm the site is correct

Be sure you're using the right LibApps login page for your library. Each institution has its own LibApps login page, and if you did a web search for "LibApps login," for example, you might have ended up on another library's login page. You can tell by looking at the header of the login page—it'll show the name of the institution.

2. Reset your LibApps password

Hey, it happens—sometimes you forget your password. Or perhaps you never got around to setting it up when your account was created. Either way, click on the Reset Password link on the LibApps loging page and follow the prompts to request a password reset email. The email will contain a time sensitive link that will allow you to set a new password.

• The email should arrive immediately. If you don't see it after 5 minutes, please check your email account's spam folder.
• If it's not in your spam folder, check with your IT staff to see if emails coming from donotreply@libapps.com are being quarantined as spam by your email server.

3. Make sure you're using the correct email address

Password reset requests are sent only to emails that are found in our system. If LibApps can't find your email attached to any accounts, then your account may be using a different email. Do you have an alias for your email account? Or perhaps you used a Gmail account, instead? Try using an alternative email address to log in. If you're not sure, check with your local LibApps Admin to confirm that you have an account and which email address you're using.

4. Ask your LibApps Admin to change your password

Speaking of your local LibApps Admins, they can change your password for you. Once you're logged back in, you can then change it to something else via your My Account page in LibApps.

5. Ask your LibApps Admin to reset your MFA method

If you have multi-factor authentication (MFA) activated for your LibApps account and you are having issues with the MFA method currently in use with your LibApps account, your LibApps Admins can turn off (aka reset) your authentication method. Once they've turned it off, you can then set up a new MFA method when logging in again (if MFA is required for access to your LibApps system), or after you've logged in to LibApps via your My Account page in LibApps (when MFA is optional for your LibApps system.

Still having issues?

If you have confirmed that you are on the right login page, using the right email address, and using the correct password, there can be certain situations where your browser is holding on to an expired cookie for your LibApps session that needs to be cleared.

To clear the LibApps cookie, you can visit: institutionsubdomain.libapps.com/libapps/logout in your browser—replacing "institutionsubdomain" with the LibApps subdomain for your site (which can be viewed via the URL for your LibApps login page). 

Set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your LibApps account

Multi-factor Authentication (also known as MFA) is one of the best and most reliable ways to ensure that bad actors aren't able to access your account to gain entry to the applications you use. This means that even if someone has gained access to your login and password for LibApps, they will not be able to log into LibApps without the second layer of authentication that MFA provides.

If your LibApps Admins have made MFA required for accessing your LibApps system and you did not configure MFA for your account the last time you were logged in to LibApps, you will be prompted to configure your authentication method the next time you log in.

 To configure MFA during the login process:

1. Login to your LibApps system with your current credentials and click the Log Into LibApps button.
   1. Reminder: If you are signing into LibApps with your SSO via LibAuth, you will continue to use the authentication requirements set by your SSO. These instructions only apply to systems and users using the standard method for signing into LibApps.

2. On the LibApps Multi-Factor Authentication page, select the Authenticator option to use.
   2. If allowed by your LibApps Admins, you can choose the Email method for MFA.
      • This method will send the authentication code to the email address you use for your LibApps account.
      • If the use of an authenticator app is required by your LibApps Admins, then you will not see this option.
3. Use the Authenticator Application field to select the app that you will use to authenticate. 
   • Currently supported apps include: Google Authenticator, LastPass Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Duo Mobile, and Authy.
   • If your preferred app is not shown, or if you use a physical device for authenticating (like YubiKey), you can use the "Other" option.
4. Scan the provided QR code with your authenticator app.
   3. If you cannot scan the QR code, you can manually enter the security code provided onscreen in your authenticator app.
5. Enter the 6-digit verification code generated from the app (or from your email account if using the email-based method).
6. Click the Activate MFA button.
   • After activating, the next time you log into LibApps you'll be prompted to go through the same authentication process you chose for your account.