How to sign in to your Ally cabinet

Ally uses passwordless authentication. There is no password to remember, no password to reset, no password to leak. The sign-in flow has six steps, and the whole thing takes under a minute on a good connection. Below is the full walkthrough, followed by eight common issues we see at the support desk and their fixes.

The six steps

1. Open the sign-in page. Go to allyhub.org/login from the browser you want to use your cabinet on. If you're on a shared computer, use a private/incognito window so your session cookie is dropped when you close it.
2. Enter your email. Type the address your Ally account is registered under. If you're new, type the email you want to register — the same flow creates the cabinet on first click. Case does not matter; leading and trailing spaces are ignored.
3. Send the magic link. Press the purple Send my magic link button. On the server we generate a single-use, time-limited token (30 minutes) tied to your email and to the browser fingerprint of the tab that requested it.
4. Check your inbox. Within about 15 seconds an email arrives from notify@allyhub.org with subject "Your Ally sign-in link". If it does not arrive within two minutes, check spam and see problem #1 below.
5. Click the link. The link opens a fresh Ally tab, verifies the token, and drops a session cookie on your device. You are now inside your cabinet. If you clicked the link on a different browser than the one that requested it, you're asked to confirm one more time — this is deliberate and defends against email interception.
6. Land on your cabinet. The default landing is the cabinet overview page — upcoming session, homework tracker, latest shared notes. From there every mentorship action is one click away.

The session cookie lasts 30 days if you ticked "keep me signed in" at step 2, or expires when you close the browser if you did not. You can revoke every active session from sessions & devices at any time.

Eight common problems

1. The email never arrives

Check spam first — some corporate filters treat sign-in emails as suspicious. If it's not there, check whether you typed the email correctly (we don't confirm the address exists — sending to a non-existent account looks identical from the outside as a defence against enumeration). Wait two full minutes, then try again from the same browser. If the second link doesn't arrive, add notify@allyhub.org to your safe-sender list and try once more. Still nothing? Reach the desk at support@allyhub.org — the desk can see whether emails to your domain are bouncing.

2. Link says "already used"

Each magic link works exactly once. If you clicked it, then closed the tab, then clicked it again, the second click fails. Go back to the sign-in page and request a fresh link.

3. Link says "expired"

Links live for 30 minutes. If you requested one on the tube, then read the email an hour later, it's dead. Request a new one.

4. Different browser opens when you click the link

This happens on Windows if your default browser differs from the one you requested the link on. Ally notices the browser mismatch and asks you to re-confirm from the browser you actually want to use. To avoid the extra step, copy the link URL and paste it into the browser you meant to use.

5. Corporate proxy strips the link

Some corporate mail scanners rewrite links to route through their inspection proxy. In most cases this still works — the proxy fetches the link, resolves the redirect, and forwards you to Ally. In rare cases it fetches the link once (consuming the single-use token) and then hands you a dead link. Fix: request the magic link to a personal address, or ask your IT team to add allyhub.org to the proxy allow-list.

6. Two-factor prompt after the link

If you enabled 2FA on your Ally account (see 2FA settings), Ally shows a second screen after the magic-link click asking for a six-digit code from your authenticator app. This is expected. If you lost the authenticator, use one of your recovery codes (downloaded when you enabled 2FA) or start account recovery.

7. Signed in but immediately signed out

Usually a cookie issue. Ally sets a first-party cookie called aa_sid. If your browser is set to block first-party cookies for allyhub.org, the session cookie is discarded on the next page load. Allow cookies for allyhub.org and try again. Also check that your system clock is accurate — the cookie expires based on your device time.

8. Wrong Ally account

If you have two Ally accounts (one for work, one for personal) and you accidentally sign in to the wrong one, sign out from the top-right menu inside the cabinet and repeat the sign-in with the correct email. There is no way to merge two Ally accounts — the cleanest fix is to export the notes from the one you want to retire (see data export) and import them into your primary account, then delete the retired one.

Still stuck?

Reach the support desk at support@allyhub.org from any email address. We reply within one working day on Monday–Friday London time. If you need faster help, the phone line is +44 20 3695 4712, 09:00–17:00 UK time.

For a shorter, more direct guide focused only on recovery see how to recover your Ally account. For questions about the underlying flow see the login FAQ.