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After I enable multiple sign-in, and login to multiple accounts, I see that one of them says "(Default)". How do I change which of the accounts is the default one?

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  • 2
    I suggest: Use different chrome profiles (applicable to 'Google chrome')
    – Ujjwal Singh
    May 16, 2015 at 10:48
  • @AʟE. What is the idea of google-multi-login? At this time there is only this question with this tag.
    – Rubén ♦
    Oct 11, 2016 at 13:30
  • @Rubén: There are a lot of other questions that could be tagged with that. I just haven't gotten around to tagging them.
    – ale
    Oct 11, 2016 at 13:42
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    @UjjwalSingh - Using Chrome isn't always an option. Often user's "work" computers will be locked-down with an approved suite of apps ONLY.
    – RayInNoIL
    Sep 10, 2018 at 12:28
  • 1
    Is anybody else frustrated that this is so much more complicated than it should be? Come on google.
    – Gregory Arenius
    Dec 22, 2018 at 20:39

8 Answers 8

Reset to default
128

The first account you sign-in as will be default

To set your default Google account:

  1. Sign-out of all accounts
  2. Sign-in to your preferred account; this will be your default

Google mentions this when you attempt to login with another account, it says the following (see below):

You can use multiple sign-in with these Google products:

  • Calendar
  • Code
  • Gmail
  • Reader
  • Sites
  • Voice

[...]

  • Google products not listed above will default to the first account that you signed in to using your current web browser session.
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  • 1
    I think that this happens only the first time you log in with multiples accounts.
    – Emanuele Paolini
    Jul 11, 2013 at 13:34
  • 3
    worked perfectly!
    – rnjai
    Oct 30, 2013 at 12:02
  • I had to exit and re-enter Chrome to get the voice extension accept the new default.
    – mwengler
    Feb 18, 2014 at 17:45
  • This works even if you're using Chrome profiles. My Chrome profile uses my personal Gmail account, but the default account it uses for Google logins is my work G Suite account.
    – Merchako
    Apr 24, 2019 at 22:06
  • This doesn't seem to work if the one you want as your default is a Google Workspace account. As soon as I signed into my gmail account, it became the default over two other Google Workspace accounts that I'd signed into beforehand.
    – Translunar
    Dec 30, 2020 at 16:17
66

Multiple sign in is a feature that allows you to view content of your other accounts while logged in to one. You cannot use some of the Google tools from two accounts at once, and they default to using the first account you signed in with.

Whichever account you sign in to first is the default account - the account Google will "default" to if there are any issues with supporting multiple accounts.

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Google are still working the kinks out of the multiple account sign-in process. There are links to help pages as well as a feedback form here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google%20Apps/thread?tid=717a33d414ae830f&hl=en

I've been using multiple sign-in feature for my Gmail and Google Apps accounts since they first unveiled it 6 months ago, and it's not bug-free yet. For example, if I log in to Gmail with my Apps account, which I want to act as the default account, and then visit a service like Youtube that doesn't support multiple sign-in and then log in with my "default" account, I get the "This service is not available" message. However if I instead try to log in to Youtube with my Gmail account, I'll get logged out of my Gmail for Apps session and logged into my other Gmail account.

There's no clear schedule for when or if these other services (e.g Google Groups, Maps, YouTube, Picasa, etc) but you can vote for which ones you want most at http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/static.py?page=suggestions.cs&issue=187838&bucket=16925

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0
5

If you use Sync in Chrome, the account you sync Chrome with seems to be the default for Google apps like Keep, Drive, Gmail, etc.

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    Well this is not good. How to make GCP links work while keeping the sync on the personal account?
    – rustyx
    Jan 10, 2022 at 16:18
3

When you first start the allow multiple sign-ins process, whichever account you are using, that will become your default account. So, if you want to change it, you need to switch off the multiple sign in function from each account, then start over from your preferred account.

To switch it off, go to the settings button in the top right corner, then account settings. You will see multiple sign-in = on with an edit button next to it. Hit edit then turn it off. Do this for each account. Then sign out of whichever account you are in and sign into the preferred one.

Do the opposite to turn multi.. back on. Then add the other accounts by going through the settings button again.

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1
  • This doesn't work with unsupported services yet. If you first set your google account to multiple sign-in and as default account and then set your youtube account to multiple sign-in as secondary account and then login to google account and then login to youtube account, the youtube account takes over the default account position and you are forced to switch accounts every time you want to view Igoogle with your google account settings. Highly annoying.
    – user13668
    Sep 27, 2011 at 7:34
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Google uses the first account that was signed in as the default account. (If an account is set to default, it should look like this in the account list: <name> (Default) when you are not on that account). To change default account, just click on Sign Out which will sign out all Google accounts currently signed in. You can then sign in again with your choice of the new default account.

Edit: You will only see (default) next to your email if you are not on your default account.

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  • Not my down-vote, but that process does not work with latest Chrome.
    – rob
    Mar 13, 2019 at 12:09
0

This is a workaround and not a solution but for me it solved the problems that made me want to change the default account.

At the end of each google service url you have /u/1/

so for instance you might have https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/ or https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/ The number portion is a local id that relates to each login you have registered to your machine. To change the login for each service, change the number.

I then save the services as bookmarks as 'gmail work' or 'docs personal' with the correct /u/id/ number in the url.

In Firefox this works well because I can search my bookmarks in the address bar. This gives me the correct account and service and I am assured I have opened the correct google service with the correct user, eg *gmail work and that will open gmail to my work account (and avoid those embarrassing moments where I accidentally write my personal romantic poems in my work's gdrive account!)

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-2

What worked for me (2018, working with an "alias"):

  • Go to Settings

  • Go to Accounts

  • Under "Send mail as:" choose the address you want to be default, and click on "make default"

  • Right below that, choose "Always reply from default address"

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1
  • This is answering a different question.
    – JamesThomasMoon
    Dec 28, 2018 at 23:00

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