Hi everyone,
I recently ran into an issue with my AppSheet app in Prototype mode where the same user was counted twice.
Here’s what happened:
I have a user whose email is renata10@… (lowercase)
At some point, I edited the email in the Google Sheets data source to Renata10@… (uppercase R)
After that change, AppSheet created two separate user records: one for renata10 and another for Renata10, treating them as different users
I talked to support and they said that it was two different IDs
My questions are:
Is there a native way in AppSheet to prevent the same email from being registered as two different users due to capitalization differences?
Is there a way to strictly limit each user to only one device or one unique access ID? It doesn’t make sense to have X registered users in my app and allow them to generate Y different IDs by simply changing their email capitalization or switching devices — this could exponentially multiply the user count and push the app over the plan limit without any real new user being added.
The team confirmed that AppSheet does not distinguish between ‘Renata10’ and ‘renata10’ due to case-insensitivity in username handling.
The core issue is that the user logged in using Google and Apple authentication providers; because of this, AppSheet generated two separate accounts and Account IDs for the same email address.
Is it normal, then, to be identified as two different users if the devices have different operating systems? I was under the impression that if I used the same operating system, I could log into two different devices (like a computer and a phone, or a phone and a tablet) without creating separate accounts.
So what can I do to make certainly that the user can only login with one kind of device / Device Operational System ??
I will adventure and say it is not the OS but rather the authentication provider (google authenticator vs apple authenticator… but I am still raising this question to be 100% sure.
It is crucial for us to have a clear understanding of this behavior and, if possible, to be able to block or merge these duplicate accounts.
If I have a prototype limited to 10 users, for example, those 10 could easily become 20 in the system’s eyes just because of the login method. More importantly, since AppSheet charges per user, it’s a significant issue to pay double for the same person just because they logged in from a different device or used a different authentication provider (like switching between Google and Apple, that was my case).
I look forward to hearing the team’s feedback on how to prevent this.
Currently, my authentication settings are set to ‘Any Provider’.
If I switch the Authentication Provider strictly to ‘Google’, would this prevent the system from recognizing the same email as two different users across Android and iOS?
My client will still be able to use the app with both cellphones (Android and IOS) ?
There are any alternatives to make my user count as only one ID ?
I apologize for the follow-up email, but I need to make an important correction to my previous point.
I realized that I have several users logging in with providers like @terra, @hotmail, and others. If I restrict the Authentication Provider strictly to ‘Google’, I assume these users would lose access to the app entirely, correct?
Do you have any recommendations or best practices on the best way to solve this problem ? What can I do to this person or any other only have 1 user “ID” in appsheet ?
Thanks for the clarification @Igorpece, and thanks for your inputs @Steve!
I’ve received an update regarding your query and, as Steve previously mentioned, this behavior isn’t related to the devices being used. Access is tied directly to the email address. This means if you share the app with ‘renatabello@terra.com.br’, that user can sign in via different providers (Google, Apple, etc.) or devices, provided the email matches.
To prevent this, you can set a specific Authentication Provider in the app settings instead of leaving it as ‘Any.’ For example, selecting ‘Google’ will ensure the user can only access the app via their Google identity.
Thanks for the update.
If you know this answer, please let me know: If I limit Authentication Provider to “Google” those account that are not @gmail.com will be able to use the app? Since I think that all people use some google account to download apps…
Igor, how would you prevent a user with two Google IDs from using your app from both? I have a personal account and three different accounts from the non-profit Google workspace I administer. Google would be happy to authenticate me under any of these.
As an example, yesterday I used Gemini from two different accounts.
to strictly limit each user to only one device you can make a table for user access with a column for user mail and other one for CONTEXT(“DEVICE”) to make sure that this user will access the application from this device only, but this makes the user needs an approve every time he clear cookies or changes the browser on device
