Overview
When you complete some actions on our website, including:
- registering your account the first time,
- making an email address change, or
- resetting your PIN,
A link is sent to you to verify the action. Some people have let us know that they are seeing the following message after clicking a one-time link sent to them, even though they had not previously clicked on the link.
"The link you clicked on is no longer valid. It has either been used, expired, or replaced with a new one."
Cause
Although you may be interacting with the link for the first time, one-time links can be invalidated by anti-phishing and other email security tools. This can take place on the email server before it reaches your inbox, or as a redirect immediately after you click the one-time link.
There are a few platforms/software that are known to cause one-time links to be invalidated (depending on the configuration of the platform/software). These are:
- Microsoft Exchange
- Outlook 365
- Proofpoint
Other tools may also cause this issue. It's hard for us to know which ones may cause the issue, since these are not controlled or managed by the Library or the Library's website company.
This issue is more likely to impact you if you gave us your work email when you got your library card.
Solutions
The following options may help, depending on the email security tool in use:
- Copying the link from the email and pasting directly into a web browser.
- Use another email address for your library account. You can come in to the library at any time to change your email address. Staff are happy to help with this. You can also update your email address in the Classic Catalog.
- Add do-not-reply@bibliocommons.com in your email system to a safe senders list or to the address book. BiblioCommons is the website company that provides the Library with our website platform.
- Contact the team managing your organization's email or IT services to see if they can help.
This doesn't just happen on the Library's website. It is a known issue across many online platforms and services that use one-time links in emails to users. Our website company, BiblioCommons, continues to monitor this to see if they can make any changes on their end that might help.