Hi everyone, Steve Webkinz here. Did you have an old Webkinz account that you were looking to get back? Well, read on and hopefully I can help!
Millions of Webkinz accounts have been created since we launched in 2005, and for various reasons, many of those accounts have since become inactive. Over time, that has added up to a huge amount of data that needs to be stored. In order to save space, we made the decision to “archive” these inactive accounts. This process basically compresses the data into as small a size as possible.
Under this previous system (before April 2, 2019), if a player returned to Webkinz World and tried to log in to their archived account, they would get a message telling them that their information was being retrieved. Within 24 hours of attempting to log back in, our system was designed to automatically find that account in our archives and restore it.
***UPDATE – APRIL 2, 2019: This automatic retrieval system has now changed. See details below***
More recently, new online privacy laws governing children’s websites have come into effect. Those laws prohibits companies from retaining account data for extended periods. For Webkinz this means that if you haven’t logged into your Webkinz account in 7 years, your account will have been deleted from our archives.
If it has been less than 7 years and you can’t remember your login information, you’ll need to contact Customer Support. You can reach them via email at:
PLEASE NOTE that the Customer Support team can only respond to emails during regular business hours: from Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm EST. They often get a high volume of requests for restoring accounts (especially over weekends), so please be patient. Response times vary, but can sometimes be upwards of around 10 business days. Sending repeated requests every few days will only add to the backlog.
If you can’t remember your username OR your password, it is still possible to recover your account, but you will need to send Customer Support some additional pieces of information to help identify that the account is yours—like your first name, any pet names on the account, or any of the registered pet codes.
If you don’t remember any of this information, or if your account was deleted, please understand when Customer Support says they can’t help. They want to do everything they can to help people reconnect with their Webkinz pets, but there is nothing that can be done once they get beyond these technical and legal restrictions.
Also remember that it is now FREE to start a new Webkinz account! Adopting additional Webkinz pets onto your free account will unlock Full Membership. If you want access to all of the features and fun in Webkinz World, you can purchase a subscription to Deluxe Membership. To learn more about the 3 different tiers of Webkinz membership, check out my earlier Special Report.
ACCOUNT ARCHIVING & RECOVERY POLICY UPDATE STARTING APRIL 2nd, 2019
Since we introduced the ability to have FREE Webkinz accounts a few years ago, even with the 7 year limit, the number of archived accounts has quickly continued to increase nearly beyond our storage capacity.
To address this, starting on April 2, 2019, we will be making the following changes to our User Agreement’s account retention policy:
1. All inactive FREE accounts will be deleted from our archives. Any paid account (that has ever registered a Webkinz pet Adoption Code, purchased Deluxe Membership, or purchased eStore Points) that is currently in our archive will still remain in our archives for up to 7 years from that player’s last log in.
2. Automatically retrieving inactive accounts from our archives (even if you remember your user name and password) will no longer be possible. To restore an inactive account, you will need to submit your request to our Customer Support team via email at: webkinzsupport@ganz.com, providing the information listed above.
3. Going forward we will no longer be archiving accounts. Your account will either be considered active, allowing you to directly log in, or it will be deleted. Free Accounts will be deleted after 6 months of inactivity. Paid accounts will be deleted after 24 months of inactivity. So to keep your account, you’ll need to log in at least once every two years – which considering how many fun events we do, shouldn’t be difficult.
This has been Steve Webkinz reporting for Webkinz Newz! What would you like me to report on next? Let me know in the comments below.
Wow. That’s really sad to go deleting memories like that.
I guess I’ll have to log into my adult brother’s old account once in a while in case he ever wants to look back. Same with my Grandma’s.
Unfortunately for them it’s the law. Despite not having much info about users, they have enough to warrent this being an issue. It’s a sad day for everyone involved but it really cant be helped :(
Ohhh :( Thanks, I didn’t know that.
If I paid real money for something, it shouldn’t be allowed to ever be completely deleted. Wow.
Laws are laws.
do these replies actually get through to steve? or some “Webkinz” with authority? I seek a special request: CAN YOU PLEASE MAKE AVAILABLE FOR US TO PURCHASE THE FREE CAT WHICH WAS given FOR FREE ACCOUNTS? my collection of pets is quite incomplete without it and it does not seem just that those of us with an investment of many pets do not have access to this ;) THANKS SO MUCH FOR PASSING THIS ON…… BEST, k.
Ahh you mean, when they started the free memberships and you could choose between a cat and dog? I really want those too!!
YESSSS! YOU GOT IT! Let’s lobby for it everyone :))) -k. (p.s. thanks)
I made an account with one of each, but they’ve been inactive since that month the free memberships started, and I don’t think I ever connected an email to the account, so it’s lost. I think they were originally able to be purchased, because I swear I’d seen that cat before! I’ve hoped ever sine that they’d be brought back.
I think it has been more than 7 years for my old account, but is there still hope for me to try to get it back? I have tried to log in to my old account for a a while, but it always says account information is incorrect. That is probably because it has been more than 7 years since I last got on. :(
I mean, I do get on Webkinz every day on my main account. But if anyone loses their account, you know, you always have your plush pets! Also, if an account has been deleted, and all the pets are gone, can the old pet codes be reused on a new account?
I was wondering this tooo, if we could reuse the codes!
NOPE! My granddaughter deleted her account and I thought the same, but when I tried it said the same thing as when you try to use an adopted pet. It is not a valid code.
Aw, too bad. And Oh gosh, I hope she didn’t delete it by mistake!
No worries, ‘Nillabunny,’ she had her account in 2007 played for a long time and there were hundreds of rooms with nothing in them (I think all younger Webkinz players are enthralled with being able to make rooms, so they create dozens without thinking how they’ll decorate or furnish them) it became unmanageable and she felt that her younger siblings should have the joy of earning their own items. She didn’t want to leave any of them out either. To her, I think this was a logical solution. I’m more affected by it because of the memories I have, so I’m recreating the account the best I can. This way if she decides she let it go too soon, I have the backup she can go to.
So, to keep an account “active,” we just have to log-in? (for free accounts, just log-in every 6 months?) We don’t have to adopt a pet in order to keep it active, right?
well obviously to keep the membership you need to adopt a pet but it’ll still be active if you regularly log into it. if that timer reaches 6 months or 24 depending on the type of account, poof, account gone
A few years back my mom bought me a webkinz at the dollar store, and it made me curious to see if my childhood account was still active or not. I could still remembered my login information, and it must have still been within the 7 year mark, as I was able to retrieve my archived account; which I’ve been happily playing every day since. :) Because of that, it makes me a little sad that accounts will be deleted after only 24 months, though on the other hand I do understand the need to clear the servers.
Steve, this is great information. I think it is the right/necessary steps y’all need to take to help “clean up” the massive amount of stored info. But, can you please clarify 1. and 3. they seem to contradict unless I’m not understanding correctly: 1 – says 7 years for paid accts, 3 – says 24 months. Please can you clarify? Thanks so much for all you are doing!
I think what they are saying is if a paid account has already been archived you will have seven years in which to access it before it’s gone. But after April 2nd no accounts will be added to what’s already been stored as archived but will be labeled either active or inactive only. So I guess if you stopped playing right now, your paid account would be archived and you would have seven years to activate it. But, if you stopped playing after April 2nd your paid account would be considered inactive and you would only have 2 years. Now I could be wrong but that was my understanding of his report.
LOL, animalmomkls…I’m laughing but your explanation makes total sense, thank you for answering me! The tech geeks vs the creative minds, lol! My brother is an engineer and I can’t comprehend most of his conversations, ha ha. I want Steve to just say, hey if you stop playing (meaning never log into your Webkinz World) on said account after April 2nd, 2019 for 2 years, um your account will be gonzo. I think I’m good now, thanks so much! :D
I know this will be hard for some people to understand, but anything you guys do that will protect the children playing this, is a good thing. Thank you for following the online policies. I do have one suggestion. Let’s say I have a Webkinz account with over 20 something pets, and I don’t want to add anymore. I know I can start another account, but how will I be able to keep the 20 pet account active if I don’t wish to add more pets to it? Wouldn’t it make sense to have an option like, if you have 20 or more pets on one account, you can just pay the price of a pet, not really “get” the pet, just pay to keep your 20plus pet account open. Sorry if that doesn’t make sense. I just think we need a way to keep a pet overloaded account open with out adding MORE pets. We need a non-pet option. I don’t want to be forced to have more accounts than I can deal with. Or, more pets than I can deal with either. There are pets I add just to keep an account open. I stick them in a room and never play with them. I only play with certain ones. Well….it’s just a suggestion. :-)
A Deluxe membership can keep an account active without adding a pet.
Thank you, Sally. :-) Yes, I know that accounts can stay active without a pet with a Deluxe membership. I should have been more specific. How can a non-Deluxe member stay active without having to add more pets? There are parents that aren’t going to let their children be Deluxe members, or even add more pets to their account. This goes for adults, too. I just recently became a Deluxe member (Christmas gift from hubby.) I am really enjoying it, but am not sure if I’ll renew at the end of the year. I want to keep my Webkinz accounts open, but don’t want to have to be a Deluxe Member on all of the accounts just to do that. I also don’t want to add unwanted pets to the non-Deluxe accounts just to stay active either. Too many pets on an account is a problem for a lot of players. I’d like to have no more than 10 pets per account. That’s a manageable number. I just think that charging a small fee, say the price of a plushy pet, (for those accounts with over 20 pets), would allow players to keep favorite accounts open and active, and allow them to start new accounts with purchased pets. (sigh!) I do understand that this is probably not feasible, just it was just a thought, a suggestion. Maybe a way to make playing on Webkinz a little more fair to those that can’t afford to be Deluxe or choose not to be Deluxe. I do like the fact that we don’t have to buy the actual plushy to stay active. Just wish there was another option than having to be a Deluxe Member. For me, I think I can handle one Deluxe account, maybe two…maybe, but not for other accounts. Anyway, Thank you for answering my question. I appreciate you! :-)
Your account remains active as long as you log in, but if you don’t adopt new pets or get Deluxe Memberships, you’ll revert to a free member 1 year after your last pet adoption or when your Deluxe expires, whichever is later. So you don’t have to do anything special to keep your accounts going, if that’s what you’re looking for. I can pass on the request regarding the other option, but you may also want to consider picking up Deluxe memberships when they’re 50% off on Black Friday and New Year’s Day :)
if this makes you feel better (or faint–sorry) but I have something around 800 pets on one account, so I truly don’t think you need to worry about one more occasional pet…a good internet connection speed and they load in an instant! hope this helps :) -k.
I have a friend who boasts over 1000, your 800 is not a huge surprise, but my only question is, how do you come up with names for your pets? Do you recycle names or are they all uniquely named?
Hi alucard! There are plenty of opportunities available for very cheap Webkinz, there are people selling just the plush codes un-used for about $5.00, I have collected many of my Webkinz at department stores that were having clearance sales and bought a bunch at a time to save for later. Worse case scenario is you purchase a Webkinz plush for say about $8.00 total to keep your account active divide that by 24 months, that’s only .33cents/month, 6 months 1.33/month! If you want to keep Deluxe, I suggest when estore runs a 50% off sale on Deluxe memberships to snatch that up and get the code to renew. Hope this helps but there are many affordable ways to keep your account going…best of luck and have fun! :D
Yes, I have so many accounts I am keeping alive for grandkids. A couple of them have over 100 pets. We don’t want to lose those pets and all the rooms and work, etc. So, I keep a few accts on Deluxe (Black Fri sales :-) so I don’t have to add more pets to those accounts. Also, in trying to keep several accts going, the code for a free pet that you get with Deluxe membership can be put on any of your accts. I also use most of the estore points I get with the membership to buy pets from Ganz estore sales. I check every day for their sales. Have gotten some really good deals.
Are we related? I do exactly the same thing!! If I find a particularly good sake on the plush, I’ll buy multiples of those, too! During last years Underwater Expedition, the eStore had the lil Kinz fishies for 3750 eStore points andcwith the Bird Watching event some of the Lil Kinz birds were that price too. I snapped up a few of those to keep accounts running.
This makes me feel scared, because our accounts were archived and had to be retrieved in December of 2017. But I take it that as long as you access it on mobile, that counts too, right? So if your computer broke, say, and you weren’t able to log on to Webkinz.com, keeping up with your mobile would keep your account active. The thought of losing my Webkinz world scares me now. I’ve had since I was 6, and played with my grandma who passed away now, all my cousins, my brother, my aunt and my mom. I hope I am always able to keep up with it even when I get a job and go to college.
Since you’re accessing the same account, just on a different platform, it should still be kept, I think. You’ll just need to log in within the time limit.
Of course! When you earn kinzcash, click on floaters, earn a medallion, or get a trophy on Mobile, you will see it in your dock on the Website. So, yes, your account is considered active even if you only log in through the Mobile App.
Too bad my original webkinz account has been defunct for well over 7 years :’(