Creating/transferring a LINE account
Verification issues
If an error message appears during the verification process, try restarting the app and your device. Staying on the verification screen for too long can cause an error message to appear when you try to proceed.
You may also be able to resolve the issue by checking the steps to create a new account in this Help article.
If the error message still appears after trying the suggestions above, contact us via the Inquiry Form.
To verify your phone number, your device needs to be able to receive text messages or phone calls.
Note: Even if your device meets these requirements, LINE accounts cannot be created or transferred with a virtual phone number.
If you can't create or transfer an account with your preferred phone number, use a different phone number that is provided by a mobile service provider.
Important: If you verify a phone number that is already registered to another LINE account, that account will be deleted.
When you request a verification code, the LINE app will send you one via text message or phone call.
These verification codes are sent out using a system designated by LINE. The phone number used may appear as either a domestic or overseas number.
If you requested the verification code:
Please proceed with the verification process using the code that was sent to you.
If you received a verification code but didn't request one:
It’s possible someone entered your phone number by mistake. In this case, please disregard the text message or phone call.
Important: Even if you did not request a verification code, be sure to never share this code with anyone.
If the phone number you use for verification has been registered to a LINE account before, the name registered to that account will appear. This lets you make sure the LINE account is yours before transferring it.
If the LINE account that appears isn't yours, please tap No, that's not me.
Verifying your account
Call Me Instead gives you another way to verify your phone number. Please use this option if you aren't able to receive the phone number verification code via text message.
When you tap Call Me Instead, you will receive an automated phone call that gives you a six-digit verification code. You can finish the verification process by entering that code into the LINE app.
If you can't receive text messages, try selecting Call me instead to verify your account.
Note: The Call me instead option is only available in some countries.
If you can't receive text messages or use the Call me instead option, there is unfortunately no other way to create a LINE account.
You need a device that can receive text messages or phone calls to create a new LINE account.
To create a new account:
1. Open LINE and tap Sign up.
2. Confirm the Terms and Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy, then enter your phone number and tap the arrow.
3. Enter the verification code you received via text message.
Note:
- On some devices, the verification code is entered automatically. In this case, please skip to step 4.
- If you see a message that says "Welcome back, XXXX!" after entering the verification code, tap No, that's not me.
4. Tap No, create a new account.
5. Enter a name, set a profile photo, and tap the arrow.
6. Create a password and tap the arrow.
7. Choose whether to add friends from your device's contacts, then tap the arrow.
8. Choose whether to verify your age.
Note: If you're using LINE version 9.10.0 or later and have already verified your age, this screen will not appear.
9. Confirm the "Regarding Usage of Your Information" consent screen.
If you see someone else's name after verifying your phone number, see this Help article.
New LINE accounts can no longer be created by verifying a Facebook account as of March 31, 2020.
The only way to create a new LINE account is by verifying your phone number (via text message).
You can still use a linked Facebook account as a verification method when transferring your LINE account.
When transferring your account to a new device, please keep your old device on hand because you will need the verification code sent to it. To ensure your account is transferred safely, you must register your phone number, password, and email address beforehand.
For details, see this Help article.
When transferring your account to a new device, please keep your old device on hand because you will need the verification code sent to it. To ensure your account is transferred safely, you must register your phone number, password, and email address beforehand.
For details, see this Help article.
Account transfer issues
If your account is not successfully transferred, your friends, groups, and other data will be deleted.
Note: For more information about your friends and groups disappearing after transferring your account, see this Help article.
Even if your account data is lost, we may be able to transfer your purchased stickers and some other types of paid items if you contact us. To do so, please create a LINE account and send an inquiry from the following link:
The following can be transferred:
• The right to use your LINE stickers and themes (including those received as gifts)
• Your item purchase history and Coin balance
Note: Coins cannot be transferred between different OSes (e.g. from iOS to Android and vice versa).
• Your Credit balance purchased from LINE STORE
Note: Any account data that is not mentioned above (including your friends, chat history, and groups) cannot be transferred.
If you lost LINE Game items or data, please send an inquiry from within the relevant game app.
An error message will appear if you repeatedly request an account transfer code in a short amount of time.
If the message "You have been temporarily restricted from requesting account transfer codes because you repeatedly requested them. Please try again later." appears when requesting a code, try again after 24 hours has passed.
If your friends and groups disappear after transferring your account, it means that you did one of the following:
• Created a new account
• Transferred a different account by mistake
In either of the above cases, the account that you had been using before will become inaccessible, and your data (including your friends and groups) will be deleted and cannot be restored.
Note: The same phone number and Facebook account cannot be registered to multiple LINE accounts. Registering a phone number to a different LINE account will make the account that the phone number was registered to before inaccessible.
Even if your old account data is lost, you can still continue using your purchased items, LINE Pay balance, LINE POINTS, and other billing information. For the steps to redownload your purchased items, see this Help article.
If you're having issues with Timeline or your profile, try the general solutions in this Help article.
Your password setup code will be sent in a chat message to the LINE account you're trying to transfer. Please start LINE on your previous device and check the password setup code in the message you received.
Note: If you're using the LINE account you want to transfer on LINE for PC or iPad in addition to your smartphone, you can also check for the chat message there.
If you can't confirm the password setup code, there will be no way to transfer your LINE account. In this case, please sign up for a new account.
Depending on your situation, you can transfer your account with any of the following methods:
If you can use LINE on your previous device before changing to a new device
On your previous device, start LINE and go to Settings > Account transfer > and turn ON the Allow account transfer setting. Afterwards, tap Continue on the "How to finish transferring your account" screen that will appear on your new smartphone.
On your previous device, start LINE and go to Settings > Account transfer > and turn ON the Allow account transfer setting. Afterwards, tap Continue on the "How to finish transferring your account" screen that will appear on your new smartphone.
If you can receive text messages on the phone number you registered to LINE
From the “How to finish transferring your account” screen, tap Get account transfer code. You will receive a text message to the phone number you registered on LINE. On your new smartphone, enter the account transfer code from the text message that was sent to you.
From the “How to finish transferring your account” screen, tap Get account transfer code. You will receive a text message to the phone number you registered on LINE. On your new smartphone, enter the account transfer code from the text message that was sent to you.
If you are using the PC version of LINE
From the “How to finish transferring your account” screen, tap Get account transfer code. An account transfer code will be sent to you in a chat message on LINE. After checking the message with the account transfer code, enter it on your new smartphone.
From the “How to finish transferring your account” screen, tap Get account transfer code. An account transfer code will be sent to you in a chat message on LINE. After checking the message with the account transfer code, enter it on your new smartphone.
Please make sure that:
• Your password doesn't include any unnecessary spaces.
• You entered only half-width characters.
• You didn't accidentally enter a similar looking character.
For example:
- 1 (one), I (capital 'i'), and l (lower-case 'L')
- 0 (zero), o (alphabet 'O')
- 9 (nine), q (lower-case 'Q')
• You entered the password correctly.
If you've checked everything above but still see an error message, please try resetting your password and then entering it again.
Note: You will not be able to reset your password if you didn't register an email address to your LINE account.
For the steps to reset your password when transferring your account, please see this Help article.
Please see the instructions below the relevant error message that appears when you try transferring your account.
• Unable to sign up.
• An unknown error occurred. Please try again later.
• Verification is temporarily blocked. Please try again later.
Try again one to two days after the error occurs.
• Invalid password.
• We couldn't find any accounts registered to the email address you entered.
• Please enter a valid email address.
• Invalid email address or password.
Please refer to this Help article for details.
• Invalid phone number.
Please refer to this Help article for details.
If you select Log in with Facebook and you see the error message "Failed to connect with external services. Please try again later," it's possible that the Facebook account you tried to log in with was different from the one registered to your LINE account. Please try logging in again after checking your Facebook account registered to LINE.
If you see this error message even though you didn't enter your Facebook login information, log out of your Facebook account from your device's web browser and the Facebook app, then try logging in with Facebook again.
About account transfer
If you change devices, you can keep using your existing LINE account by transferring it to your new device.
To transfer your LINE account, you need to have one of the following:
• A phone number, email address, and password registered to LINE
• A Facebook account linked to LINE
Please make sure that your LINE account meets one of the requirements above.
For more information about checking or changing your phone number, email address, and password registered to LINE see the following Help articles:
For more information on linking your LINE account with Facebook, see this Help article.
For the steps to transfer your account, see the Help articles below:
For a list of what data can and cannot be transferred along with your account, please see below.
Data that can be transferred:
• Friends and groups
• Notes and albums
• Profile settings (profile photo, display name, status message, ID)
• Timeline/profile posts
• Data saved in Keep (including images, videos, text, files)
• The right to use your LINE stickers and themes (including those received as gifts)
• Your purchase history of paid items, along with your Coin and LINE Point balances
• Data registered to authorized apps, including titles from LINE Games and LINE PLAY
Note:
- Coins cannot be transferred between different OSes (e.g. from iOS to Android and vice versa).
- If your friends, groups, or any other information disappeared after transferring your account, it may be due to one of the reasons described in this Help article.
Data that cannot be transferred:
• Chat history
Your chat history is not transferred with your account, so we recommend backing it up beforehand.
Before transferring your account, make sure that you have a valid Facebook account linked to LINE.
To transfer your account with your linked Facebook account:
1. Open LINE and tap Log in.
2. Tap Continue with Facebook and log in to your Facebook account.
3. On the message saying "You previously logged in to LINE with Facebook," tap Continue.
4. When the message saying "Another device is already using this account," appears, tap Delete & continue.
5. Tap Yes, restore my chats > Continue.
Note: You will no longer be able to use LINE on your previous device. If you want to restore your chats, be sure to back them up on your previous device before transferring your account.
6. Choose whether to restore your chat history.
7. Choose whether to add friends from your device's contacts, then tap the arrow.
You'll see a phone number registration screen when following the steps above. We recommend registering your phone number, since it will make it easier to transfer your account in the future.
If you can't receive text messages or phone calls (because you're using a data-only plan or SIM card, don't have a contracted phone number, etc.), you can transfer your account by following the steps below.
• Link your Facebook account to the mobile version of LINE before changing devices.
1. From the Friends or More tab, tap Settings > Account.
2. Tap Link next to Facebook.
Important: If you want to transfer your chat history as well, you need to back it up. For instructions on how to back up and restore your chat history, see this Help article.
• Tap "Log in with Facebook" on your new device and transfer your LINE account.
For the steps to transfer your account, see the following Help article:
Before transferring your account with your phone number, be sure to:
When you're all ready, transfer your account by following the steps below:
1. Open LINE and tap Start.
2. Select your country, enter your phone number, and tap the arrow.
3. Enter the six-digit verification code (this code will be entered automatically on Android devices).
4. Tap Yes, that's my account.
5. Enter your password and tap the arrow > OK.
6. Tap Yes, restore my chats > Continue.
Note: You will no longer be able to use LINE on your previous device. If you want to restore your chats, be sure to back them up on your previous device before transferring your account.
7. Choose whether to restore your chat history.
8. Choose whether to add friends from your device's contacts, then tap the arrow.
9. Confirm the "Regarding Usage of Your Information" consent screen.
Note: In some cases, this screen won't appear.
If your phone number will change when you transfer your account, see this Help article.
Before you transfer your LINE account with a phone number that's different from the number currently registered, be sure to:
When you're all ready, transfer your account by following the steps below:
1. Open LINE and tap Start.
2. Select your country, enter your phone number, and tap the arrow.
3. Enter the six-digit verification code (this code will be entered automatically on Android devices).
Note: If you see a message that says "Welcome back, XXXX!" after entering the verification code, tap No, that's not me.
4. On the "Already have an account?" screen, tap Yes, transfer my account.
5. Select a login method, enter the phone number or email address registered to your account, and tap the arrow.
6. Enter your password and tap the arrow.
7. Continue verification on the "How to finish transferring your account" screen.
8. Confirm the account that is displayed and tap Log in.
9. Tap Yes, restore my chats > Continue.
Note: You will no longer be able to use LINE on your previous device. If you want to restore your chats, be sure to back them up on your previous device before transferring your account.
10. Choose whether to restore your chat history.
11. Choose whether to add friends from your device's contacts, then tap the arrow.
12. Confirm the "Regarding Usage of Your Information" consent screen.
Note: The screens mentioned in steps 7 and 12 may not appear in some cases.
If you see someone else's name after verifying your phone number, see this Help article.
Please see the information below for your situation.
If you can still use LINE on your previous device:
Change your registered phone number and transfer your account.
Note: You'll need to enter your password to transfer your LINE account, so be sure to check it beforehand.
For more information, please see the following Help articles:
If you don't have your previous device and didn't set a password for your LINE account:
In order to transfer your account, you need to have a password set in advance. If you didn't set a password, you will not be able to transfer your LINE account. In this case, please create a new account.
For more information about creating a new LINE account, please see this Help article.
If you don't have your previous device but set a password for your LINE account:
You may be able to transfer your account by referring to this Help article.
If you forgot your password:
You can reset it as long as you registered an email address to your LINE account beforehand. For more information on resetting your password, please see this Help article.
LINE usage environment
All of LINE's basic features can be used for free.
Note: Some items, such as Coins and Stickers, must be purchased to use in LINE.
Please understand that you will need to pay for any data usage fees that you may be charged depending on the data plan you have with your mobile phone carrier. You may be charged every time you connect to the service if you are paying for only the amount of data you use. For this reason, we recommend signing up for a flat-rate data plan if you don't already have one.
All of LINE's features can be used for free, even when used from another country. If you use LINE with a friend living overseas, you will not be charged any fees for international use.
Please understand that you will need to pay for any data usage fees that you may be charged depending on the data plan you have with your mobile phone carrier, even if you are using the app overseas.
If you plan to use your device outside of the country you are contracted in, international data usage fees may differ. Please refer to your mobile contract, or contact your mobile carrier for further information about international data usage fees.
Smartphones
• iOS: 11.0 or later
• Android OS: 5.0 or later
PCs
• Windows 8.1 or later
• Mac OS X 10.10 or later
• Chrome browser version 42 or later
iPads
• iPad 4 or later (iOS 11.0 or later)
Smartwatches
• Apple Watch: watchOS 6 or later
• Wear OS by Google (formerly Android Wear): Android OS 4.3 or later
Note: You cannot sign up for a new account on smartwatches.
Although not recommended, you can use the following versions of LINE on older OSes.
Note: Some features cannot be used on older OSes.
iOS
• iOS 10.0 to 10.3.4: LINE 9.16.1 and earlier
You cannot create a new account or transfer your existing LINE account if you're using iOS 9.3.6 or earlier. For details about account sign-up and login support ending for LINE 9.1.0 and earlier for iOS, see this Help article.
Android
• Android OS 4.4 to 4.4.4: LINE 9.10.2 and earlier
You cannot sign up for a new account or transfer your existing LINE account if you're using Android OS 4.3.1 or earlier. For details about account sign-up and login support ending for LINE 9.1.1 and earlier for Android, see this Help article.
Note: Even if you're using Android OS 5.0 or later, you may not be able to install LINE from the app store offered by your device manufacturer or mobile service provider in some cases.
LINE is not supported on the following devices:
• iPod touch
• WALKMAN
• SmartTV BOX
• Fire OS devices such as Kindle
• PHS devices
• Simulators/emulators (virtual environments)
• Android tablets
• Devices with a custom OS
With the smartphone version of LINE, the same account cannot be used on multiple devices. Only one phone number or email address can be used to verify one account per device. If you register the same phone number on a different device, the account on your previous device will automatically be deleted and you will no longer be able to use it.
You can use the same account on the PC and iPad versions of LINE by logging in with the same email address.
To change the LINE app language setting:
1. From the Home/Friends or More tab, tap Settings > Language.
2. Tap the language you want to use then Save.
All displays in the LINE app will prioritize the language you selected.
Note: Changing the LINE app language will not affect your device's language settings.
As of January 30, 2019, LINE is no longer offered on the Google Play Store for devices running Android versions earlier than 4.4.
Note: This is an update from the previously scheduled date of March 9, 2019.
From January 30, the message "Your device isn't compatible with this version" will appear on devices running earlier versions of Android OS when they access LINE on the Google Play Store. If LINE is uninstalled from these devices, it will no longer be possible to reinstall it from the Google Play Store. If you are using a version of Android earlier than 4.4, please take care not to delete LINE or reset your device to factory settings.
Note: You can continue to use LINE as long as you don't uninstall it from your current device.
If you mistakenly delete LINE, please consider transferring your account to a new device. Make sure your registered phone number, email address, and password are up to date before transferring your account.
Note: If you haven't already, we recommend registering the information above.
For details on transferring your LINE account with an email address, please see this Help article.
You cannot sign up for a new LINE account or log in with LINE version 9.1.1 and earlier from November 5, 2019.
Note: For more information, see this Help article.
A pop-up message saying "Please update LINE to the latest version and try again" will appear if you try to log in to your account or create a new one with LINE version 9.1.1 or earlier.
Update LINE to the latest version to sign up for a new account or keep logging in to an existing one.
If you can't update LINE from the link above, it's possible your device is running an older version of Android OS. You may be able to update LINE to the latest version after updating Android OS.
Note: For assistance with updating Android OS, please contact your device manufacturer or mobile service provider.
If you can't update Android OS, please consider changing devices.
Information used by LINE
When your friends on LINE use external apps (e.g. apps offered by companies other than LINE), those apps ask LINE whether it can access your profile information. The External app access setting lets you allow or deny such access.
Note: Your profile information includes your LINE display name, profile photo, status message, and uniquely assigned internal identifier (a unique number that LINE gives each user).
If you enable this setting, external apps will be able to access your LINE profile information, which is used in the friend requests and display of names in rankings for those apps.
For your reference, LINE Games and other LINE services can access your profile information regardless of your External app access setting.
Please see here for more information about our privacy policy.
The following information will be acquired:
Information about chats between friends
This includes which friends were in the chat room, the date and time of sent/received messages, "Read" marks, data formats used, and information on the use of features (such as the use of the "unsend" feature and accessed URLs).
Please be assured that the content of your chat messages (including images and videos) and calls will NOT be used.
Chats with official accounts
This means communication in chat rooms, including chat content (text messages, images, and videos). However, the content of chats with accounts used for industries which are deemed by LINE as having a high possibility of containing sensitive information (personal information or other information of a private nature) will be exempt. This includes industries such as financial and political institutions, state institutions, and hospitals.
Timeline
This includes the content, date, and time of posts, data formats used, stickers posted in comments, time viewed, and number of times viewed. However, Timeline posts set to “Only me” will be excluded.
Use of the app, including LINE's in-app browser, save feature, and sharing
If the features for saving and sharing data are used, information including the data formats and when the data was viewed will be acquired.
Website browsing information
This includes information pertaining to URLs you have viewed and the source information of the URLs accessed via the LINE app.
We aim to use the above mentioned information to bring all of our users an even better experience when using LINE’s services.
For more information, please see here.
Agreeing to the updated policies regarding the use of your information will allow LINE to offer further service improvements for all users. We appreciate your cooperation in agreeing to these changes.
When you agree to share your information, we can make improvements to our services in the following ways:
Prevent abuse and other fraudulent use of LINE services and features
This includes improving countermeasures against harmful activity such as harassment, spam, and account theft.
Improve services through continued research and development
This includes improving our AI services and creating more user-friendly screen layouts and designs.
Display more personalized content
By consenting to sharing your data, you can see content and ads that you're personally interested in.
Please follow the steps below to change the External app access setting:
1. On the Friends or More tab, tap Settings > Privacy.
2. Tap External app access.
Depending on which option you choose, the following settings will apply:
• Always allowed
Access to your profile information is always allowed to external apps.
• Only for people on your friend list
Access to your profile information is only allowed to external apps used by your friends on LINE.
• Never allowed
Access to your profile information is never allowed.