Bulk Adoption of Caches

[+DARKSIDEDAN]

Hi All

 

I have a question about Adoption. I have been in contact with a geocacher who no longer geocaches and has not used their geocaching account on almost 2 years. Currently the owner has about 150 active geocaches that they have given me permission to adopt them all.

 

I would like to know is there a way to bulk adopt the caches or do I have to get the owner to send me an adoption request for every one of the 150 caches? Also Is there any issues in adopting the caches if the owner has invalidated their geocaching account?

[Darwin473]

I think it's rare enough that there isn't a tool for this.

 

It may be possible to contact Helpdesk and get an admin to do a batch transfer, but I suspect it's going to be a one-at-a-time thing, as painful as that is.

 

3 hours ago, DARKSIDEDAN said:

...if the owner has invalidated their geocaching account?

 

Define "invalidated". If they have lost their password, can't do password recovery because they lost the associated email account or in some other way they can't get in to their account then that will stop you from being able to adopt the caches.

 

In order for an adoption to happen, the old account needs to do the first step and initiate the adoption process. If Helpdesk agrees to do a batch adoption, then the account needs to be able to confirm that they approve the adoption. If the old owner can't get in to the account, then I'm fairly certain that the caches can't be adopted out.

[+lee737]

40 minutes ago, Unit473L said:

If the old owner can't get in to the account, then I'm fairly certain that the caches can't be adopted out.

I'm fairly certain of that too.... if they want to do the adoption, they might be able to get some HQ assistance? I'd run it past the local reviewer too....?

[Keystone]

Reviewers have no role in adoptions, apart from frequently telling geocachers how the process works.  If the question came to me, I would simply refer the inquirer to HQ.

 

If an account has been disabled, as explained in this Help Center article, there is little to be done.  If the account simply has an invalid email address, this is fixable in the user's Account Settings.

[+DARKSIDEDAN]

Fingers Crossed that they can access their account or it will be a long drawn out process of waiting for all the caches to be archived. 

 

Thanks for all the comments everyone

Edited January 13, 2021 by DARKSIDEDAN

[+kunarion]

11 minutes ago, DARKSIDEDAN said:

Fingers Crossed that they can access their account or it will be a long drawn out process of waiting for all the caches to be archived. 

 

Thanks for all the comments everyone

Wild guess, if the cache owner can at least contact HQ, there could be a way to ask nicely and get them all archived.  Ideally with a plan to have the containers CITO’d.  Or at that point, the OP can work on creating 150 new caches.

[+DARKSIDEDAN]

1 minute ago, kunarion said:

Wild guess, if the cache owner can at least contact HQ, there could be a way to ask nicely and get them all archived.  Ideally with a plan to have the containers CITO’d.  Or at that point, the OP can work on creating 150 new caches.

 

kunarion, I am hoping to avoid that option as the series is older and it would be a great loss to the area. But there might not be many options

[Darwin473]

It's really going to depend on how much work the old CO is willing to put in.

 

From what you've posted, it looks like the first big hurdle will be for the old CO to "prove" they are the old CO. If they can get on to Helpdesk and convince them that she/he is the CO, then they should be able to get back into their account.

 

Then it's a case of spending an hour or so entering the cache ID's into the adoption tool. Or they could send you their login for their account and you can do that step for them. Pretty sure that giving someone else your login details is against the TOS, but this could be one way to encourage the CO to do the work of getting back into their account.