Signing in is optional. Anyone can install the app, choose your church, and browse your public content without an account. Signing in is what unlocks the personal side of the app: the member's own groups, serving schedule, giving history, inbox and favorites.
The app is available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Search for One Church and install it.
Getting to the sign-in screen
Choose your church first
On a fresh install the app walks the member through Welcome, then Find your church, where they can search by their current location or by ZIP or postal code. Results are listed nearest first. Tapping a church loads that church's app.
Church search matches on location, not on the church's name, so typing a church name into the field will not find it. The full walkthrough, including how to switch churches later, is in How do members find and join our church in the One Church app?
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Open the side menu
The side menu is the app's top-level navigation and is where sign-in lives. Tap the 3-bars menu in the top left of the header, or swipe in from the left edge of the screen. On a wide or landscape tablet the menu is already docked down the left side, so there is no button to tap.
Tip: Some churches build their home screen as a set of tabs, so the app opens onto a bottom tab bar. That tab bar belongs to the screen, not to the app. The side menu is still the top level, and it is still where sign-in, Inbox and Settings live. A member who says they cannot find sign-in has usually not noticed the 3-bars menu.
Ways to sign in
Sign in with a username and password
Open the side menu and tap Sign In or Register at the top. Any screen that needs an account will also take the member here on its own.
Check the church name. The screen is titled Account Login and reads Logging into followed by the selected church's name underneath.
Enter the username or the account email address. The field accepts either.
Enter the password and sign in.
Tip: If the church name under Account Login is wrong, the member is signed in to the wrong church and no password will work. Send them to Settings > Church to change it rather than resetting their password.
Sign in with Apple, Google or Microsoft
The Account Login screen also offers single sign-on, so a member can use an account they already have instead of a One Church password.
Google and Microsoft - open that provider's own secure sign-in sheet and return to the app. The app never handles the password.
Sign in with Apple - available on iOS only, and shown only when the device reports it as available. There is deliberately no Apple button on Android.
Why Apple sometimes asks for a name
Apple shares a member's name only the very first time they authorize an app. If someone used Sign in with Apple before, removed the account, and signs in again, Apple sends no name with the sign-in.
The app handles this with an extra screen titled Almost there, explaining that Apple did not share the name and asking for a first and last name to finish creating the account. This is expected behavior, not a fault, and members should be reassured rather than escalated.
Separately, if the email Apple returns matches more than one person in your church's records, the app cannot safely choose between them. It sends the member to your church's web registration page with the email and name already filled in so they can complete it there.
Two-factor authentication
If the account has two-factor authentication turned on, sign-in continues to a Two-Factor Authentication screen asking for the six-digit code from the member's authenticator app.
If your church requires two-factor authentication and the member has not set it up yet, they get a Set Up Two-Factor screen instead. It shows a QR code and a text setup key, with the instruction to scan it with an authenticator app and then enter the six-digit code. Verifying the code enrolls them and signs them in, so enrollment and sign-in happen in one pass.
Register a new account, or reset a password
Register - opens your church's web registration page inside the app, with links that lead away from account creation hidden so the member stays on task.
Forgot password - opens a Reset Password screen. It always reports success, reading If your email is associated with an account, you'll get a link to reset your password. That wording is deliberate, because a screen that said "no account found" could be used to work out which email addresses exist in your church's records.
Tip: Because the reset screen always reports success, a member who receives no email has usually entered an address your records do not hold. Check the email on their profile rather than assuming the reset failed.
After signing in
What happens after signing in
The side menu opens by itself once, straight after a successful sign-in. That is deliberate. It shows the member what has just become available to them, and it is not a glitch.
Signed in, a member gets their photo and name at the top of the menu with View My Profile, and access to the personal parts of the app: their groups under Groups > Mine, their serving schedule, their giving history and statements, pre check-in for their family, their inbox, and favorites across sermons, events and forms.
Sign out
Open the side menu and tap Sign out, which appears only while signed in. Signing out clears the session and the cached data, so the next person to pick up that device cannot see the previous member's information.
Sign-in messages and what they mean
These are the messages members quote most often. The last two are configuration problems rather than member problems.
Username or password is incorrect. - exactly that.
Account is locked for 5 minutes. - too many failed attempts on that account. Waiting clears it.
Too many attempts. Please try again shortly. - rate limiting on the requests themselves rather than a lock on the account.
Your password must be reset before you can sign in. - the password no longer meets your church's policy. The member should use Forgot password.
Couldn't reach the server. Check your connection… - the device could not reach your church's server at all.
This church isn't available for sign-in. - your church's app credentials are missing or wrong. Contact One Church Software support, since no member can sign in until it is fixed.
This church's subscription is not active. - a billing or subscription state. Contact One Church Software about the account.