Yes – this is a common problem and easily resolved. Older versions of NVivo forced users to create a proper user account. Since version 7, the user account is created automatically using the logged in profile in Windows as the username. So if you look at your project on two different computers for example, unless the user accounts are identical, which is highly unlikely, then you will end up with multiple accounts or identities in NVivo. Even if you use the same machine but log in inconsistently by entering your initials slightly differently on even one occasion, you will get the same result – multiple versions of yourself in NVivo user accounts. 

The solution however, is relatively simple:

1.     Open your NVivo project and go to file->info->project properties->users

2.     The account you are currently logged in under is displayed in bold

3.     Select one of the user accounts you wish to merge into this user profile (not in bold)

4.     Click on the 'remove' button

5.     A dialogue box appears prompting you to select the user account to which the coding for the soon to be deleted user profile should be allocated

6.     Select the account you are currently logged in under

7.     You will be returned to the user account screen with the current user profile still displaying in bold

8.     Select 'OK' and NVivo will begin the process of re-allocating the coding back to your proper user account. It may take a few minutes or even longer depending on the version of NVivo you are using, the size and coding complexity of your project and the capacity of your computer. 

9.     Repeat this process for each additional and unwanted user account.

Happy inter-rater reliability testing 🙂

Kind regards,

Dylan Owens

The QDATRAINING Team