Why did I receive the "Verification failed" account ID status with GuardDuty?

Short description

When you use the invitation method and the member account's root email address or account ID is incorrect, you receive the "Verification failed" status.

Note: It's a best practice to use AWS Organizations to manage your member accounts.

Resolution

Important: You must turn on GuardDuty in the member account before you send an invitation.

When you invite a member account from the delegated administrator account, confirm that you're using the member account's correct root email address and account ID.

If the member account doesn't receive the invitation, then check the email settings and spam folders. Or, accept the invitation from the GuardDuty console in the member account in the same AWS Region as the administrator account.

Note: Because GuardDuty is a Regional service, it's a best practice to designate your delegated GuardDuty administrator account and add all your member accounts in every Region.

To bulk add accounts, upload a .csv file. Specify the account ID and primary email address separated by a comma. Each account must be on a separate line. The first line of the .csv file must contain the account ID and email header in the following format:

Account ID,Email
111111111111,primary1@example.com
222222222222,primary2@example.com

You can also use Python scripts to simultaneously turn on GuardDuty in multiple accounts. For more information, see amazon-guardduty-multiaccount-scripts on the GitHub website.

After the GuardDuty member account accepts the invitation, the status column for your member account changes to Enabled in the administrator account.

If you still receive verification issues, then contact AWS Support.