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Ask HN: Help – Locked out of 10 years Gmail account

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Re: Ask HN: Help – Locked out of 10 years Gmail account

#241

Post by ivanyu »

moffkalast wrote: post #216
BenjiWiebe wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with Thunderbird? My workplace uses it, my family's small business uses it, I use it. Has lots of features, doesn't require a fast stable Internet connection, and there's no risk of losing your emails because $provider locked you out. Plus if you have multiple email accounts, it's super convenient to get them all in one place.

Idk, Thunderbird, Outlook, and desktop email checkers in general seem absolutely antediluvian to me. Like CRT screens, trackball mice, and space cadet pinball. Do you still have to fetch mail manually like a caveman or did they make it automatic yet? Does your mail sync between all your devices? I still think it's less likely to get banned from gmail than my local hdds to fail.

I'll be surprised of the features modern mail protocols like IMAP have.

Re: Ask HN: Help – Locked out of 10 years Gmail account

#242

Post by powerapple »

I feel sorry for you.

Someone at Google PLEASE, PLEASE, make it enough for a registered phone number to reset the password. I got my phone number with my passport, it is the last thing that don't need any verification. Why is it not necessary? AND stop sending verification email to the email address I am recovering. It is a sick joke.

Re: Ask HN: Help – Locked out of 10 years Gmail account

#243

Post by powerapple »

evouga wrote: post #82

Can someone explain how it’s anything but completely insane for an online service to deny access to someone with a *correct* password?? This isn’t someone getting locked out because they forgot their password (where I can at least understand why the user is at fault).

this is not just happening to Google, epicgames, steam, GitHub, you name it. It is every online service.

Re: Ask HN: Help – Locked out of 10 years Gmail account

#244

Post by yumraj »

rwalle wrote: post #223
yumraj wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if that happens, it’s not a problem. Why? You go to your register and point your domain to another email provider, and you’re back in business.

Not a problem? All your previous emails are lost, aren't they? Even you have local backup of them somehow, they are not equivalent to emails saved to your server?

The only way to cover that case is run your own mail server.

I've done that in the past, don't recommend it unless you have a real need and know what you're doing. It wasn't hard, but just extra work that I wasn't sure was worth it.

Re: Ask HN: Help – Locked out of 10 years Gmail account

#245

Post by halilim »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #185

I'm confused, how could Google ask for the OLD password? Is this even a thing? I have no idea what my old password is.

Yes. Google (and probably many other companies at this point) ask for your previous passwords as part of the account recovery flow. It's an additional factor to help establish that it's you and not a scammer trying to "recover" it.

So it's a good practice to save old passwords. Some password managers make it easier by having a password history feature, usually on the account's detail page.

Re: Ask HN: Help – Locked out of 10 years Gmail account

#247

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

I have two gmail accounts and one of them did that to me several years back.

But both accounts do nothing but forward to my fastmail account where I have rules setup for them. So it was a giant nothingburger for me. If they're so secure even I can't log into them, whatever.

I don't trust google with anything of mine. I used to use their online spreadsheet app to track house bills, but moved it to my local share where I use libre office instead, solely because I'm aware of how likely it is I get locked out of everything at some point.

Everyone should treat google like they treat their laptops: With the assumption that it can die at any given time and so backups are critical.

Re: Ask HN: Help – Locked out of 10 years Gmail account

#248

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

kybernetyk wrote: post #67
user3939382 wrote: post #17

I made the jump to Fastmail and I'm very happy with it. Web interface is at least as good as Gmail's. Thunderbird keeps a local copy of my emails, I control the email domain. I can create backups. The second you get back in you gotta get off this platform.

To make the transition easier you can configure Gmail to automatically forward mails you your FastMail address. They all then appear in the fastmail acc and you don't have to touch Gmail ever again.

yep, I have 2 gmail accounts that have been forwarding to fastmail for something like 10 years now. I'm really unsure on the timeline, but it's been a very long time.

google is good at spam filtering so those accounts became the accounts I give out to people publicly.

Re: Ask HN: Help – Locked out of 10 years Gmail account

#249

Post by onionisafruit »

maxpro wrote: post #52
onionisafruit wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not like Google customer service is going to help on a non-holiday

Is there a customer service at Google? Had no luck with them... once I got an email after they charged me twice for Play Music, but this was canned response. It took them almost 7 months to figure this out and pay my money back.

That’s the point I was trying to make. As a user, getting help from Google customer service for something like this seems to be nigh impossible. I assume Google has customer service for their actual valued customers — the ones who spend money placing ads, not the ones who spend attention viewing ads.

Re: Ask HN: Help – Locked out of 10 years Gmail account

#250

Post by blacklight »

nzealand wrote: post #168
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is pretty harsh. The only way to resolve problems with Google like this is to know someone on the inside that can help, or to generate enough outrage on social media that some service team someplace takes notice and reaches out to help the guy. What the poster can do in the future is enable 2FA on his Google accounts as that seems to streamline password recovery. At minimum add a phone and backup codes. Even bet…

The poster can also be patient. I've been locked out of infrequently used google accounts before. Eventually the account will be unlocked. If you ignore it for a few days (also pretty harsh.)

Some people who get locked out of their Google accounts may be unable to use their phones, access their photos, receive and send emails, or do their day-to-day work on shared documents. How can you say "just be patient and wait a couple of days"?
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