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Ask HN: How do I get my Google account back?

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Ask HN: How do I get my Google account back?

#1

Post by j4tech »

A couple of days back, after I logged in to my gmail account, a security message flashed that someone had logged into my account and I was prompted to change the password or confirm that it was me who logged in. This was during a time when I had to replace my fried router twice within the span of 2 days (one that I rented immediately from my internet service provider on the same day my router died and then with brand new router that I bought a day later). I presumed that the security message was because of new IP addresses that must have been assigned. While I was initially able to log in to my accounts after replacing both the routers, on subsequent logins, I started getting a message that google was not able to ascertain that the email accounts really belonged to me. I managed to use my recovery email on 2 of my accounts and was able to gain access. However, after I entered a recovery email on the email account that displayed the security alert, google refused to accept that the account belongs to me. I have had this account, where I have my whole digital life, ever since goggle offered one. Unfortunately I did not have a phone number associated with this account. My understanding is I would have been able to recover my account, If I had one.

Is there a way I can recover my account? I have started changing the email id’s at various business and agencies where I have used this Id. Is there anything else I need to do?

Re: Ask HN: How do I get my Google account back?

#3

Post by AnonC »

> Unfortunately I did not have a phone number associated with this account. My understanding is I would have been able to recover my account, If I had one.

This is not true, in my experience. Having a phone number verified and linked to the account as a recovery number may help, but it does not always mean that you’d be able to recover the account. I recently had trouble with one of my Gmail accounts where I successfully changed my password and linked a phone number, but it wouldn’t allow me to login again or allow me to go through the recovery process.

As more stories of such casualties come up, one can only hope that more people stop using Gmail (it seems to me that this is what Google really wants).

Good luck, and I hope you’re able to get back into your account and/or move to a reliable provider.

Re: Ask HN: How do I get my Google account back?

#4

Post by mkbkn »

I had similar issue - I know the passwords, the recovery email but does not have a phone number associated with it. I can't login. Thankfully, that Google account has no important data.

Only thing you can try is to use the same device and browser and this time, use your mobile internet to access it (if not done already). This might have 1% extra chance of success but there's no guarantee.

Google's AI (or the engineer's brain) has decided that logging in with new routers is only the job of a scammer or a terrorist, hence you're logged out permanently.

I've moved 90% of my life away from Google. Perhaps you can try that as well.

Re: Ask HN: How do I get my Google account back?

#9

Post by photon-torpedo »

acqbu wrote: post #5

Not a week goes by without seeing a post like yours. You may simply need to come to terms with the fact that you may not be able to gain access to your account. Lesson learnt: Google is evil, stay away from it.

Another lesson: Keep your own copy of all files. Use takeout.google.com.

Re: Ask HN: How do I get my Google account back?

#10

Post by prmoustache »

If the main concern was not identity theft, I would just say consider it as a blessing and forget about google.

What I would do now is concentrate on right now is buy a new comouter and phone, swap the sim card to it, shutdown all other connected devices, change my main password manager password, the login on each service / account I have in my password manager and change the password, email address and credit card number (get a new one from your bank asap). The point is that anyone who own my email account now cannot login to them or do some social engineering using recepts found in old emails. More often than not acccount recovery support ask you to verify your identity by asking you the last 2 to 4 numbers of your credit card numbers...very often the very same numbers that are left in clear text in receipt, you may still have some in your email history.

Once done, do an offline backups of your other computers and wipe them all as well and factory reset your original smartphone.

Start now and already call you boss to take a day off if needed it will probably take you more than a day if you have hundreds of accounts.

A best practice should be to unsubscribe to any automatic newsletter and delete all mail that relate to an account so that someone who compromise our accounts cannot figure out which service we consume based on our email history. This is better kept locally without staying on the email servers. Most people don't do that because they want their email archive accessible from any device out of conveniency.

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