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Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

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11–20 of 124 posts

Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

#11
post #9

Not intending to shame OP, but in 2024 with stories like this occurring regularly, I am totally baffled why anyone still trusts Google with anything important. Make the switch! Run, don’t walk. Do it today. Google is the Scorpion in the parable of the frog and the scorpion - it cannot help its nature. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

Which service do you recommend as alternative?

Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

#12
post #9

Not intending to shame OP, but in 2024 with stories like this occurring regularly, I am totally baffled why anyone still trusts Google with anything important. Make the switch! Run, don’t walk. Do it today. Google is the Scorpion in the parable of the frog and the scorpion - it cannot help its nature. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

Switch to what?

Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

#13
post #9

Not intending to shame OP, but in 2024 with stories like this occurring regularly, I am totally baffled why anyone still trusts Google with anything important. Make the switch! Run, don’t walk. Do it today. Google is the Scorpion in the parable of the frog and the scorpion - it cannot help its nature. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

Which service do you recommend as alternative?

FastMail, Dropbox, Apple iCloud (Photos, Keychain, etc)

Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

#14
post #8
post #6

You say you lost a phone number in 2022. Might some of the people you know, still have it in their contact lists?

Sorry, I meant that I don't have it in my possession as I've moved out of the country and stopped paying for it, but I still know the number, the issue is that I can't get a message to it for 2FA.

Have you tried calling it and pleading your case with whomever owns it now?

Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which service do you recommend as alternative?

FastMail, Dropbox, Apple iCloud (Photos, Keychain, etc)

+1 for fastmail, it has built-in backup mechanisms.

Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

#16

First things first: (Parenthesis) From now on, if it is important, pay for it. At least a smaller email provider with real human support, but best is "buying" your own domain and hosting your email. Same goes for backups. And pass the info to your loved ones. Less importantly: Since you know exactly what phone# is requested, try to contact it. Approach it in a way that doesn't alarm the renter and blocks you. Meanwhi…

I gave up on keeping my main on my own domain a few years back since MS mailservers (both Azure and on-prem Exchanges) started rejecting as spam, spam drove us all to centralization and now that they're running amok we have no good recourse.

Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

#17
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I meant that I don't have it in my possession as I've moved out of the country and stopped paying for it, but I still know the number, the issue is that I can't get a message to it for 2FA.

Have you tried calling it and pleading your case with whomever owns it now?

I did, it's not currently allocated and it's in a "quarantine" list before some phone network operator allocates it.

Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

#18
YMMV but I've had similar loops during login that were resolved by trying to login in incognito mode. And if it works, then clear all your cookies / reboot / try again in the main browser.

There's something broken in google's auth security system.

Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

#19
post #7

First things first: (Parenthesis) From now on, if it is important, pay for it. At least a smaller email provider with real human support, but best is "buying" your own domain and hosting your email. Same goes for backups. And pass the info to your loved ones. Less importantly: Since you know exactly what phone# is requested, try to contact it. Approach it in a way that doesn't alarm the renter and blocks you. Meanwhi…

Learnt my lesson, already working on taking measures for new data or hopefully the data from the account if I recover it. I already called the number, it seems it's not in use, called someone (he was selling "pretty" numbers online) to ask if it's possible to get it back and they said that there have been cases and it's currently in something they call "quarantine" and there may be complications as there are two oper…

Once you've got it all sorted, get 2 yubikeys, use them to secure the account, and keep one on you and another in a safe place.

You can just use the cheapest ones.

Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data

#20
post #9

Not intending to shame OP, but in 2024 with stories like this occurring regularly, I am totally baffled why anyone still trusts Google with anything important. Make the switch! Run, don’t walk. Do it today. Google is the Scorpion in the parable of the frog and the scorpion - it cannot help its nature. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

Which service do you recommend as alternative?

I am very happy with Apple and iCloud, seriously. I've got plenty of cloud space for a fair price, it integrates seamlessly with Apple devices, ships with a password manager, you can hide your mail addresses, and other goodies. I've never had a problem with it.
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