The same thing happened to me in 2016 — I gave up and started a new account.
> I gave up and started a new account.
Some people never learn?
Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data
81–90 of 124 posts
Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data
#82Moving forward: always have an email client on a local machine downloading a copy of all emails. Have a local copy of all gdrive contents. Backup your password mangers to a txt file and encrypt it on a drive. And above all, dont trust google with all your stuff. They dont care. I lost a gmail years ago and only use it as a throwaway email client now. You get what you pay for.
That's completely impractical for the average, and even above average user.
Just because something can be a solution doesn't mean it should be.
Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data
#83Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data
#84Hey there, mate! Can't really do a thing, but I'm here for emotional support. You won't believe how many of us are here. :( In my case Google refused working secondary e-mail link, secret word, current password - all of those. Probably just because my IP address changed. And my gmail and YouTube channel are now lost forever with no explanation. (I had no mobile number attached to it)
>(I had no mobile number attached to it)
That's just heresy for Google.
Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data
#85Moving forward: always have an email client on a local machine downloading a copy of all emails. Have a local copy of all gdrive contents. Backup your password mangers to a txt file and encrypt it on a drive. And above all, dont trust google with all your stuff. They dont care. I lost a gmail years ago and only use it as a throwaway email client now. You get what you pay for.
That's completely impractical for the average, and even above average user. Just because something can be a solution doesn't mean it should be.
We live in less than an ideal world though, we don't really get to dictate how practical the solutions to our problems are.
It is in a way what makes a problem truly a problem. Otherwise, "problems" would all just be different ways of being ignorant of the better way.
Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data
#86Really sorry this happened to you! I don't really have an immediate solution for you, my own experience tells me you're unlikely to get the account unlocked any time soon. That said, my story did have a happy end eventually: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36335975. There were other reports that 2 years might be a magical amount of time before they let you back in. Not consolation right now, I know, but maybe better than nothing.
Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data
#87This happened to me back in ~2018 or so. I'm trying to think back to what happened and how it was resolved.
The only way I've ever been able to get decent support from googles help center is by calling and escelating the issue and then eventually getting to the right person via the email chain started following the call. Its a pain in the ass I know.
I *think* I ended up just having to get my phone replaced because it was the primary device that every other service relied on in the end for authentication(Google pixel & Google fi, Google TV, gmail, oauth, etc).
Also look in your recovery email for an email that contains a list of backup/recovery codes. I'm pretty sure they don't email these codes anymore and your prompted to write them down/save them elsewhere but worth checking.
Needless to say sibce then I do not use google for hardly anything other than the phone itself.
Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't necessarily need to switch, just ensure Redundancy. If you keep a password database in there, or personal files, keep it on a secure external drive and make backups. Or Dropbox. Or anything. Just keep an extra. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. We have a home media server. Our important data automatically backs new files to a secure folder in there once a week. If I can do it, anyone can. And it could…
How does that work in practice? I mean I may keep my data at multiple places. But my government, my hospitals, my utility accounts, they all want my email address to send me OTPs, password reset links and such things that are necessary to prove my digital identity. How do I spread this risk and make it manageable? I have to give them some email address and I fear losing access to my email. And yes, I can lose my emai…
With government and hospitals you can just reregister in meatspace.
Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data
#89Why don't you just contact someone at Google? I would recommend starting an Advertising Campaign and not paying it. You will be surprised how quickly a support number with a real human being at the end appears.
Re: Tell HN: Need help, locked out of Google account with 10 years of personal data
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't necessarily need to switch, just ensure Redundancy. If you keep a password database in there, or personal files, keep it on a secure external drive and make backups. Or Dropbox. Or anything. Just keep an extra. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. We have a home media server. Our important data automatically backs new files to a secure folder in there once a week. If I can do it, anyone can. And it could…
The issue is an @gmail.com address is owned by Google, not you. Not only do you lose your contacts’ ability to reach you, but accounts tend to use email as a last-resort primary identifier. If you lose your ability to receive verification codes, you’re often screwed. While the crowd here can maintain a domain, that’s not a realistic option for most average people. In practice, most people’s digital lives can be lost…
They can use a forwarder like simplelogin, where they can change the target address.