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Google users locked out after 15 years' use
271–280 of 720 posts
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#272This article finally prompted me to do what I should've done a long time ago, which is to create a Fastmail account and begin importing my Gmail into it. I've seen this story far too many times, and no longer will I say "yeah but it'll never happen to me". Setting up the import was insanely easy, and my Fastmail account is now configured to enable me to send using my Gmail address from directly within Fastmail. Plus…
I did the same, but I never got to like Fastmail so I switched back to Gmail after a year. This time I'm on my own domain though so they can close my account all they want, I'd just setup email with another domain on the same address . Would lose my emails in the process, but that's secondary concern.
I've used a secondary Protonmail account lately and it seems decent. I haven't used it enough to make a fair comparison but if you only gave me 5 seconds to choose I'd instantly choose Protonmail over Fastmail. Same pricing (with custom domain) IIRC.
Edit: Then again as a paying customer I might not be as easily locked out compared to a regular Gmail account? No idea.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#273Being locked out from google account is one of my biggest fears in practical computer usage. Over the years I can't even tell how much I'm sunk into using tiny pieces of google's services, even though for most crucial things I tend to omit google and look for alternatives that are easier to handle in problematic situation. Mail is one of the things I'm most worried about.
There's surprisingly little you truly need a google account for. Gmail was one of the last things I hadn't moved before I was locked out of my Gmail account because of their bad password reset heuristic. Thankfully I had it set up to forward to my own domain.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you combine it with a paid domain, then you can transfer your email provider even when locked out. Of course you risk loosing your emails, but you can setup a desktop client to always download all your emails or do periodic backups.
I've had trouble with e-mails from my own domain frequently landing in spam folders. I do agree on the control though.
I don't have these issues with Fastmail + custom domain, but you need to make sure that DKIM and SPF is set up correctly. Fastmail helps you to check and fix this.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#275This article finally prompted me to do what I should've done a long time ago, which is to create a Fastmail account and begin importing my Gmail into it. I've seen this story far too many times, and no longer will I say "yeah but it'll never happen to me". Setting up the import was insanely easy, and my Fastmail account is now configured to enable me to send using my Gmail address from directly within Fastmail. Plus…
I migrated to Fastmail a few weeks ago. I'm really happy with it and I wish I had done it years ago. Many features. The web interface and apps feel a lot faster than Gmail.
Pro-tip: use a custom domain so that you can easily switch e-mail providers in the future without vendor lock-in. It's also very easy to add aliases in Fastmail.
> Plus after the import is finished, it will still periodically bring over any new emails received to the Gmail account.
Another option is to let Gmail forward your email to the new address.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why i have setup one of my linux servers to automatically download all photos and videos from my shared google photo albums each night. This allows me and my wife to easily share photos of our daughter with each other, as well as have a backup of everything we have locally on my NAS. Next step is to sync this of to several other storage places in case of cryptolocker or the NAS dies.
I didn't realize this would be possible. Would you happen to have a guide somewhere?
You can do it with python - https://pypi.org/project/gphotos-sync. They have docker image too. I have a cron job that starts the docker container periodically to fetch any new photos.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why i have setup one of my linux servers to automatically download all photos and videos from my shared google photo albums each night. This allows me and my wife to easily share photos of our daughter with each other, as well as have a backup of everything we have locally on my NAS. Next step is to sync this of to several other storage places in case of cryptolocker or the NAS dies.
How do you access Google Photos from Linux? Is it able to detect only the new pictures?
It looks like gphotos-sync is the way to do this.
Must be new as I was looking for a tool like this a few years ago and nothing existed.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is pretty unique here. You can have a dedicated support team at Google with a multimillion dollar account, and still be wack-a-moled by Google's automated systems. The root issue is Google. This doesn't happen with most companies. This is specific to Google's culture, which treats customers as statistics. That comes out of how Google thought about search and ads, and doesn't work for anything else. The seconda…
To be fair, I don't think other providers like Microsoft are much better, but also note that the service is equally bad if you pay for ads or cloud. I'm generally against too much regulation, but given how important e-mails are (access to all sorts of accounts, important messages from clients, tax, etc.), this is a case where a certain service level needs to be mandatory, e.g., unlocking within few hours.
I don't have this fear with Microsoft and I've fully locked out a tenant admin before. They have support I can call and get help from.
Last time this happened with google I got lucky and found the password after trying for 3 weeks with support.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm trying to not make this sound harsh; but you really don't need a government regulator to tell you that centralising all your data with Google, who are providing largely free services, is risky. It is like building a house on the edge of a cliff then falling off the cliff one day. It was always a real possibility. Being locked out of your stuff is quite a likely end of the story with Google.
You need a government regulator to stop large companies from buying up lots of small companies and adding them to this risk pool. I bought 3 Nest thermostats long before Google bought them. I wouldn’t have done so after the buyout. If google bricks my thermostats because my kid does something dumb on YouTube (through the linked tv accounts) that will suck. I suppose regulators could also prevent companies from bundli…
>The phone company can’t just randomly cut off service and ghost me. Regulators are the reason for that, as I’m sure they’d love to if they could.
If you're paying your bill, why would they care?
Regulation is part of the answer, but it's also part of the problem. If a YouTube comment wasn't at risk of "being mean" or breaking arbitrary rules (pushed by regulators, Google isn't doing it on their own), you couldn't be locked out. Corporations don't gain by cancelling their customers.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree actually. The issue seems to me that it's a global ban. If Google only locked you out of the functionality you seem to have violated somehow, it would still be a viable strategy to use their services. Imagine losing the ability to comment or upload videos on YouTube because you wrote something offensive or published a video with copyrighted materials. Potentially bad for YouTube creators, but definitely no…
Google is a private company. So they can choose there customers. If they don't want you, they are free to throw you out.
>So they can choose there customers.
And we are free to complain and vote to change those rules. Guess what happens then?