10 ms·

Also even if you have more than enough sufficient information to get a lost Gmail back. Send them your state issued drivers license and ID and birth certificate

Also even if you have more than enough sufficient information to get a lost Gmail back. Send them your state issued drivers license and ID and birth certificate. It is still not enough to get my account back. What do I honestly do in a situation like that? (After 2 years of failed recovery attempts, hunting down google employees on social media and their work or personal emails) I got one single Google employee to respond to a help thread I posted on the Gmail help forums. He responded with a question that was already answered in the original post. And it took me 6 months to get there.

btown 10y ago
If people don't see this, might as well do an Ask HN with more context and contact information. Likely that many Googlers read this.
- doubt_me 10y ago
  I tried everything x100 on steroids over the last 2 years. I was strictly ignored and the only thing left for me to do is to go walk in to the Gmail teams office and sit down on a computer and fix it myself.
  - lemmings19 10y ago
    I doubt you.
  - ryanlol 10y ago
    You're certainly not the only one. Even as a paying customer it's impossible to get in touch with anyone if you get locked out.
    - dawnerd 10y ago
      Not even if you get locked out. I tried asking them why my paid gsuite account couldn't be used like a normal google account and all they could do was copy+paste some response about how great paying for google was and that I wasn't paying for anything else. Alphabet REALLY needs to work on their customer service, especially for paying customers. I don't trust having email on a domain I don't control (you can't move a gmail account to another provider like you can a phone number). Yet if you want to take advantage of all the features of google home/music/youtube you have to use a normal gmail account.
      - nicky0 10y ago
        Can't you just use another email provider as your main account and keep the Google one for YouTube etc.
        dawnerd 10y ago
        Yeah, and I've been toying with the idea. What sucks is I'd love to use Google home for flight info but because I use gsuite it wont read emails or calendar. Guess I could have all my email forwarded to a dummy google account just for that.
      - brazzledazzle 10y ago
        I thought you could turn the consumer-only apps on in the admin interface.
        dawnerd 10y ago
        You can but it limits what you can do. Example, I can use my Google home with my apps account except I can't use calendar, flight info, or be a part of my existing google music/youtube red family group.
      - lima 10y ago
        Google promises not to use any GSuite data for advertising, which limits the services that are available.
        londons_explore 10y ago
        Business Gsuite data is also more tightly controlled, which means some integrations necessary to make things work properly aren't possible. For example, calendar data of Gsuite customers is sensitive enough the assistant AI can't access it, so if you ask the Google assistant "what's my next appointment", it can't answer.
        jsjohnst 10y ago
  - ilogik 10y ago
    Try to get in touch with this guy https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/5dif8j/psa_google_can_lock_your_account_forcing_you_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/5dif8j/psa_google_...
    - Klinky 10y ago
      It is pathetic that someone has to get referred to a reddit user account for help with a Google-related problem. I am guessing Google just isn't that good at this "internet" thing. Maybe someone can help them setup an actual customer support portal, with real employees.
      - brazzledazzle 10y ago
        My understand is that customer service is a scalability problem and isn't financially feasible for free services. If they had a support number they would be deluged with the very angry people you see in the product forums. Many of these are people they simply cannot help as a CS rep because they are angry about things like missing or dropped features. And as it turns out, free users are often the most demanding in terms of attention, time and resources. What they really need is a customer service team that finds these people that are having genuine issues that can be resolved. They'd need the means to reach out and communicate without that person being able to subsequently share contact information with the world. That said, I don't know what I'd do as a Google employee looking at this guy's situation. If david.smith@gmail.com is dormant and my name and ID say David Smith why should that give me access to that mailbox? How do you verify the contents without violating someone's privacy? We're not asking some tiny ISP to take a quick peek, this is Google and they have a responsibility to all of their users to practice great care. So we can't assume they're telling the truth and neither can Google. This guy's situation sucks but the mistake of turning over the account to the wrong person is catastrophically worse than the bad experience of denying the rightful owner access. This exact situation is why they have recovery options. I think it's likely they're telling the truth and I do feel bad for them and their situation. I've been there myself with a yahoo account years ago but at the end of the day the only way I could recover it was using something I no longer had. The things in that mailbox that I wanted access to were also things I would be furious at Yahoo for sharing with someone else no matter what their identification or birth certificate said.
- flinty 10y ago
  I have a similar situation. I had created an account just for a specific client to share files via google drive. Don't remember the password any more and can't access those files. No recourse.
  - biafra 10y ago
    What recourse do you expect? Did you set up a recovery address? A recovery phone number? Did you download and keep the recovery codes?
- ionwake 10y ago
  I have found google chaps do come out of the wood work when you post irrefutable evidence of a 'problem', although whether that is even possible is another thing. Try IRC, although it didnt work for me at all, I do believe they said that if the right guy at the right time is on it, he might be able to help.
knd775 10y ago
Wow, that's crazy. How'd that happen?
- doubt_me 10y ago
  It's not crazy at all. Lost access to my old Gmail account recoveries cause it had been over 4 years since the last login. My M$ account recovery is not possible despite opening about 10+ cases with their engineers who fail to respond 100% of the time. And when they did it was automated. So without either recovery available ill just go to type in all the info I have about my old Gmail. Automated response forms with more automated rejections. I've tried it easily 300+ times at this point. Doesn't work.
  - whyagaindavid 10y ago
    You should have noted that 4 years of inactivity is enough to close any free provider! If it was so important data isnt the onus on you to keep it locally backedup or at least login once a few months?
  - deelowe 10y ago
    > over 4 years since the last login Ohh come on now. Are they supposed to keep things around indefinitely? Most providers will wipe accounts after just a few months of inactivity.
    - doubt_me 10y ago
      Yea they are actually. I don't care about other providers I want my old gmail back.
    - rhizome 10y ago
      To be sure, there's no technical reason why that should be necessary.
    - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
      Agreed. As a comparison mobile phone credits in the UK seem to last at most 6 months, then the company close the account, resell the number, and eat your credit. And that's for paid service.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
mahyarm 10y ago
Time to start transitioning to your own domain name email address! (It's going to be a big pain...)
- x0x0 10y ago
  I did it, and it's less pain than you think as long as you have a year or two to do it. Try fastmail and just start replying to all emails from your personal domain.
  - echelon 10y ago
    I use a dot io domain name for one of my email addresses, but I've always been slightly worried about the possibility of my domain registrar being socially engineered. If someone gets into my domain account, that could lead to ATO and change of the MX records. Should I be concerned? Is there a "best practices" dot io domain registrar that won't allow this to happen?
    - tn13 10y ago
      There is something called "locking facility" that some registrars provide. That is changes can be made only with a 2 factor auth.
      - tombrossman 10y ago
        Might also be worth using a very long (1 week - 1 month?) TTL for your DNS MX records. This is no guarantee but it should buy you some extra time over the default which could be only an hour or so.
    - goatsi 10y ago
      One trick is to set a very long TTL on your MX records to mitigate any damage if your account is compromised.
- hga 10y ago
  Not a big one if you e.g. have someone else provide the backing email service. I bought my own domain back in 2002 or so, and note it's important that you own it*, and then set up email with a quality shared hosting service company. At some point I noticed this well recommended Fastmail company, which was lots cheaper than the shared hosting, the other features of which I no longer needed. Which has now been providing my email service for years, and I note they also do contacts and calendaring. And have really good customer service. And are reliable, including not having GMail's sometimes too aggressive spam filtering. Etc. Although if I remember correctly they were pants at accepting notifications from Fanfiction.net, which is not something I really worked at fixing since it prompts me to regularly check my backup Hotmail (Live, whatever) account. Which emphasizes one thing, if you do this, make very sure to maintain another email account in case you have any problems with your personal domain. You also ought to get treated more seriously by various important others if you have your own domain instead of a generic GMail or other big free email provider account.
erikpukinskis 10y ago
Sue them under wiretapping laws to release the information and redirect the emails to a domain you control. It is a federal crime to interfere with communications. I'm considering suing Apple under the same laws for blocking messages sent from iPhones to my phone number (you can never truly deregister from iMessage. Apple still silently destroys group messages sent to you). We need to get more serious about the idea that you can't legally withhold correspondence meant for someone else. These tech companies think they're immune from telecom laws but I am not sure the courts would agree.
- m3rc 10y ago
  There was a class action about the bullshit Apple pulls with iMessage but I don't remember how it resolved.
  - ryao 10y ago
    https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage
    - m3rc 10y ago
      I know the steps, the class-action was because even after doing all that iMessage would still not properly deregister numbers, and then a memo was leaked revealing that Apple purposefully didn't solve the problem because it lead to people returning to iPhones after trying Android devices
      - 0x6c6f6c 10y ago
        I'd actually love to see the source on that, if you have it
        m3rc 10y ago
        http://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/11/apple-lawsuit-imessage-issue/ http://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/11/apple-lawsuit-imessage-i... here's the lawsuit, I can't find a definitive source on any memo so maybe that was just unfounded rumors
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
emmelaich 10y ago
Similar problem, a family member lost their gmail account and none of the standard ways work to get it back. As proof I would welcome Google employees to study the past mail of other family member mail headers including mine to give them absolute proof of whose account it is. There is no way to ask them to do this.
jsz0 10y ago
> What do I honestly do in a situation like that? Learn a valuable lesson and move on. I lost some important data to a free service many years ago and now I don't rely on anything that I can't pay for with a credit card. I figure if something goes horribly wrong maybe the credit card company could work the fraud angle for me. Probably not but it makes me feel a little better.

btown 10y ago

If people don't see this, might as well do an Ask HN with more context and contact information. Likely that many Googlers read this.

doubt_me 10y ago
I tried everything x100 on steroids over the last 2 years. I was strictly ignored and the only thing left for me to do is to go walk in to the Gmail teams office and sit down on a computer and fix it myself.
- lemmings19 10y ago
  I doubt you.
- ryanlol 10y ago
  You're certainly not the only one. Even as a paying customer it's impossible to get in touch with anyone if you get locked out.
  - dawnerd 10y ago
    Not even if you get locked out. I tried asking them why my paid gsuite account couldn't be used like a normal google account and all they could do was copy+paste some response about how great paying for google was and that I wasn't paying for anything else. Alphabet REALLY needs to work on their customer service, especially for paying customers. I don't trust having email on a domain I don't control (you can't move a gmail account to another provider like you can a phone number). Yet if you want to take advantage of all the features of google home/music/youtube you have to use a normal gmail account.
    - nicky0 10y ago
      Can't you just use another email provider as your main account and keep the Google one for YouTube etc.
      - dawnerd 10y ago
        Yeah, and I've been toying with the idea. What sucks is I'd love to use Google home for flight info but because I use gsuite it wont read emails or calendar. Guess I could have all my email forwarded to a dummy google account just for that.
    - brazzledazzle 10y ago
      I thought you could turn the consumer-only apps on in the admin interface.
      - dawnerd 10y ago
        You can but it limits what you can do. Example, I can use my Google home with my apps account except I can't use calendar, flight info, or be a part of my existing google music/youtube red family group.
    - lima 10y ago
      Google promises not to use any GSuite data for advertising, which limits the services that are available.
      - londons_explore 10y ago
        Business Gsuite data is also more tightly controlled, which means some integrations necessary to make things work properly aren't possible. For example, calendar data of Gsuite customers is sensitive enough the assistant AI can't access it, so if you ask the Google assistant "what's my next appointment", it can't answer.
        jsjohnst 10y ago
- ilogik 10y ago
  Try to get in touch with this guy https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/5dif8j/psa_google_can_lock_your_account_forcing_you_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/5dif8j/psa_google_...
  - Klinky 10y ago
    It is pathetic that someone has to get referred to a reddit user account for help with a Google-related problem. I am guessing Google just isn't that good at this "internet" thing. Maybe someone can help them setup an actual customer support portal, with real employees.
    - brazzledazzle 10y ago
      My understand is that customer service is a scalability problem and isn't financially feasible for free services. If they had a support number they would be deluged with the very angry people you see in the product forums. Many of these are people they simply cannot help as a CS rep because they are angry about things like missing or dropped features. And as it turns out, free users are often the most demanding in terms of attention, time and resources. What they really need is a customer service team that finds these people that are having genuine issues that can be resolved. They'd need the means to reach out and communicate without that person being able to subsequently share contact information with the world. That said, I don't know what I'd do as a Google employee looking at this guy's situation. If david.smith@gmail.com is dormant and my name and ID say David Smith why should that give me access to that mailbox? How do you verify the contents without violating someone's privacy? We're not asking some tiny ISP to take a quick peek, this is Google and they have a responsibility to all of their users to practice great care. So we can't assume they're telling the truth and neither can Google. This guy's situation sucks but the mistake of turning over the account to the wrong person is catastrophically worse than the bad experience of denying the rightful owner access. This exact situation is why they have recovery options. I think it's likely they're telling the truth and I do feel bad for them and their situation. I've been there myself with a yahoo account years ago but at the end of the day the only way I could recover it was using something I no longer had. The things in that mailbox that I wanted access to were also things I would be furious at Yahoo for sharing with someone else no matter what their identification or birth certificate said.
flinty 10y ago
I have a similar situation. I had created an account just for a specific client to share files via google drive. Don't remember the password any more and can't access those files. No recourse.
- biafra 10y ago
  What recourse do you expect? Did you set up a recovery address? A recovery phone number? Did you download and keep the recovery codes?
ionwake 10y ago
I have found google chaps do come out of the wood work when you post irrefutable evidence of a 'problem', although whether that is even possible is another thing. Try IRC, although it didnt work for me at all, I do believe they said that if the right guy at the right time is on it, he might be able to help.

knd775 10y ago

Wow, that's crazy. How'd that happen?

doubt_me 10y ago
It's not crazy at all. Lost access to my old Gmail account recoveries cause it had been over 4 years since the last login. My M$ account recovery is not possible despite opening about 10+ cases with their engineers who fail to respond 100% of the time. And when they did it was automated. So without either recovery available ill just go to type in all the info I have about my old Gmail. Automated response forms with more automated rejections. I've tried it easily 300+ times at this point. Doesn't work.
- whyagaindavid 10y ago
  You should have noted that 4 years of inactivity is enough to close any free provider! If it was so important data isnt the onus on you to keep it locally backedup or at least login once a few months?
- deelowe 10y ago
  > over 4 years since the last login Ohh come on now. Are they supposed to keep things around indefinitely? Most providers will wipe accounts after just a few months of inactivity.
  - doubt_me 10y ago
    Yea they are actually. I don't care about other providers I want my old gmail back.
  - rhizome 10y ago
    To be sure, there's no technical reason why that should be necessary.
  - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
    Agreed. As a comparison mobile phone credits in the UK seem to last at most 6 months, then the company close the account, resell the number, and eat your credit. And that's for paid service.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

mahyarm 10y ago

Time to start transitioning to your own domain name email address! (It's going to be a big pain...)

x0x0 10y ago
I did it, and it's less pain than you think as long as you have a year or two to do it. Try fastmail and just start replying to all emails from your personal domain.
- echelon 10y ago
  I use a dot io domain name for one of my email addresses, but I've always been slightly worried about the possibility of my domain registrar being socially engineered. If someone gets into my domain account, that could lead to ATO and change of the MX records. Should I be concerned? Is there a "best practices" dot io domain registrar that won't allow this to happen?
  - tn13 10y ago
    There is something called "locking facility" that some registrars provide. That is changes can be made only with a 2 factor auth.
    - tombrossman 10y ago
      Might also be worth using a very long (1 week - 1 month?) TTL for your DNS MX records. This is no guarantee but it should buy you some extra time over the default which could be only an hour or so.
  - goatsi 10y ago
    One trick is to set a very long TTL on your MX records to mitigate any damage if your account is compromised.
hga 10y ago
Not a big one if you e.g. have someone else provide the backing email service. I bought my own domain back in 2002 or so, and note it's important that you own it*, and then set up email with a quality shared hosting service company. At some point I noticed this well recommended Fastmail company, which was lots cheaper than the shared hosting, the other features of which I no longer needed. Which has now been providing my email service for years, and I note they also do contacts and calendaring. And have really good customer service. And are reliable, including not having GMail's sometimes too aggressive spam filtering. Etc. Although if I remember correctly they were pants at accepting notifications from Fanfiction.net, which is not something I really worked at fixing since it prompts me to regularly check my backup Hotmail (Live, whatever) account. Which emphasizes one thing, if you do this, make very sure to maintain another email account in case you have any problems with your personal domain. You also ought to get treated more seriously by various important others if you have your own domain instead of a generic GMail or other big free email provider account.

erikpukinskis 10y ago

Sue them under wiretapping laws to release the information and redirect the emails to a domain you control. It is a federal crime to interfere with communications. I'm considering suing Apple under the same laws for blocking messages sent from iPhones to my phone number (you can never truly deregister from iMessage. Apple still silently destroys group messages sent to you). We need to get more serious about the idea that you can't legally withhold correspondence meant for someone else. These tech companies think they're immune from telecom laws but I am not sure the courts would agree.

m3rc 10y ago
There was a class action about the bullshit Apple pulls with iMessage but I don't remember how it resolved.
- ryao 10y ago
  https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage
  - m3rc 10y ago
    I know the steps, the class-action was because even after doing all that iMessage would still not properly deregister numbers, and then a memo was leaked revealing that Apple purposefully didn't solve the problem because it lead to people returning to iPhones after trying Android devices
    - 0x6c6f6c 10y ago
      I'd actually love to see the source on that, if you have it
      - m3rc 10y ago
        http://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/11/apple-lawsuit-imessage-issue/ http://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/11/apple-lawsuit-imessage-i... here's the lawsuit, I can't find a definitive source on any memo so maybe that was just unfounded rumors

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

emmelaich 10y ago

Similar problem, a family member lost their gmail account and none of the standard ways work to get it back. As proof I would welcome Google employees to study the past mail of other family member mail headers including mine to give them absolute proof of whose account it is. There is no way to ask them to do this.

jsz0 10y ago

> What do I honestly do in a situation like that? Learn a valuable lesson and move on. I lost some important data to a free service many years ago and now I don't rely on anything that I can't pay for with a credit card. I figure if something goes horribly wrong maybe the credit card company could work the fraud angle for me. Probably not but it makes me feel a little better.