In 2016 I was in the middle of China when my phone got stolen. Obviously I had backup codes saved in a text file so I was good. Then my moment of dread came: t

In 2016 I was in the middle of China when my phone got stolen. Obviously I had backup codes saved in a text file so I was good. Then my moment of dread came: the codes didn't work. I still don't know why but from that moment on the laptop I brought with me that had Google logged in was my only gateway to my personal info. I mailed account support and after explaining the situation and providing proof they reset my 2FA, after which I could set it up again on my new phone. Even though Google support was pretty quick and helped me out (in my own language, mailing from China) I have since moved to GMail with my own domain for more control, have printed out backup codes that I test every 3 months, have multiple phones with Google logged in for 2FA and periodically use the GDPR method to download stuff Google has on me, just to be safe. It was an eye opener how vulnerable I was using Google's "one account to rule them all".