I had a bit of a squeaky bum moment the other night. I needed to sign up for Stadia and was asked for my gmail address and password which for the life of me I c

I had a bit of a squeaky bum moment the other night. I needed to sign up for Stadia and was asked for my gmail address and password which for the life of me I couldn't remember (and it wasn't in my password manager). I then requested a password reset and tried a couple of the account rescue codes. Turns out I'd used these specific ones before but hadn't marked them as used (doh!) and at that point stopped in case of a hard lockout due to "suspicious activity". So at this point I capitulated and just went for the "I'm dumb and forgot my password and have no other codes or keys" option. I was then told it'd take SIX HOURS for google to verify my account before they'd send me a password reset link. Luckily it all worked out and all I lost was an evening of Stadia, but I couldn't help feeling I was teetering on the edge of loosing my account. Footnote: yes I have considered switching to a paid service such as Proton Mail, but at the time covid happened, I lost my income and couldn't afford it. I think this experience will spur me on now that I'm gainfully employed.