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Have you run into any serious complications doing that? I'm a bit worried that I've used my google account for so long and for many things that I might accident

by pesus 6mo ago

Have you run into any serious complications doing that? I'm a bit worried that I've used my google account for so long and for many things that I might accidentally lock myself out of something important without it.

magicalhippo 6mo ago
I migrated away from my main email, it wasn't a Google mail but it was on the providers domain. First I signed up with Proton Mail and added my own domain, they fit the bill for me, YMMV. Then I did a search in my password manager and went through those accounts. Then I just let the old account sit there for a year. Each time I got an email from something I cared about I'd log in and change mail. It's been a year now, and I'm about to terminate the old account. All I get there now is occasional spam. I really dreaded this, but all in all quite painless. And next time it should be easier since I now own the email domain. edit: Forgot to mention I use Thunderbird, so old email I archived to local folders. That's part if why I ended with Proton, their IMAP bridge allows me to keep using Thunderbird.
- barrkel 6mo ago
  I exported all my email with Google Takeout, and Claude Code was able to write me a threaded email viewer local web app with basic search (chained ripgrep) in about 10 minutes, for any time I need to search archived emails.
- al_borland 6mo ago
  I started doing this a while ago, but made the mistake of buying a .io domain. With the future of that domain uncertain, I’ve been rolling that back, not back to Gmail, but to the underlying Proton account for the moment. I’ve also had some bad experiences with rates being raised on domains. That still ends up feeling like a risk to me, as the problem of domain squatters has not been solved, and the “solution” being employed seems to be continued rate hikes and exorbitant pricing for “premium” domains. It makes buying a domain for email not seem worth it… or at least not without its own long-term risks. My current project has been trying to reduce my footprint, by deleting old and unused accounts, so any future migrations will be easier. I’ve found with many sites, this is easier said than done. For example, I deleted my Venmo account at least 2 months ago, yet I just got an email from them yesterday about reviewing privacy settings. Did they delete my account? They sure didn’t delete all my data if I continue to get emails. I’m betting they just set a ‘delete’ flag in the database. The lack of accountability and transparency on these things is really bad.
  - magicalhippo 6mo ago
    > My current project has been trying to reduce my footprint, by deleting old and unused accounts I've actually split the accounts. I have a Gmail which I use for "throwaway" accounts, like shopping sites where I don't care if I lose access. But it's probably better to exercise some account hygiene and do some spring cleaning every now and then.
- jonhohle 6mo ago
  One thing I've not seen mentioned when people talk about moving to an owned domain is what happens when you don't own it anymore? There are a million services that assume that if you have access to the email content you are the account holder. Google claims they don't recycle email addresses, but if you lose your domain, the next owner has access to all emails from that point forward. If something happens and you're unable to renew your domain, are your next of kin out of luck?
  - magicalhippo 6mo ago
    > If something happens and you're unable to renew your domain, are your next of kin out of luck? I'd say "don't do that". I had a friend pass which I knew had a custom domain for email, I told the relatives they had to be on the ball regarding renewal. At least my registrar will keep sending invoices for a few months without letting go cough cough, so should be enough time to get the certificate of probate. With that the heirs should be able to get the invoice so they can pay.
hexmiles 6mo ago
Personally, I deleted everything I could but kept the Gmail account for a couple of years with a forward to my new account, and after that, I also deleted it. Google Takeout is a very useful way to quickly create a backup of everything Google.
jfoworjf 6mo ago
[flagged]
- fragmede 6mo ago
  > I just use two hard drives sitting and home, replicated The failure modes of that are fire/natural disaster, and thieves. Do that, but also have a geographically redundant backup scheme. Either encrypted eg Backblaze or a relatives house in another state.
deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
yellow_postit 6mo ago
I use Fastmail and the main difference I notice is less effective spam filtering — it’s good but not as great as Gmail was. Overall it’s been an acceptable trade off and I’m glad years ago I switched to a custom domain for email so I can have portability.
- FireBeyond 6mo ago
  Interesting, I have used Fastmail for probably a decade plus at this point, and whether it's my obsessive rating of false negatives and positives, it is amazingly rare that I get spam slip into my inbox (maybe one message a week from ~100/day received, while my spam folder gets about 10/day).
  - stavros 6mo ago
    I, too, mark all positives and negatives obsessively, but still get the same obvious spam in my inbox too often for my liking. Still, though, I love Fastmail.
- rubyn00bie 6mo ago
  Damn that’s wild to me, because Gmail absolutely refuses to send things to spam despite me incessantly marking them as spam. I honestly assumed that everyone had a rotten time with Gmail spam filtering but I guess it’s just a me problem. I suppose that means I’m up for an interesting time dealing with it as I move to a custom domain somewhere else. Anyone have any recommendations for providers that have exceptionally good spam filtering? Hell I’d even just settle for ones that honor “mark as spam,” because Gmail absolutely does not.
  - subscribed 6mo ago
    I get maybe one genuine spam not marked as such and maybe one false positive per month. I'm getting a lot of emails and between 10-20 spams a day, but that's years of the very careful messages reporting and categorisation. Similarly with important and "normal" emails - i only get one-two important per week, and marked as such for the same reasons; no false negatives.
hackermatic 6mo ago
I've run into one government website that required email addresses to come from gmail.com, outlook.com, or another common domain, and several websites that won't let you change your email address once registered. It also makes it really confusing if someone needs to share Google Docs with you. So I've moved as much as I can off of Google, but some stuff will linger forever.
- MandieD 6mo ago
  I've run into this, too, and found it hilarious because I remember when some sites wouldn't allow you to sign up with hotmail, gmail or other free email provider (over 20 years ago).

by pesus 6mo ago

magicalhippo 6mo ago

I migrated away from my main email, it wasn't a Google mail but it was on the providers domain. First I signed up with Proton Mail and added my own domain, they fit the bill for me, YMMV. Then I did a search in my password manager and went through those accounts. Then I just let the old account sit there for a year. Each time I got an email from something I cared about I'd log in and change mail. It's been a year now, and I'm about to terminate the old account. All I get there now is occasional spam. I really dreaded this, but all in all quite painless. And next time it should be easier since I now own the email domain. edit: Forgot to mention I use Thunderbird, so old email I archived to local folders. That's part if why I ended with Proton, their IMAP bridge allows me to keep using Thunderbird.

barrkel 6mo ago
I exported all my email with Google Takeout, and Claude Code was able to write me a threaded email viewer local web app with basic search (chained ripgrep) in about 10 minutes, for any time I need to search archived emails.
al_borland 6mo ago
I started doing this a while ago, but made the mistake of buying a .io domain. With the future of that domain uncertain, I’ve been rolling that back, not back to Gmail, but to the underlying Proton account for the moment. I’ve also had some bad experiences with rates being raised on domains. That still ends up feeling like a risk to me, as the problem of domain squatters has not been solved, and the “solution” being employed seems to be continued rate hikes and exorbitant pricing for “premium” domains. It makes buying a domain for email not seem worth it… or at least not without its own long-term risks. My current project has been trying to reduce my footprint, by deleting old and unused accounts, so any future migrations will be easier. I’ve found with many sites, this is easier said than done. For example, I deleted my Venmo account at least 2 months ago, yet I just got an email from them yesterday about reviewing privacy settings. Did they delete my account? They sure didn’t delete all my data if I continue to get emails. I’m betting they just set a ‘delete’ flag in the database. The lack of accountability and transparency on these things is really bad.
- magicalhippo 6mo ago
  > My current project has been trying to reduce my footprint, by deleting old and unused accounts I've actually split the accounts. I have a Gmail which I use for "throwaway" accounts, like shopping sites where I don't care if I lose access. But it's probably better to exercise some account hygiene and do some spring cleaning every now and then.
jonhohle 6mo ago
One thing I've not seen mentioned when people talk about moving to an owned domain is what happens when you don't own it anymore? There are a million services that assume that if you have access to the email content you are the account holder. Google claims they don't recycle email addresses, but if you lose your domain, the next owner has access to all emails from that point forward. If something happens and you're unable to renew your domain, are your next of kin out of luck?
- magicalhippo 6mo ago
  > If something happens and you're unable to renew your domain, are your next of kin out of luck? I'd say "don't do that". I had a friend pass which I knew had a custom domain for email, I told the relatives they had to be on the ball regarding renewal. At least my registrar will keep sending invoices for a few months without letting go cough cough, so should be enough time to get the certificate of probate. With that the heirs should be able to get the invoice so they can pay.

hexmiles 6mo ago

Personally, I deleted everything I could but kept the Gmail account for a couple of years with a forward to my new account, and after that, I also deleted it. Google Takeout is a very useful way to quickly create a backup of everything Google.

jfoworjf 6mo ago

[flagged]

fragmede 6mo ago
> I just use two hard drives sitting and home, replicated The failure modes of that are fire/natural disaster, and thieves. Do that, but also have a geographically redundant backup scheme. Either encrypted eg Backblaze or a relatives house in another state.

deleted 6mo ago

[deleted]

yellow_postit 6mo ago

I use Fastmail and the main difference I notice is less effective spam filtering — it’s good but not as great as Gmail was. Overall it’s been an acceptable trade off and I’m glad years ago I switched to a custom domain for email so I can have portability.

FireBeyond 6mo ago
Interesting, I have used Fastmail for probably a decade plus at this point, and whether it's my obsessive rating of false negatives and positives, it is amazingly rare that I get spam slip into my inbox (maybe one message a week from ~100/day received, while my spam folder gets about 10/day).
- stavros 6mo ago
  I, too, mark all positives and negatives obsessively, but still get the same obvious spam in my inbox too often for my liking. Still, though, I love Fastmail.
rubyn00bie 6mo ago
Damn that’s wild to me, because Gmail absolutely refuses to send things to spam despite me incessantly marking them as spam. I honestly assumed that everyone had a rotten time with Gmail spam filtering but I guess it’s just a me problem. I suppose that means I’m up for an interesting time dealing with it as I move to a custom domain somewhere else. Anyone have any recommendations for providers that have exceptionally good spam filtering? Hell I’d even just settle for ones that honor “mark as spam,” because Gmail absolutely does not.
- subscribed 6mo ago
  I get maybe one genuine spam not marked as such and maybe one false positive per month. I'm getting a lot of emails and between 10-20 spams a day, but that's years of the very careful messages reporting and categorisation. Similarly with important and "normal" emails - i only get one-two important per week, and marked as such for the same reasons; no false negatives.

hackermatic 6mo ago

I've run into one government website that required email addresses to come from gmail.com, outlook.com, or another common domain, and several websites that won't let you change your email address once registered. It also makes it really confusing if someone needs to share Google Docs with you. So I've moved as much as I can off of Google, but some stuff will linger forever.

MandieD 6mo ago
I've run into this, too, and found it hilarious because I remember when some sites wouldn't allow you to sign up with hotmail, gmail or other free email provider (over 20 years ago).