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Unfortunately this requires you to be able to log in. I had an account (with the same name I use here) mysteriously stop being able to log in about 6 years ago.

by nanidin 13y ago

Unfortunately this requires you to be able to log in. I had an account (with the same name I use here) mysteriously stop being able to log in about 6 years ago. I lost all of my email, contacts, and calendars. I was never able to find out why the account was shut down, I'm guessing it was a ToS violation for something I did several months before I got banned (made 100+ gmail accounts with my invites, didn't use them for nefarious purposes though.) Just one day I couldn't log in and got an ambiguous page about account deactivation. No amount of emails or form filling ever earned a response from Google. That was it. Blam. Gone. Ever since then, I have not trusted Google with any data that I care about. It would be nice if this tool worked for deactivated accounts.

toomuchtodo 13y ago
Wait, so you weren't backing up your email account?
- drivers99 13y ago
  Wait, how many people back up their gmail account?
  - toomuchtodo 13y ago
    raises hand http://gmvault.org/ http://gmvault.org/ How does anyone get upset when something they're not paying for stops working?
    - pfarrell 13y ago
      You definitely pay for gmail. Paraphrasing Heinlein, you pay for it other than with money.
      - toomuchtodo 13y ago
        I'm okay with that. It hasn't cost me anything I valued.
      - trentmb 13y ago
        I swear people will find a way to feel entitled to just about anything.
  - robinson-wall 13y ago
    As a google apps admin for my work I backup the entire domain's emails - there are a bunch of companies offering this as a service these days. As a personal google mail user I use offlineimap to synchronise with a local maildir for both redundancy and reading my emails.
  - acjohnson55 13y ago
    Mine is backed up to several copies of Apple Mail
- halviti 13y ago
  I don't know anyone that backs up their gmail account. I'm sure many people here do, but I am fairly certain 99% of users do not.
  - toomuchtodo 13y ago
    What recourse does someone expect when there is a problem with their free account? It's free! You have no SLA or data guarantees!
  - hrktb 13y ago
    If you use a native email client and this client saves every mail on disk, you have a chance to have it backed up with everything else. It's still far to be the generic scenario, I think, but it should raise a bit the number of people having their gmail backed up.
  - rogerbinns 13y ago
    I use IMAP clients on all my computers to access gmail so they inherently have a local backup. Then at the beginning of each month I go to Google Takeout - https://www.google.com/settings/takeout https://www.google.com/settings/takeout - to download all my Google stuff and add it to a backup that ends up in Dropbox. (I should also add that I run my own domain and email so gmail is just a backup account.) However on checking takeout it turns out the one thing they don't provide is gmail! 8 of the 15 items backed up are related to Google+ though.
ollyculverhouse 13y ago
Why would Google keep a copy of your mail if your account was deactivated for 6 years? Isn't that asking a bit much considering you were the one that broke the ToS?
- nanidin 13y ago
  My hope that the tool is activated for deactivated accounts is more for people that suffer the same fate today - if they lose all access to their account, that they at least be able to get their data/life back. At least according to the page I get when I try to log in, they still have the data: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/40695?hl=en&ctx=ch_ServiceLoginAuth&p=mail https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/40695?hl=en&ctx=c... I don't disagree that Google was within their right to shutdown my account, but it seems silly that something I did at 19 has gone on this long.
- bradbatt 13y ago
  Does anyone thing that Google isn't keeping a copy of every bit of data they have on everybody that has ever used any of their systems? I cannot imagine they would ever throw data away. Even if they restrict the end user from it doesn't mean that they destroy the data for their own use.
  - Nitramp 13y ago
    If a user wishes to delete their account, companies are legally required to delete all data associated with it, at least in many jurisdictions.
    - pessimizer 13y ago
      Which jurisdictions are those?
- davidgerard 13y ago
  They certainly keep deleted Google+ for over two years.
ithkuil 13y ago
Would you like to be able to access your mails without having to log in?
- nanidin 13y ago
  No, I would like for this tool to work with deactivated accounts so that data can be retrieved in the event of Google deciding to deactivate the account.
  - ithkuil 13y ago
    IMHO those two issues are orthogonal. You could achieve the same goal if they let you reactivate the account and then retrieve your data (either with this tool or with IMAP). I suspect that the tool works by taking the data from the same storage that is used for active accounts. So, assuming that your data is still there, they would have two options: a) write another tool that exports data from some backup or b) first restore the data and then export it. In any case I don't find your feature request to be relevant to this topic. Sorry for nitpicking :-)
excelsiores 13y ago
I had a similar experience with github. https://twitter.com/excelsiores/status/408239093328269312 https://twitter.com/excelsiores/status/408239093328269312 support@github simply doesn't reply. Apparently, creating https://github.com/excelsiores/geek-misandry https://github.com/excelsiores/geek-misandry was enough to get me onto their "block and never reply to this user" list. Sad times. Wish they provided some way to export data before kicking off users like this.
- nanidin 13y ago
  At least git is distributed so you should have copies of anything you cloned :) Sadly, this is the way of tech companies though - skimp on real customer service & replace it with one sided FAQ's and unanswered forms/emails. The only way out of these situations is to get into the public eye & force a response on their part.
thomasahle 13y ago
I was once locked out of Google Groups. No idea why, I used it very little. My solution was to grab a free Google Apps of Business trial. Now I had direct access to support and could get unblocked within a day.

by nanidin 13y ago

toomuchtodo 13y ago

Wait, so you weren't backing up your email account?

drivers99 13y ago
Wait, how many people back up their gmail account?
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  raises hand http://gmvault.org/ http://gmvault.org/ How does anyone get upset when something they're not paying for stops working?
  - pfarrell 13y ago
    You definitely pay for gmail. Paraphrasing Heinlein, you pay for it other than with money.
    - toomuchtodo 13y ago
      I'm okay with that. It hasn't cost me anything I valued.
    - trentmb 13y ago
      I swear people will find a way to feel entitled to just about anything.
- robinson-wall 13y ago
  As a google apps admin for my work I backup the entire domain's emails - there are a bunch of companies offering this as a service these days. As a personal google mail user I use offlineimap to synchronise with a local maildir for both redundancy and reading my emails.
- acjohnson55 13y ago
  Mine is backed up to several copies of Apple Mail
halviti 13y ago
I don't know anyone that backs up their gmail account. I'm sure many people here do, but I am fairly certain 99% of users do not.
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  What recourse does someone expect when there is a problem with their free account? It's free! You have no SLA or data guarantees!
- hrktb 13y ago
  If you use a native email client and this client saves every mail on disk, you have a chance to have it backed up with everything else. It's still far to be the generic scenario, I think, but it should raise a bit the number of people having their gmail backed up.
- rogerbinns 13y ago
  I use IMAP clients on all my computers to access gmail so they inherently have a local backup. Then at the beginning of each month I go to Google Takeout - https://www.google.com/settings/takeout https://www.google.com/settings/takeout - to download all my Google stuff and add it to a backup that ends up in Dropbox. (I should also add that I run my own domain and email so gmail is just a backup account.) However on checking takeout it turns out the one thing they don't provide is gmail! 8 of the 15 items backed up are related to Google+ though.

ollyculverhouse 13y ago

Why would Google keep a copy of your mail if your account was deactivated for 6 years? Isn't that asking a bit much considering you were the one that broke the ToS?

nanidin 13y ago
My hope that the tool is activated for deactivated accounts is more for people that suffer the same fate today - if they lose all access to their account, that they at least be able to get their data/life back. At least according to the page I get when I try to log in, they still have the data: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/40695?hl=en&ctx=ch_ServiceLoginAuth&p=mail https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/40695?hl=en&ctx=c... I don't disagree that Google was within their right to shutdown my account, but it seems silly that something I did at 19 has gone on this long.
bradbatt 13y ago
Does anyone thing that Google isn't keeping a copy of every bit of data they have on everybody that has ever used any of their systems? I cannot imagine they would ever throw data away. Even if they restrict the end user from it doesn't mean that they destroy the data for their own use.
- Nitramp 13y ago
  If a user wishes to delete their account, companies are legally required to delete all data associated with it, at least in many jurisdictions.
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    Which jurisdictions are those?
davidgerard 13y ago
They certainly keep deleted Google+ for over two years.

ithkuil 13y ago

Would you like to be able to access your mails without having to log in?

nanidin 13y ago
No, I would like for this tool to work with deactivated accounts so that data can be retrieved in the event of Google deciding to deactivate the account.
- ithkuil 13y ago
  IMHO those two issues are orthogonal. You could achieve the same goal if they let you reactivate the account and then retrieve your data (either with this tool or with IMAP). I suspect that the tool works by taking the data from the same storage that is used for active accounts. So, assuming that your data is still there, they would have two options: a) write another tool that exports data from some backup or b) first restore the data and then export it. In any case I don't find your feature request to be relevant to this topic. Sorry for nitpicking :-)

excelsiores 13y ago

I had a similar experience with github. https://twitter.com/excelsiores/status/408239093328269312 https://twitter.com/excelsiores/status/408239093328269312 support@github simply doesn't reply. Apparently, creating https://github.com/excelsiores/geek-misandry https://github.com/excelsiores/geek-misandry was enough to get me onto their "block and never reply to this user" list. Sad times. Wish they provided some way to export data before kicking off users like this.

nanidin 13y ago
At least git is distributed so you should have copies of anything you cloned :) Sadly, this is the way of tech companies though - skimp on real customer service & replace it with one sided FAQ's and unanswered forms/emails. The only way out of these situations is to get into the public eye & force a response on their part.

thomasahle 13y ago

I was once locked out of Google Groups. No idea why, I used it very little. My solution was to grab a free Google Apps of Business trial. Now I had direct access to support and could get unblocked within a day.