HN Explorer

G Suite account recovery for cancer widow advice

15 points by rietta ↗ HN
Google G Suite issue for cancer widow. Her blog domain is expiring in Google Domains on her LATE HUSBAND's account. She is the estate executor. She can read his emails via his phone. If his GSuite password is not in KeePass, what recovery options does she have?

My friend was 38 years old and didn't even know he was sick until January & died from an aggressive cancer by March. They were not prepared for this. Fellow geeks don't turn your home into corporate IT and make your spouse & kids feel trapped by technology while grieving your loss.

8 comments

[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 31.6 ms ] thread
dredmorbius
Submit a request regarding a deceased user's account

https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590?h...

For those who might wish to smooth a future transition, there is Inactive Account Manager which can be configured in advance.

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546

I'm sorry for your loss.

rietta
The most pressing need is to add an updated payment card so that the domain she uses does not expire next week. This seems geared towards closing the account or getting a Google Takeout. She is working the probate process so could conceivably get a court order to help, though they are extra slow due to COVID.
dredmorbius
Who is the Payee? Google or a third parrty?

NB: Goggle's account recovery I've dim familiarity with. Domain stuff not so much.

rietta
The e-mail instructing her to login via G Suite (with the password she does not know).

"To review or change your automatic renewal settings, or to cancel your Domain Registration subscription, please proceed to your G Suite Admin Console while logged into your G Suite account, and proceed to the "Billing" section.

For further assistance, please contact the G Suite Support team."

I just ran a whois and it seems the registrar is GoDaddy with the reseller G Suite.

Thank you for the links! Those will surely be helpful.

dredmorbius
GoDaddy may be able to assist directly, contacting them should be on your to-do list.
shyn3
Some hosting providers let you pay the bill for another person. Have done it in the past when I saw a domain expiring. I think GoDaddy may be the same.
dredmorbius
That's my thinking.

Few firms will outright refuse money.

saluki
The G Suite admin will have a way to reset the password, initiate a password reset through Gsuite, sometimes they will ask for the last password you remember, I would try his most common one he used on other things, I think it will still send the password reset but I would try a common one anyway. There should be a password reset email sent that you can click on and reset the GS admin password.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/33561

Does the domain DNS happen to be setup on cloudflare, if you can gain access to that and the DNS, looks like Gsuite has a cname password reset/recovery option.