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Ask HN: How to Recover Gmail Account

22 points by powerapple ↗ HN
I have forgotten the password for my important gmail account, the center of my digital life, after switching my phone. I have my phone number registered with my gmail account, apparently it is not enough. After asking for a verification code sent to my phone number, Google is asking for a verification code sent to this unaccessible gmail inbox. I am stuck here. I don't even remember how many services using this gmail as recovery email address or for verification. I am switching to a pure iCloud solution to go forward, but I still want to recover my gmail account and update all online services registered with this email. I have researched online, and found no solution. BTW, I also got a new laptop and returned the old one :/ which probably made things worse. Please help me if you have any tips. Thank you.

12 comments

[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 43.1 ms ] thread
refurb
Any chance you can access Gmail from the same IP address? Or at least same city (as located by IP?).

I got locked out because of an old phone number I no longer had access to. Waited until I went back to my old home town. Tried again and there was no request for the phone number. Got in and updated everything.

powerapple
Thanks. I was accessing gmail with the same IP, I tried both home and work, unfortunately I changed my phone and my laptop at the same time. My phone works, I can receive verification code, but somehow it is not enough. It asks to send a different code to YouTube (which I don't know how would that help), or Google Authenticator, or the exact email I am recovering. I have been thinking about maybe apply for a court order or something...
SanjayMehta
Do you have the YouTube app installed? Sounds like it's trying to send a notification to that app to authenticate you.
powerapple
I will need to log in YouTube in order to receive the notification, should be the same google account, right? I had YouTube on my phone, but I didn't log in though.
SanjayMehta
True. If you had already had the YT app installed and logged in, it might have helped. Seems like you're in a catch22 situation. Very strange system design.

Is this on android?

powerapple
I am on iOS. The most annoying thing is that I always ended at the "I have sent a verification code to your gmail address" thing, doesn't it know I am trying to recover this email address???? Google maybe know me more than myself, and it cannot verify me for my email.
CommitSyn
Gmail is saying that when you attempt to recover your account? If so, then I believe it's saying it sent the verification to the backup email on file, so check any other email addresses you have access to and might have used for backup recovery addresses.
powerapple
Unfortunately it is not what is happening. There are plenty of people having the exact same experience, the hope of recovering it is slim to none. I didn't have a backup recovery address, so maybe the developer put a default recovery address as the original address, maybe that's why. I just received an email from epicgames that they cannot change my email address without me providing the verification code sent to my gmail now...
mkbkn
If you're trying to login on broadband/WiFi, try again with your mobile data.
beagle3
I have a similar situation: I have registered for a google account (not an email account, mind you - just a google account) because I needed to use an online calendar for a month. That was 13 years ago, with a different computer, different city, different ISP, different country, different everything.

I am in control of the same email. I try to log in to that google account, I get an email with an OTP, I put it in, and ... google is unhappy because having control of the email is not enough, I need to have a similar computer/ip to 13 years ago.

All I want to do is shut down this google account, to make sure nothing about it happens that I am unaware of. If I it didn't exist, surely control of the email would be enough to create it in the first place...

I've been trying to recover that account approx. once a month for the last couple of years (for the purpose of deleting it. ...), to no avail.

hanafudafan
Give up, you can't. It's over. Switch and never use Google anything again.
dontbenebby
I’ve got the opposite issue - I have the password but lost the totp and no longer control the phone number attached