How to (hopefully) restore your Gmail account if you lose access

Losing access to your Google/Gmail account can be an incredibly frustrating and unfortunate experience. While researching this article, I came across several people's accounts that had been locked out after forgetting their passwords — and a few who still couldn't get back to them, even after several weeks.

SummaryBack up your account regularlyKeep track of your old passwordCheck what recovery information is availableSet up a recovery email accountSet up a recovery phone number:Remember when you started the accountRecover your password

Google provides a list of methods to try if your account has been locked, either because you forgot your password or because someone hacked into your account and changed it. Sometimes they work.

Your options beyond Google's suggestions may be limited, so it's best to be prepared in advance. Here are some suggestions to put you in the best possible position to get your stuff back.

Backup your account regularly

If you ever lose (knock on wood) access to your account, it'll be less of a blow – and there's less chance of your blood pressure rising – if you have a recent backup of your data. Google provides a way for you to download your data which it calls Get Out. You can download all data from all your Google apps, or some of them, or just a single app like Gmail.

Download formats vary by data type. Your email will be downloaded in MBOX format, which can then be downloaded to another Gmail account or most other email services or apps.

Keep track of your old password

One ​​of the ways Google verifies your identity if you lose your password is to ask you to enter your old password. If it's been a while since you changed your password (assuming you've changed it before), it may be difficult (or impossible) to remember that old password. So when you change your Google password — and it's not a bad idea to change it regularly — keep a record of your old password in a safe place.

A good strategy here is to use your password manager - you use one, right? – to keep track of old passwords. Most password managers offer to update the existing entry for an app when you create a new password; if possible, you can choose to create a new entry, then go back and edit the old one to say something like "Gmail - old password".

If you don't use a password manager (and if you've lost your password, chances are you don't), then you can -be keep a list of old passwords in an encrypted file. Just in case.

Check what recovery information is available

It's a good idea to provide Google with as much recovery information as you feel comfortable in advance so that if you ever need to verify your identity, you have a choice .

• Go to your Google account page and click on "Security" in the left column.
• Scroll down to "Ways to verify that this is you".
• You will see if you saved a recovery phone number or recovery email. (Note:If you've entered an answer to a security question in the past, you'll also see it listed; however, if you click on it, you'll receive a notice that Google no longer supports question security .)
• If you haven't filled in any of these fields, it might be a good idea to fill in at least one. If you want to be really careful, go ahead and enter your information. Here's how.

Set-up a recovery email account

Your recovery email account can be another Gmail account, another email account from another service, or even the account of a relative or friend. (Make sure that relative or friend is security savvy.)

• Go to the "How we can verify this is you" section (see above) and click on "Recovery email".
• Enter your chosen recovery email address and click "Verify".
• Google will send a six-digit verification code to the email address you entered. Go to your email, copy the code and return to the recovery page to enter the code. (You have 24 hours before you need to get another code.)
• You should get a small popup indicating that your recovery email has been verified.

Set-up a recovery phone number:

• Go to the "How we can verify this is you" section (see above) and click "Recovery Email".
• Click "Add Recovery Phone" and enter the phone number in the pop-up window.
• Google will text you a verification code to this phone number. Enter it in the pop-up window.

Remember when you started the account

If all else fails, Google may ask you when you created the account. Personally, I have no idea when I started most of my Gmail accounts; If you want to check when you started yours, probably the easiest way is to find your first Gmails (now when you have access to your account) and keep that information somewhere safe. (This, of course, assumes that you weren't good enough at deleting all your old emails; in that case, it won't help.)

• In your Gmail account, go to the left menu, find "All messages" and click on it.
• Look in the upper right corner for the number of emails you have. (It will say something like "1-50 out of 2000.") Click on it and select "Oldest".
• Your email will now be sorted in order of oldest first; if you (like me) weren't very good at deleting email, this should give you an idea of ​​when you started the account.

Google does offer other advice for those struggling to restore their websites, including sending all the information you can using your regular computer to the same place you compute usually and using your usual browser.

Recover your password

What happens if you lose your password or can't access your account for some other reason? Well, you go to Google's recovery page and start answering those questions.

Unfortunately, when I tried it on a test account, I realized that my options were indeed limited. First I was asked for the last password I used, then a verification code from my secondary email, a verification code from my phone, and the answer to my security question (despite the Google's assertion that it no longer uses security questions). When I claimed I didn't have any of these items available, the last screen just prompted me to try again. I went through the whole rigmarole again - and again was asked to "Try Again". No alternative was offered.

You can also try going to the "Unable to sign in to your Google account" and selecting one or more of the choices given to see if there are any other options given.

But be aware that while you can enter the information Google's bots ask for, it may not be enough. In 2017, tech journalist Ron Miller was blocked from his Google account; in an article he described his extensive work.

So what can you do? If you really want to keep your email — and other Google data — available, make sure you have as many ways to restore your account as possible, and don't forget to back everything up, just in case. Otherwise, after trying everything you can, you may need to do what Google suggests at the bottom of its "Tips for performing account recovery steps" page — and create a new account.