Lost Email Account, Forgot Password?

[Jim Koepke]

Until recently I had two email accounts with gmail. Not two long ago I had four email accounts. One was with the telephone company where we used to live. Another was with a Users Group that disbanded earlier this year.

I did a reset on my Chrome Browser due to some slowness issues and other things. It seems the password on one account using my initials & name wasn't what I thought it was.

Gmail seem to not have any system of recovery for my situation. I do not have a cell phone for them to send me a text. And it appears when the account was started my phone company email was used as a back up email.

Now it appears I am locked out of the account for too many attempts at trying to determine what my password may have been.

Anyone have any experience with this or ideas on getting gmail to let me get back to my old account?

If nothing else, this can be a warning to others to make sure all of you back ups are still valid.

I'm going through the process of trying to get all of my banking, bill paying and other stuff that was tied to that email eddress moved over to my other account.

This also means creating another email as a back up account. Anyone know of a good, free email provider.

TIA,

jtk

[Jim Becker]

Recovery methods at this point are pretty dependent on two factor authentication. That's most often done using a phone that can receive texts but some systems will also permit an alternate email for the same purpose. I suspect you may be hosed with the situation you are in without having two factor available because of long-gone recovery emails. As to a new provider, I'd still stick with gmail. Just set it up and insure you do have two factor/recovery active. There's a LOT of account stealing that goes on these days so it's critical to insure nobody else can take over your account(s)

[Anuj Prateek]

This is a tricky one.

Check this if you have not done already:
https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/2402620?sjid=14442895408356100438-NA#ts=2402552

This has hints on answering various questions:
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7299973?sjid=14442895408356100438-NA

Unfortunately, if none of the recovery options apply, then a new account is in order.


I will suggest that you stick with Gmail. Enable 1-2 recovery options when you setup account.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I am as cautious as I can be. Sitting to my left is my wife's photo safe. In it is a hardbound book with nothing but all our passwords for email and websites written in it. About 18 months ago our cable provider terminated their email service which had the only email account we had ever used. I changed our email address to a gmail account , changed the email address at all our accounts and my wife switched us to Dish. If you do this, make sure you use a pencil to make your entries into a book so that if you are required to change them periodically, you can erase and register the new password in the book.

[Dave Zellers]

If you do this, make sure you use a pencil to make your entries into a book so that if you are required to change them periodically, you can erase and register the new password in the book.

This is a serious thread. I hope everyone takes it as such. The only small change I would make to Ken's advice above, is to not use a pencil so you can erase, but use a pen and instead of erasing, lightly strike through old passwords and then add the new one so you still have a record of your old passwords. That can be very useful in panic situations where a company might ask for an old password. I keep a database of all login data including security questions that I print to PDF as well as print to hard copy and store the PDF's on multiple drives including thumb drives.


It's impossible to be too careful. But you do want to protect it all from prying eyes.

The old saying still applies: There are only two kinds of backup drives- those that haven't failed, and those that will.

[Bill Howatt]

I totally support Dave Zeller's suggestion that the old passwords not be erased but struck-through. I store my passwords in an encrypted password safe program with the old password history and the security questions. I also include any other possibility helpful info such as which phone (mine or my wife's) the 2-factor is going to call.
However, I do not print the information to PDFs and store them on multiple drives since I consider that a security weakness - the sensitive info is stored all over in plaintext. I do have copies of my password safe encrypted data on the cloud and various drives.
Having a paper book would not be my first choice because of multiple computers being used.

[Jerry Bruette]

Not only do I keep passwords and log ins in a note book including the old information I also put a date next to them when they were created. All of the really important info is kept in the gun safe with the other important stuff.

[Dave Zellers]

I do not print the information to PDFs and store them on multiple drives since I consider that a security weakness...

I should include that I password protect the PDF file.

[Dave Zellers]

Not only do I keep passwords and log ins in a note book including the old information I also put a date next to them when they were created.

Yes- and all changes are assigned a date of change.