Help recovering a Google - Gmail - YouTube account.
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i guess it makes sense for them to want to free up accounts that were initiated years ago and rarely if ever used, but in my case they are making it impossible for me to get into an account that i a) know the password to and b) have a backup email for. which is very frustrating.
Avoid Google as much as possible. They are just bad news. If you just need email, use mail.com or Proton Mail. They have none of the Google BS.
Unfortunately there is no alternative for YouTube.
Avoid Google as much as possible. They are just bad news. If you just need email, use mail.com or Proton Mail. They have none of the Google BS.
Unfortunately there is no alternative for YouTube.
i actually have proton mail but rarely use it. i agree with your poor evaluation of google... but ... they have several big pluses such as massive photo and virtual drive storage.
what about Rumble as an option for youtube? i know they have nowhere near the viewership, but there's a lot more freedom there from what i've heard.
i actually have proton mail but rarely use it. i agree with your poor evaluation of google... but ... they have several big pluses such as massive photo and virtual drive storage.
what about Rumble as an option for youtube? i know they have nowhere near the viewership, but there's a lot more freedom there from what i've heard.
The content I want to see is on YouTube. Nothing on Rumble really interests me. YouTube is the #2 website in the world. All the other video hosting sites in the world combined don't have a fraction of the videos that YouTube does.
Update: I was able to recover my Google account thanks to McDonald's free wifi. Yesterday I was traveling and decided to swing into the McDonald's parking lot and see what would happen if I used their wifi and tried to log into Gmail. I was not expecting positive results since everything else had failed. It was a nothing left to lose attempt.
To my surprise it let me log right in. The first thing I did was to open all the security alert messages, saying that an unknown Mac device using my password had been blocked from accessing my account. I clicked each message and replied that yes, that was my device.
Then I left the browser window open and closed up the laptop. When I got home I connected to my network and had full access to my accounts.
I'm kind of kicking myself for not trying that sooner. I had thought about it, but thought using a public wifi network, might just throw up more red flags. But now that I think about it, the last time I used that McDonald's wifi, was probably six or eight months ago. So Google may have recognized the McDonald's wifi as a usual wifi network for my device and so let me log in.
The other possibility is that I just went over the 30 day mark of not being able to log into my Google account. It could have unlocked automatically after 30 days. But everything I have read, says that should happen after 7 - 10 days, if it's going to happen at all. So I doubt that was it.
Anyway, I'm just happy I was able to recover the account. I guess I will have to think about linking my Google account to a backup email address, incase this happens again. But I'm still not going to give Google my phone number.
Update: I was able to recover my Google account thanks to McDonald's free wifi. Yesterday I was traveling and decided to swing into the McDonald's parking lot and see what would happen if I used their wifi and tried to log into Gmail. I was not expecting positive results since everything else had failed. It was a nothing left to lose attempt.
To my surprise it let me log right in. The first thing I did was to open all the security alert messages, saying that an unknown Mac device using my password had been blocked from accessing my account. I clicked each message and replied that yes, that was my device.
Then I left the browser window open and closed up the laptop. When I got home I connected to my network and had full access to my accounts.
I'm kind of kicking myself for not trying that sooner. I had thought about it, but thought using a public wifi network, might just throw up more red flags. But now that I think about it, the last time I used that McDonald's wifi, was probably six or eight months ago. So Google may have recognized the McDonald's wifi as a usual wifi network for my device and so let me log in.
The other possibility is that I just went over the 30 day mark of not being able to log into my Google account. It could have unlocked automatically after 30 days. But everything I have read, says that should happen after 7 - 10 days, if it's going to happen at all. So I doubt that was it.
Anyway, I'm just happy I was able to recover the account. I guess I will have to think about linking my Google account to a backup email address, incase this happens again. But I'm still not going to give Google my phone number.
That’s good! Definitely do the backup email and consider using Google Authenticator app.. I don’t remember if that requires a phone number or not though.
That’s good! Definitely do the backup email and consider using Google Authenticator app.. I don’t remember if that requires a phone number or not though.
Oh no I don't want that. I don't want more security, I want less. Passwords have been more than adequate to protect all of my online accounts for almost 30 years. I have never been hacked one time. On the other hand, with all this 2-Step verification crap going on it is becoming harder and harder for me to maintain access to my accounts or open new accounts. Google Authenticator is just another layer of BS to go wrong.
In a related matter, today I went online to my ISP's website to try and deal with a billing problem. Despite the fact that they have my current phone number and information, they wanted to sent the verification code to a phone number I haven't used in over 10 years. No option to get the code sent to my current number. Now I will have to call their support number in India. Which I'm sure will take hours of hold time, and then probably won't fully resolve my problem.
Just two days ago I had to drive over 100 miles to a bank branch to resolve a similar matter with my bank account. Which still isn't fully resolved. This BS is never ending. I don't know how people deal with it.
Oh no I don't want that. I don't want more security, I want less. Passwords have been more than adequate to protect all of my online accounts for almost 30 years. I have never been hacked one time. On the other hand, with all this 2-Step verification crap going on it is becoming harder and harder for me to maintain access to my accounts or open new accounts. Google Authenticator is just another layer of BS to go wrong.
In a related matter, today I went online to my ISP's website to try and deal with a billing problem. Despite the fact that they have my current phone number and information, they wanted to sent the verification code to a phone number I haven't used in over 10 years. No option to get the code sent to my current number. Now I will have to call their support number in India. Which I'm sure will take hours of hold time, and then probably won't fully resolve my problem.
Just two days ago I had to drive over 100 miles to a bank branch to resolve a similar matter with my bank account. Which still isn't fully resolved. This BS is never ending. I don't know how people deal with it.
I agere that it’s getting a bit crazy now. You would think they would have thought of the fact that phon numbers and emails change sometimes.
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No option to get the code sent to my current number. Now I will have to call their support number in India. Which I'm sure will take hours of hold time, and then probably won't fully resolve my problem. 
