r/GMail

I want to thank the moderators as well as commenters who have taken the time to post information on how to avoid getting locked out of a Gmail account. I stumbled across this sub a few weeks ago and was horrified (to the point of physical shaking) to realize that I had done exactly the same as many of the locked-out users had – entered the same email address for recovery; no active recovery phone number; and so on. (I did have a printout – somewhere – of the recovery codes though). I’ve had this account since 2007! In my defense, I’ve primarily accessed my email for the last decade via Apple’s email app and not the Gmail app or URL, so obviously did not have the “Google Account” icon in that app. 

Because of all your recommendations to other users, I now have a verified recovery email; verified recovery contact; three 2-step verification telephone numbers; 2FA set up and tested; recovery codes printed and filed with important papers; passkeys; 2 Yubikeys; and so on. 

Hopefully I can sleep better now! Thank you again for all your efforts; they do not go unnoticed.

So apparently Google quietly rolled out the option to change your Gmail username (the actual @gmail.com part), which is huge because a lot of us made cringe emails years ago 😅

Now I’m seriously considering changing mine, but I’m confused about one thing:

If I change my Gmail username:

•	Will all the apps/websites linked to my email update automatically?

•	Or do I have to manually go and update my email everywhere (banking, social media, subscriptions, etc.)?

I’ve got a LOT tied to this email, so if things don’t sync properly, it sounds like a nightmare.

Also, I read that the old email might still work as an alias — does that mean nothing really breaks?

Has anyone here actually done it yet? What was your experience?

Don’t want to mess this up, so any real insights would help 🙏

My main Gmail that I've had since beta is still waiting for the new option to change it. Is there any way to force the option to appear on my account?

Thank you for any help!

I have the worst gmail because it is my name twice. I constantly have to explain it repeatedly when speaking it. I picked it long ago because my name is taken in every version and I don’t like numbers.

I’m so excited I can finally get rid of it and not lose my filters but I can’t find anything that works. ChatGPT was not helpful.

What short words do you add to your name?

I got a new android phone a month ago. Since then I continually get the Gmail tour 50% of the time when I open the app. I've taken the tour, cleared cache but it keeps being offered to me. Any ideas?

Please bear with me. I’m a Boomer but fairly familiar with computers etc. I’ve been on Gmail for probably 20 years with the same account. Never had an issue.

Yesterday I receive a reply to an email I sent someone, a person I’ve never communicated with, I read it, planned to reply again later. I close Gmail on my iPad, reopen it and the email is gone, nowhere to be found. A search pulled up nothing. Not in trash, not in spam. Okay, I figure I’m nuts.

This morning I receive an email from my bank about a refund to me from Medicare, I read it, close Gmail. My wife received the same email (she’s a Luddite in AOL) as we share the bank account. I go back into Gmail and the email is gone, again nowhere to be found. How can that happen? Looney bin time.

Hi Everyone. Do you know if Google always send notifications on log in (email / prompts “is it you?”) when you cleared cookies of the browser? Before it was always the case for me (at least of what I can remember) but recently I noticed that I don’t get a notification anymore (even after log in after cookies clean up). Computer is the same and log in was via Windows Hello passkey. If I turned these notifications off somehow? Thx

Step by Step (Chrome): Gear Icon > See all settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses > Ctrl + F > type "Delete" or your email address > if a result shows "Action: Delete it," delete the filter.

This has been driving me insane, and I finally figured out the problem. Here is how I diagnosed and fixed it:

I checked the "Details" link at the bottom right of the Gmail inbox. I saw an "Authorized Application" accessing my account at the *exact same second* I sent a test email. Something was triggering a deletion.

Even after removing third-party app access, the problem persisted. It turns out a rogue filter (either created by an automated cleanup service or Gmail) was set to automatically delete anything I sent.

Perhaps this is an obvious solution to an easy problem, but at one point during my troubleshooting I wanted to throw my laptop out the window. IMAP/POP disabled, no third-party access, no nothing. Hope this helps.

How can I recover my lost gmail account without password? without 2 factor authentication? phone number? and old IP address and device? I can confirm that it is actually mine by its address and it is linked to my Facebook that was Locked. Please help me

So apparently Google quietly rolled out the option to change your Gmail username (the actual @gmail.com part), which is huge because a lot of us made cringe emails years ago 😅

Now I’m seriously considering changing mine, but I’m confused about one thing:

If I change my Gmail username:

•	Will all the apps/websites linked to my email update automatically?

•	Or do I have to manually go and update my email everywhere (banking, social media, subscriptions, etc.)?

I’ve got a LOT tied to this email, so if things don’t sync properly, it sounds like a nightmare.

Also, I read that the old email might still work as an alias — does that mean nothing really breaks?

Has anyone here actually done it yet? What was your experience?

Don’t want to mess this up, so any real insights would help 🙏

So I have my main gmail 1, and a gmail 2 which I use for work and other important things. For about 15 years I've been solely accessing gmail 2 by having it pop3 forwarded to gmail 1 and logging into that. So far it still works but of course I want to set up a new forwarding system given the upcoming end of pop3 support.

The last time I directly logged into gmail 2 was about 9 years ago when I logged in to change the password. Since then I've been accessing it daily through gmail 1 which is also set up to send outgoing mail as gmail 2. As you can guess I forgot what version of that password I used at the time.

Clicking "forgot password" only gives me a message about them not wanting to trust an unrecognized device and provides no options. No "try another way" or anything. Although it still is letting me attempt to enter the right password.

The recovery email for gmail 2 is gmail 1. I was able to use the Find My Account tool to make sure that the recovery phone is up to date with my current number. I'm confident I remember the answers to my security questions and I could remember at least one or two previous passwords which is how I recovered the account the last time I directly logged into it 9 years ago. Basically I am ready for whatever recovery option I can take a crack at. It just doesn't want to let me try anything.

I've tried waiting over 7 days, although when I tried again it was with the same pc at first. I've tried from my recovery phone with wifi both on and off. Between my two older computers I'm pretty sure one of them is the one I used to change the password years ago, and it didn't consider either of them recognized. I've moved since then and no longer have access to that old IP address. The phone I'm using is a pixel 5 and the pcs I've used are all windows.

Any advice? Should I wait another 7 days and try from my recovery phone while not connected to home wifi? I've heard that trying from a Google Nest/Home can be less restrictive and we do have one of those hubs at work, so I can try it from that. I wish my devices being recognized with my primary gmail counted for something.

I have an "anonymous" gmail username since 20years, now I want to add another with my real name like name.surname@gmail.com for more proper serious use (eg. one I can list in a CV resume). I'm aware of the + trick but that doesn't help with this situation.

What is the best way to perform this without messing with accounts? I would like to keep a single google account.

Will I be able to send and receive both emails from the Gmail app without switching account every time?

I will try to explain all this in the best way I can so it makes sense. So earlier today my grandma purchased the $10.99 subscription for peacock using her Apple account and debit card. She asked to me login to her account on the tv, I put her login info in and it wasn’t working. I used her gmail because that’s what I thought the email was, but she told me it was her iCloud email. I put in that email and the password and it still didn’t work, so I checked her account setting to see what the email on the account is and it’s her Gmail. But here’s where things get interesting. The email is spelled “@gmsil.com” instead of the way Gmail is regularly spelled. I asked my grandma how this happened and she told me that she made the account through her Apple ID, once she choose to make her account it didn’t even ask for an Email address for the account, it just asked her to make a password. My grandma said she didn’t have to put her email in because it should have automatically attached her iCloud email. She purchased a Hulu subscription and made an account with her Apple ID a few months ago and it was perfectly fine, but with peacock something went wrong. I’m trying to change the email on the account, but the only way I can do that is through the peacock website and I have to log into the account first, but I can’t even do that because it won’t let me sense the email is invalid and spelled in correctly. I don’t exactly how all this happened because my grandma did all this herself without any help, I’m just telling you guys what she told me. So can any of you guys help me out as to what could have happened and how I can fix this?

unable to authenticate.

Also on my alternative Edison email.

im not really think about buying a supscription because i have to repaid to reuse those memory again, i may forgot to or i don't have enough money in time to keep it, idk an pernament extra memory (like around 5-10gb) was enough for me, maybe it expensive than monthly?