[swang]

I have a very old account that I still use for some email forwards to my main account. Even though I can verify all the other requirements, since I haven’t logged into that account with a machine it recognizes that I still have, apparently I will never be able to log into the account. Literally nothing can be done because google would rather take the easy way to handle this.

[zbrozek]

I have an account that I made in 2005 that can't get past the circle of login nonsense even though I can provide verification codes when it emails the "backup account". What's the point of the secondary account if you can't use it to log in?

There are now email addresses of some friends from my youth (before I wised up and stopped letting my Google account hold important data) forever locked away where I can't get to them. I'd probably have to work at Google to have any chance at all of recovering.

Scroogled indeed.

[dannyphantom]

I’ve (slowly) begun to make an archive of all my Google data so it will be less-awful should something ever happen. Your story scares the crap out of me because I (already) have an account that I’ll never be able to access again either - c’est la vie but it still stinks to know that a large part of my life is locked behind a metaphorical prison.

[NoZebra120vClip]

You know about Takeout, right?

[chasingthewind]

I have a similar story with a major ISP. I had their service 20 years ago but eventually switched to a different provider. They let me keep my email address, however, and I set it to auto forward to my new address. I have long since lost the ability to log into that original account, but it is still happily forwarding emails to this very day. They are always scams or junk. :P

[Tozen]

Actually, there are opinions that Google exploits locked out accounts, to extract and sell all of its data (to include gov't organizations). It appears while the person still has access to the account, there are limits to how Google can exploit the data it contains.

When the account is locked out, after a set period of time, Google can do whatever it wants with such data without limitations. The number of locked out accounts, in which Google has and could totally and fully exploit, is likely staggering and beyond what many can imagine.

[0cf8612b2e1e]

This answers a question I have idly wondered- if I have setup email forwarding, but get locked out of the account, will Google continue to forward the address? So, probably best to configure it while I can.