g has been demanding a valid phone for years, as have most other major providers. if you lose the number you sign up with, you can potentially get locked out of the account. whats your mo?
I lost my hotmail account I had for years due to losing my phone number. My boss at one point said he would pay for me to have a cell phone, not for work purposes or to contact me just as a perk of working there hey here is a personal cell phone on me so you don't have to pay for one.
All good and he let me get the first iphone that came to Canada the 3g and it was awesome. Left that job years later and didn't think far ahead enough that I needed that phone number to get into my account should I have an issue. Well I did and tried all the recovery methods with no luck. Sad thing is I still get occasional emails forwarded from that account, haven't seen one in a long while but was still getting them for years. Hurts a lot to have lost it. The screw up that compounded my loss was I guess I was paranoid about giving my personal information online back in the day. So my name I used was John Fokendoe. And some made up birthday. So I could not remember all the info I entered and years and years lost.
For my google I downloaded the backup codes in Case I lose access to my phone. They sit in a folder safe and there if I ever need to recover the account.
I currently have three actively used gmail accounts that all date from the initial "word of mouth" referral from another user days. I once had many gmail accounts that I spun up for a project mapping spam to disposable accounts, etc.
Not one of these emails ever had a phone number attached. The current gmail accounts I use also have no phone number associated, whenever I'm asked to attach a phone number for recovery or security I decline.
As none of these were ever signed up from a phone number there's no phone number to lose, in the event of a security challenge I verify from an associated gmail account.
There's little to no trace of my birth certificate name, phone number, actual address of my house, etc. on the internet .. the few people who do push through on that kind of back tracking invariably end up with a relative or a different but similar West Australian.
Their own policies place a limit on how "demanding" they can be.
Initializing a new (or power-washed) android/ChromeOS device _requires_ a Google account, so if you don't have one (or claim not to) they device initialization process will generate a new Google account for you. Even if there's no phone number or SIM card in the device.
I've had a number of Android/ChromeOS devices over the years, and I've had each one generate a new Google account. None of these accounts have phone numbers associated with them.
I generally don't use these accounts for much more than downloading free apps from the Google Play store -- maybe more extensive use would trigger a "You must add a phone number to this account to proceed"?
Initializing a new (or power-washed) android/ChromeOS device _requires_ a Google account
It's been a while since I've had to look at Android in any detail, but I remember that not being necessary, and a quick search online suggests that to still be the case today.
Not sure how it looks in USA, but in EU you can get a prepaid SIM card for $2 and use it forever for cases like this. You'll probably have to top it up with another $1-2 if used sparingly, but that's the price of such separation.
Where in the EU? The best I've found in Ireland requires adding €5 of prepaid credit at least every six months to prevent the number from being deactivated. As of yet, I have not managed to automate it.
14|8 months ago
defrost|8 months ago
Not one of these emails ever had a phone number attached. The current gmail accounts I use also have no phone number associated, whenever I'm asked to attach a phone number for recovery or security I decline.
As none of these were ever signed up from a phone number there's no phone number to lose, in the event of a security challenge I verify from an associated gmail account.
There's little to no trace of my birth certificate name, phone number, actual address of my house, etc. on the internet .. the few people who do push through on that kind of back tracking invariably end up with a relative or a different but similar West Australian.
bsammon|8 months ago
Initializing a new (or power-washed) android/ChromeOS device _requires_ a Google account, so if you don't have one (or claim not to) they device initialization process will generate a new Google account for you. Even if there's no phone number or SIM card in the device.
I've had a number of Android/ChromeOS devices over the years, and I've had each one generate a new Google account. None of these accounts have phone numbers associated with them.
I generally don't use these accounts for much more than downloading free apps from the Google Play store -- maybe more extensive use would trigger a "You must add a phone number to this account to proceed"?
userbinator|8 months ago
It's been a while since I've had to look at Android in any detail, but I remember that not being necessary, and a quick search online suggests that to still be the case today.
megous|8 months ago
mystifyingpoi|8 months ago
extraduder_ire|8 months ago
unknown|8 months ago
[deleted]
marssaxman|8 months ago