Gmail account deleted

My son's Gmail email account was "deleted". He tried to login yesterday and saw the incorrect username or password message. After going through the wizards he saw his account had been deleted "0 days ago". The wizards don't help as they keep taking him back to the start point. They require the year and month that the account was created. That's unknown by us.

Any ideas how he can access his messages?

 

You've selected the 3rd option here Brian?

 

I'd just try to call google and speak to a live person. It's difficult to navigate through such a big company to end up with the right person for help issues...but I've had pretty good results with their live help in the past -
https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/company/facts/locations/

 

philby, we've tried that numerous times. No luck I'm afraid.

 

acr1965,

Thanks. I'll try ringing them.

 

No luck with the phone call. We were referred to the web.

 

How old is he? Don't the US companies have some stupid age requirements?

 

This does not help the right now situation, but consider having him download his mail to thunderbird. Having Smtp and POP3 access in my opinion gives you the best of both worlds if you can secure it.

 

Was the account inactive for an extended period of time? I'm guessing the answer is "no", but thought I would ask.

 

He's 21, he was using the account normally the day before it was deleted and he's now using Thunderbird.

I've always preferred email being stored on my computer rather than storing it on the web. My wife and I had our Yahoo email accounts deleted (on the same day) a few years ago but fortunately nothing significant was lost.

Thanks for the replies. My son has a new account and he's notified his contacts.

 

So is the "year and month" of the account creation still waht's holding you back from going further into reopening the gmail account? If so, normally there is an alternative email address that's used for gmail to send passwords to in case they are forgotten, etc. When the gmail account is created they usually send that alternative an email giving notice they are the alternative account. Maybe if you guys do a search in other accounts you can find the email that came from gmail...that would give you the date the account was created. Not sure this would work, but it's possible....maybe worth a shot.

 

We tried to find that alternative email account but can't.

Yahoo is more helpful in this situation as it suggests the first three letters of the account. eg
abc*****@*****

 

Hi Brian, certainly it is rather disturbing what you are reporting, particularly considering the lack of responsiveness by gmail. According to the following links it's happening around, and chances are that it might be a hack:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/vG5urIv4iJc
http://www.jonasblog.com/my-gmail-account-got-deleted
http://www.jonasblog.com/how-to-successfully-recover-a-disabled-gmail-account

 

Osaban,

Thanks for the interesting links. Frightening. He won't be relying on webmail anymore. All messages will be stored in Thunderbird.

My wife has a Yahoo account and she uses Microsoft Outlook to read her messages. Ever since her Yahoo account was deleted.

 

do you have to have a paid yahoo plan to get the email to outlook?

 

It's a free Australian one. @yahoo.com.au

I remember when we registered years ago, it allowed integration with Outlook Express and Outlook. I don't think the @yahoo.com allowed that. I think new @yahoo.com.au still allows integration.

 

Both gmail.com and outlook.com allow to get the email to outlook.

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

I just looked it up. In order to send and receive email from client software such as Outlook and Thunderbird it takes configuring client software. The following URL are the needed instructions for Yahoo.

http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index?page=content&y=PROD_MAIL_ML&locale=en_GB&id=SLN4724

 

thanks, but I think that is the yahoo paid mail service...or am I mistaken?

 

I haven't used yahoo Pop/Smtp config for years. I just tested it and was able to send/receive from Thuderbird. I don't pay for email.

 

indeed, but if it's a hack with 2 factor authentication it should never happen...

 

You are welcome, I have been using Outlook to collect all the mail from Gmail (using IMAP) for the last 6 months. After reading about your son's experience I quickly made 3 backups of Outlook Data File (.pst) in different locations.

I do find Gmail's attitude too indifferent, and I find it hard to believe that they have no records about who has accessed his account and when. On the other hand I don't think any mail service (free or paid) will guarantee an account against accidental or deliberate unauthorized deletion.

 

For the purpose of storing and backing up messages there is Mailstore Home or Gmail Backup which allows to restore messages. It is what I use, but there's more options as always.

 

Given the circumstances I thought this article (updated on Nov 27, 2013) might be informative to some:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-back-up-your-gmail/

 

may i ask if i can enter a second email in case of issues?
so i revocer my google account

if i can do it, where should i add my second email account