MIA: My Boyfriend's GMail Account

October 2, 2006 7:25 PM

My boyfriend's gmail account is just gone. Help!

He tried to log in the other night and was told that his password was wrong. He knew it was correct, so he sent a request to have his password sent to him. He was then told that his account didn't exist. He tried to sign up again, but his gmail name was already taken (of course it was!). I know that GMail is supposed to archive everything, and I think of GMail as the safest game in town. Has anyone heard about something like this happening? If so, how does one deal with this. It's just GONE! A few years of messages and IM's, plus all his calendar and search information. HELP US!

posted by abbyladybug to Computers & Internet (17 answers total)

3 quick troubleshooting things - 1) Clear out the browser's cache. 2) Reset your security settings to default. 3) Try it on a different computer entirely?

Google has a support group under Google Groups.

I'd try there rather than here.
posted by lilithim at 7:30 PM on October 2, 2006

Response by poster: I'll do that, but he's not been able to log in at work or at his house either. I used to be able to view his calendar from Google Calendar, but it's gone. When I send him messages, they bounce.
posted by abbyladybug at 7:35 PM on October 2, 2006

"... When I send him messages, they bounce."
posted by abbyladybug at 10:35 PM EST on October 2

Buhye-bye to his content, unless it's on Google backup media, somewhere in the infinite Googlesphere. Gmail is Beta for a reason.

But I'd do the Google Gmail Groups thing, and hope. They're not bad people, but they're not infallible, and it's entirely possible they are not at all at fault (his account was hacked, and deleted by someone for fun, by accident, or by malice).
posted by paulsc at 7:43 PM on October 2, 2006

I am sorry to hear about your boyfriend's situation. You might want to contact Google by phone and get someone to look into it. The number is 650-623-4000. Good luck.
posted by apple at 7:50 PM on October 2, 2006

Ack! I guess this is a reminder to back things up.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 8:00 PM on October 2, 2006

abbyladybug: get in touch with me. i have friends at google. maybe i can help.
posted by rbs at 8:18 PM on October 2, 2006

Listen: this happened to me. I don't hold out much hope for him. I tried everything. After repeated communication with the People at Google, they were totally unable to resuscitate my account. It sucked. The best thing for me was just to move on and choose a new username. They swore up and down they could not revive the old account.
posted by Miko at 8:31 PM on October 2, 2006

You can delete your own gmail account. Just thinking out loud here, but his address was obviously coveted since it was taken by someone else. Is it possible that someone cracked his password and deleted it in order to take over the name? I had someone do this for my ICQ account, which I am utterly baffled by since it's only a number.
posted by hindmost at 9:00 PM on October 2, 2006 [1 favorite]

hindmost - I think my ICQ number was yanked too. It was a low 6 digit number, and those are highly coveted for some reason.

This gmail account thing is kind of scary, though. Yet another reason I don't use gmail and cringe whenever I hear people trumpeting about moving their business hosted domains over. Eep.
posted by drstein at 9:17 PM on October 2, 2006

I think of GMail as the safest game in town.

On this subject: The safest game in town is something by which you have a business relationship so you can pursue the other party when they fail to uphold their end of your agreement. Free services will never, ever, ever be the safest game in town.
posted by mendel at 9:21 PM on October 2, 2006

Your guess has absolutely the ring of truth, hindmost.
posted by jamjam at 9:21 PM on October 2, 2006

If the account's been taken over why would messages bounce? In addition it seems from the docs to me (although it's not said explicitly) that you can't open an account with the name of a deleted one.

Unless the person trying to take over was just incompetent.
posted by edd at 11:58 PM on October 2, 2006

Did he set a contact email address in his Gmail settings? With one, any lost-password requests generate an email asking for authorisation, otherwise all someone has to do is answer your security questions (often pretty easy to guess those kinds of things). Perhaps someone nicked it then got shut down for spamming?
posted by malevolent at 1:39 AM on October 3, 2006

Response by poster: I don't think his address was coveted. It's a pretty unique name (Kristopher with a K, then an uncommon last name). I think it wasn't taken over but disabled. I've found out that he and his roommate shared a login on their computer (no separate logins on XP - why?!) so perhaps his roommate accidentally logged in and deleted it. But doesn't deletion require a series of steps?
posted by abbyladybug at 4:50 AM on October 3, 2006

Response by poster: Found a similar experience relayed here.
posted by abbyladybug at 5:59 AM on October 3, 2006

Similar thing happened to me, but I assumed my ex did it and set up a new address since I was too ashamed to call up Google and admit that I may have given away my password to a pathological liar.
posted by dagnyscott at 7:38 AM on October 3, 2006

This is more subjecture, and I am guessing that some of the advice above me is better, buttt...

I read up on this a while back and seem to remember that some find Google slow on replying to email help requests and even calling can be ineffectual, but keeping it up hardcore can drive them to break down and get on it.

Good luck. FYI, I back up my gmail once a month for this nightmare scenario. How? By setting up a POP account through Thunderbird and getting all my email on my hard drive.

Peace,
posted by gbinal at 6:05 AM on October 5, 2006