Tell HN: Changing your device can completely lock you out of Google services

2 points

5 years ago

I know this is a known issue, but the extent of this surprised me. So here's a warning: even if you are a paid google client, know the account password, have the recovery email setup and give google the phone number they demand on sign in, you can still be refused access to your google account if their ML algo decides so.

For me the process goes as follows: Enter email -> Password -> Confirm recovery email -> Enter some phone number to get sms verification -> Confirm sms code -> Then I get the following screen with no actionable options: https://i.imgur.com/4YrElkJ.png

Obviously there's no way to contact support of any kind, as accessing anything requires signing in.

If you have anything important associated with google, be very careful changing your laptops or location from which you sign in, or you might be locked out with literally no option to sign in and no access to support.