Locked Out of Your Email? Do These 3 Things Before You Try Anything Else

It is nine at night and you type the password you have typed a thousand times.
Wrong password. You type it again, slower, watching every letter. Wrong password. So you tap
Forgot password? — and the screen sends a code to a number ending in 57: the flip
phone in your kitchen drawer, on a line you stopped paying for three carriers ago. Don’t start
clicking. The next 10 minutes decide whether you are back in your inbox tonight or waiting several
days.

First, know whose rules you are under

The three systems play by different books, and your address tells you which one has you. Pick
your row first — and ignore any support number a search result sells you. Google says in writing
that you cannot call Google for help signing into your account.

Thing 1: Move to the device, the browser, and the room your account knows

Your biggest lever costs a walk down the hall. Google asks for a computer, phone, or tablet
where you frequently sign in, the browser you usually use, and a location where you usually sign
in. Microsoft asks for the same two: a device you previously used to sign in to the account, at a
location where you commonly use that device, such as your home or office. That is the scoring
system, not filler.

1. Sit where you normally sit: home or your office, not a hotel or a coffee shop.
2. Use your own Wi-Fi and switch any VPN off. Cell data from a brand-new phone
   looks like a stranger.
3. Open Chrome or Safari — whichever you always use — in a
   normal window, not private or incognito.

Five minutes of walking to another room beats three days of waiting.

Thing 2: Dig up every old password you can find

Google will ask for the last password you remember, and it is blunt: enter the most recent one
you recall, and the more recent it was, the better. Watch your typos and your capital letters.
Microsoft adds where to look, and names four places: what Microsoft Edge saved,
Windows Credential Manager, the Chrome password manager, and Keychain
on a Mac or iPhone. In Chrome on a computer that is the three-dot menu, top right →
Passwords and autofill → Google Password Manager. Write
them on paper. One warning: Apple’s reset asks for the passcode that unlocks your device, not an old
password, so on an Apple Account you can skip this step.

Thing 3: Open a second email you can read right now

Microsoft requires one. Its recovery form needs a working email account that you can access,
and Microsoft says any active account will do — even one belonging to a friend or relative. That
is where your answer lands. No second address? On the sign-in screen, click
Create one and make a free outlook.com in about two minutes.

The shortcut most people never try

If a device in your house is still signed in, you are not locked out — just holding the wrong
device. Changing the password from inside a live session takes about two minutes.

Google, on a computer: your Google Account →
Security & sign-in → under How you sign in to Google,
Password → Change Password.

Google, on a current Android phone: Settings app →
Google → your name → Manage your Google Account →
Security & sign-in → Password →
Change Password.

Google, on a current iPhone or iPad: a different path, and where people quit. Gmail app → your profile picture, top right →
Manage your Google Account → Personal info → under
Other info and preferences for Google services, Password →
Next.

Apple: Settings → your name →
Sign-In & Security → Change Password, then the passcode
that unlocks the device. On a Mac, the Apple menu → System Settings →
your name → the same two items. Away from your usual places, Stolen Device Protection can add
a one-hour wait — another reason to do this at home.

If no device of yours is signed in

Google. At g.co/recover, type your address under
Email or phone and press Next. When it keeps offering to text
that dead number, take the link under the code box that offers to verify another way, and keep
taking it until Google runs out of methods to offer you. Answer
everything, even badly — Google’s instruction is to take your best guess rather than move on. Told
it could not verify the account belongs to you? Go again. Put on a security hold? That delay runs
from a few hours to a number of days, and Google’s own fix is to redo the recovery from a device
you are already signed in on.

Apple. Sign in normally. At the verification code screen tap
Didn’t Get a Code? or Can’t get to your devices?, then
Can’t use [phone number], and follow the onscreen steps to start account recovery.
An email arrives within 72
hours with the exact date and time your account frees up. The wait is, in Apple’s words, several
days or longer, and Apple says contacting Apple Support will not shorten it. Apple then texts or
calls that old number, so plan on returning to iforgot.apple.com after the date in your email.

Microsoft. On the password screen click Forgot password?
(some screens word it “Forgotten your password?”). On Verify your identity, pick
where the code goes, retype the first part of the email address or the last four digits of the
phone number it shows you, then press Get code. When nothing on that list is reachable, try
the Sign-in Helper at aka.ms/sign-in-helper before the form — Microsoft’s own order. If
that fails, open the Account recovery form at account.live.com/acsr and feed it everything:
contacts, exact email subject lines (Microsoft warns those must be exact), your Skype
ID or the names of contacts on the account, the hardware ID of an Xbox you used often, and old
passwords. An answer comes
back within 24 hours.

The catch nobody tells you

You have heard that every failed attempt digs the hole deeper. Backwards — and believing it is
what makes people fail. Guessing is free: Google states there is no limit to the number of times
you can attempt to recover your account and that wrong guesses will not kick you out, and
Microsoft says wrong answers do not count against you. Neither wants you skipping questions, because
skipping sinks the request: these systems score how many signals you supplied.

What costs you is the context of the attempt, three ways. With Apple, any use of the
account during your request cancels everything, so one device you forgot to switch off does more
damage than fifty wrong answers. With Google, ten tries from your kitchen laptop cost nothing,
while one try from the office computer, on a new phone’s cell data, with a VPN running, can buy a
delay or a dead end. With Microsoft, wrong answers are free but submissions are not: two per day.
Ten rushed forms without the exact subject lines throws away five days.

Before you touch that recovery screen again, go get the laptop you
normally use, sit in your own house, and write your old passwords on paper. Then start at
the page in the table above. The order is the whole trick. We send one plain-English
guide like this every week — leave your number or email below.