In general, passwords are often set in a way that makes them a bit weird and hard to forget, which ends up being a problem, especially if you don’t enter them often. These drawbacks tend to occur primarily with email accounts. Read this post and learn how to recover a Gmail account step by step .
If this happened to you, and now you cannot remember your password and cannot access your Gmail inbox, here we will show you the basic methods to recover your account easily.
Index of contents
What should you keep in mind before trying to recover your Gmail account?
Recover a Gmail Account
Losing access to Gmail can be a real problem, as this account is also used to access Google Photos, Google Drive, Google Play, and many other Google services. That is why, if you do not remember your password, follow the steps described later.
When you register with an online platform, there are generally a series of security rules and policies that you must accept before you can create an account. When it comes to Gmail, this is no exception, and only this email platform has a series of rules that explain the reasons why your account can be suspended or deleted, one of which is inactivity .
With that in mind, here we will explain which two items you should consider if you want to know how to recover a Google Gmail account.
1- Time without entering
As we said before, one of the main factors that can lead to email loss is lack of email activity. This is because there are many users constantly creating fake accounts just to sign up on other sites, resulting in a large number of unused email addresses.
Consequently, Google has taken steps to prevent this type of account and therefore decided to delete emails that have been inactive for a certain period of time as a way to combat spam.
For this reason, if you created a Gmail account some time ago and have no longer used it, it is very possible that the technical support service has deleted the account. In this case, you must contact them.
2- Device of use
The second and perhaps most important thing to consider is which device to use to recover your account. If you simply forgot or lost your password to enter the system and want to restore your account, then it is necessary that you carry out this procedure on a reliable device, that is, on which you have previously opened your email.
This is because Google identifies the terminals from which you frequently log in . If you try to recover your password with a device that you have used before, Google will feel more secure, but if the opposite happens, it may be more difficult to recover your account, since Google will first need to verify your identity.
This is a way to give more security to users, since anyone can try to change your password from another device and thus hack your account. That is why, if you are going to restore your email data, try to do it from your mobile device or computer.
How to recover a Gmail account without knowing the password or username?
You should know that if your email is still active, but you forgot your username or password , you can try to regain access to it in several ways. Also, you should bear in mind that this procedure can be somewhat tedious, since sometimes Google may request various account details to verify the identity of the person trying to make the change .
However, if the account belongs to you, you should have no problem answering any questions that tech support may ask you. With that in mind, here are three different ways to regain access to Gmail.
1- Checking passwords saved in the browser
If you have forgotten the password to access your email , it is best to check if the password is saved in the browser of your choice before contacting technical support. To do this, it is necessary to go to your browser settings and make sure that the browser has saved these access credentials. To do this, you simply have to follow these steps:
2- Google Chrome
If you frequently use the Google Chrome browser, you need to go to the browser settings and check if this data is stored there, to do this, follow these steps:
- First you need to click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the browser.
Click on the three dots
- A menu will appear in which you must choose the ” Settings” item.
Setting
- Now, in the new window that will appear on the screen, you will find the ” Autocomplete” option , and in it, the ” Password ” section .
Option “Autocomplete”
- A new window will open in which you will find sites that automatically save your password and another list of sites that do not save your password.
Saved passwords
- In case your Gmail email appears in the list of saved passwords, just click on the ” View” option . This will allow you to find out the password and thus access your email again.
Click on the “View” option
3- Mozilla Firefox
If you are a user who wants to use the Mozilla Firefox browser, you will still have the option to check if your browser has saved your email password. This will allow you to recover your password in a very simple and fast way and without having to contact Gmail technical support.
So, follow these steps:
- Log in to the Firefox browser and click on the three vertical lines in the upper right corner of the screen.
- There you will see a menu with several options, in this case select the ” Options ” section .
Select the “Options” section
- In the Optionswindow , select the Privacy and security section located in the menu on the left side of the screen.
- Now use your mouse to scroll to the bottom and go to the ” Users and password” section and choose ” Saved accounts “.
Privacy & Security
- Then, a new window will appear on the left side of the screen in which you will see all the logins and passwords that you entered in Firefox. To see your password, you just have to choose the option ” Show password“.
You must choose the option “Show password”
4- Recover password without phone
Another way to recover a Gmail account is through your mobile phone . This method means that the process does not ask for additional information, such as an additional email address or phone number, that is requested when creating an account.
This data is specifically requested for this type of process, when a link is sent to your phone number or an additional email address where you can change your password.
That is why, if you do not have an additional email or phone number, and you want to recover the password to enter the email, you can do so by following the following steps:
- First, you need to go to the Gmailhome page and enter your login information. Here you must first enter your email address and click the ” Next ” button .
Gmail home page
- In the new window that appears on the screen, you must enter the password, but since you have forgotten it, you must click on the option where it says “You have forgotten your password ” below.
Forgot your password
- Now a new window will appear where you will be asked to enter any of the passwords that you used on the Google platform, if you remember any of them, the recovery process will be much faster and easier. However, if you don’t remember any, choose ” I don’t know.”
Choose the option “I don’t know”
- After that, you will be taken to a new page where you will be offered help to regain access to your account. In the lower area, you will find two options to enter an alternative email address to which Gmail will send you a link to change your password. You should bear in mind that this email can be from a friend or family member who will then provide you with a link.
Gmail will send you a link to change your password
- Now you will be asked two questions, one of which is: When was the last time you logged into your Google account? The answer does not have to be precise if you do not remember it, but you must give an approximate answer for the question to be confirmed. The second question is: “ When did you create your Google account? Here you must specify the month and year, if you do not remember exactly, it is important that you put a date very close to the real one.
When did you create your Google account?
- After you have answered both questions, simply click on ” Continue“.
- A new window will appear informing you that a password reset emailhas been sent to the email address you previously added to send the recovery link.
Password reset email
- After the link has been sent, the next thing you need to do is enter your email address and search for the message that Google sent to get the link.
- After entering the message, you must click on the blue linkthat appears on the screen to continue with the process.
You must click on the blue link
- After that, you will be taken to a new page where you will be asked to enter a new password. After entering your new password, simply select ” Change password“.
Change Password
- Finally, you will be presented with a new page indicating that your Gmail password has been successfully changed. Likewise, you will be presented with the link ” See account recovery information” that you must choose.
Your Gmail password has been changed successfully
- There, you just have to click on ” Save“, after which you can log into your Gmail account again and continue using all its services.
Click “Save”
5- Without knowing the username
It is also possible that, for some reason, you have forgotten the email address of your Google account, either because you have not signed in for too long or because you chose a username that is difficult to remember . However, you can recover your username by following these steps:
- If you have forgotten your username or email address, you must have a phone number registered with the account recovery platform. To start this process, you must enter this Gmail User Restorelink .
- Here you have to enter the registered phone number and then select ” Next“.
You forgot your username or email address
- A new window will open in which you must enter your name and surname, and then choose ” Next“.
You must enter your first and last name
- Now Google will send a verification code to your phone number, and you must choose ” Send“.
Verification code
- A new window will appear in which you must enter the code sent by Google to your smartphone.
Enter the code sent by Google
- Finally, you should see your email address or username registered on the platform. In this way, you will be able to obtain your email address in just a few steps.
You should see your email address
6- Account recovery through a security question
Another way to recover a Gmail account is the security question you created when you signed up for the platform. That is why, if you remember what the question and the answer were, you will not have any problem with this method.
- In this case, Google will show you your security question, simply enter the correct answer and click the ” Next” option .
Security Question
- After that, you will have to answer some additional questions to recover your account, this is done so that Google can verify your identity.
Additional questions to recover your account
- This is how you can start restoring access to Gmail in a few quick and simple steps.
