Recover a Gmail Password WITHOUT a Fallback E-mail

[RobertX]

Ten years ago, a friend of mine signed up for a Google Mail account. Since then, he never changed his password, nor did he write it down, and that was the problem; time went by in large measures and so did his memory.

Now he forgot his password and, although he is still logged in all this time on his own computer, he is one mistake away from accidentally logging out and getting locked out of his account as a result.

To make things worse, the password to his fallback e-mail address was also forgotten, and he is locked out of that. Only God knows if it still exists or not.

How can I help him recover his Gmail account should he accidentally log out one day, and without the knowledge of his fallback e-mail password, or is it hopeless?

[Sid]

If he clicks on the icon which looks like a 3x3 square in the top right hand corner of his gmail page he should get a menu including "My Account".

Select that, and then click on "Signing in to Google"

Then review and/or try to set one of the "Recovery Options". When it asks for the password, to verify any changes, click on "Forgot password?" and it will step through a number of other verification methods.

If he can't answer ANY of those then...I'd say he's buggered.

[contrail]

Sometimes now you can recover your account by knowing the security questions or the place you logged in from usually.

[RobertX]

Wowsers, that was ages ago... glad someone dug it up, someone who recently joined.

I believe I owe you guys an apology about not confirming that the troubles are over.

The computer in question uses Mozilla Seamonkey. Naturally, Seamonkey stores passwords, which I don't know why, but it's because of that I was lucky. The password was there and I typed it in.

It wasn't over yet, however, as I had to confirm that the owner of the account gave me the blessings. I had to answer some useless questions. One of them was about cars. I think it was a licence plate he held long ago. He forgot. Luckily, I remembered as I knew him; we go back. I fixed it, and he cooked dinner.

It was all about luck, pure luck. People say it's not or they don't believe in it. I let them think what they think, because here in Canada, you're entitled to your thinking. I am almost testing the waters...