#Change recovery email for gmail verification#

When Google concludes it's investigation, which can take 3-5 business days (a week real-time), you will be notified at the contact address you provided. If sufficient information was provided for Google to investigate further a message to that effect will be displayed. If insufficient proof of ownership was provided the 'Google couldn't verify.' message will be displayed similar to the standard recover process above.

In the past this was sometimes called the 'account recovery form' (ARF) although there is no longer an actual form to fill out. Once you have supplied your e-mail address, you will move into the account recovery process.

Go directly to the start of the recovery process at.

Go to the Gmail sign in page at and after entering your e-mail address click the 'Forgot password? link.

The recover process can be started in either of two ways: Clearly, not all lost accounts are recoverable. The intent is to set realistic expectations about how easy account recovery may be based on what information one has available to prove ownership of an account. Obviously, the above does not imply that account recovery is usually impossible. If it's been more than a few months since you last signed into the account, then you won't have a recently used device/location/IP-address, which will greatly reduce your ability to prove ownership. Fortunately, if it's been less than a week, Google may still use the previously configured recover phone number for verification. If the account was compromised and the recovery options changed, then you probably can't prove ownership and recover the account. If you don't have a working recovery e-mail or phone configured, then you probably can't prove ownership and recover the account.

If enough items are missing, don’t work, or have been changed, it becomes impossible to prove ownership and the account is lost. The more things that are missing (recovery phone, recovery e-mail, past password) the harder it is to prove ownership.

#Change recovery email for gmail verification#

It relies on responsible users keeping accounts secure and recovery options up-to-date so they are easily able to do a verification if required, or prove ownership of a lost account. If you have used account recovery in the past, it will probably appear very different now.Īdditional sources of information include the Accounts Help Center and the Accounts Help Forum, both of which support searching for topics of interest.Īccount recovery is designed and works best for the loss of one thing, like the current password. This means the recovery options can vary over time, between accounts or even between recovery attempts. In addition, Google regularly adds, removes, or modifies the available options. This means that instead of Google asking a fixed set of questions, both the questions asked and the form the questions take can vary.

Accounts With 2-Step Verification EnabledĪccount Recovery Walk-ThroughOver the last few years, Google's account recovery process has become more dynamic.

This article will help guide one through the process of recovering a lost Google Gmail account and, if needed, securing the account so that is it less likely to be compromised again.