Preface: is your disabled Gmail (Google) Account is part of the paid (or free beta grandfathered-in) Google Business Apps (now G Suite) or just the free account?
- If paid / beta Google Business Apps / G Suite: G Suite solution
- If free, basic Gmail: basic / free Gmail solution
If your account is part of Google Business Apps / G Suite, it would depend on whether or not you’re the account admin.
- If you are the admin: Contact Google’s G Suite support team. At the time of this posting, the number is 1-888-930-5122.
- If you are not the admin: contact your admin. Kick their butt. The admin must either reset the password or talk to Google’s support team regarding the issue.
Then, practice patience.
If your account is the basic, free Gmail / Google Account, you’ll have a little bit more work to do.
The recovery solutions are initially a bit limited. But, trust the process and try these first.
1 – Fill out the account recovery form.
Most of you probably have already tried this, but as with all things in Google, we’ve learned that repetition is key. Here’s the Google Account Recovery Form. Oh, yeah, read their terms of service
Google asks you to review policies without having access to your account to double-check.
Somehow, Step 1 to the account disable recovery is to Review Google’s policies. The great part is the second point in Step 1 is “If you believe you didn’t violate any of these, go to Step 2.” So, yeah, they put you on the honor system. From there, it will depend on your activity and honor.
I’ve read posts where folks have done this repeatedly until they heard from someone.
2 – Ask for help on the Google forums.
Google Forums have threads from users who’ve asked and received help from top-uber-platinum-devoted members. You’ll have to set up a new account to do it, but you can get a little help. Here’s another thread on how folks have had help getting the account back.
There really isn’t much else you can do to recover the free Gmail / Google Account. The only other thing I could suggest is to go through a paid Google service, even if that means signing up for it.
If you have a paid account – Google Drive storage, YouTube / Red, Google Business Apps / G Suite) – especially one related to your disabled Gmail / Google Account, I would suggest going through their customer service. If the disabled account isn’t tied in, you can try claiming it is indirectly part of the service…so I’m guessing.
Also, if you have an account where money changes hands with Google – (AdSense, DoubleClick…) and the disabled account was disabled, I would suggest going through those doors as well.
Remember: Google is large. Not all the departments talk to each other.
Like, say you have a buddy who’s a developer over there. That doesn’t mean he can get your Gmail account re-enabled. For all their fun and excitement and plastic / composite Chrome theme-colored Adirondack chairs set about their campus commons, they still have regimentations and divisions of labor they hang to tightly. A company that size seldom has another choice.
Those associated with Google can’t always get it back as well.
I have Google Apps accounts and (more often than not) am AdWords and Analytics certified. When my new domain gets 12 months of history on it, I’ll have my Google Partners status returned. With all that, I can’t get your Google Account re-enabled – probably.
And, for Metta’s sake, do NOT call 1-800-585-2494. It is not Gmail support.
There are places like Quora and the like that post this as a phone number to Gmail support, but it’s a spam number. Here’s a Subreddit that explains the scam in better detail:
“I’m not brave enough to figure out exactly what he plans to do once remotely logged on. Oooh, he also gave no name and sounded nothing like a ‘David.'”
The truth is, there really isn’t a phone support, initially, for free Gmail support.
DO act in a timely fashion.
I wouldn’t sit and wait on this. The long you wait, the harder it will be to prove you own the account and didn’t do anything intentionally to remove it from good standing.
In the end, if it’s free, then you’re paying for the service you get.
Here’s to hoping you have backup or redundancy for what you might lose.
What prompted the post.
My sister hit me up, again, about her Gmail (Google Account) being deactivated. She sent me the following picture:
She’s gone through the steps before, but with life having gotten in the way, she didn’t finish following up. Now, over a year later, she’s going to try to re-enable it. I wrote this so the next time she asks, again, she’ll have a handy guide.