How do you even pull away from a Gmail address? I'm nearly twenty years into that service. Getting banned would be absolutely devastating...

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calcifer 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Use your own domain to sign up for a paid email service, provided by a company that focuses on email. I use Fastmail, but there are many other options.

Set up forwarding in Gmail to your new address.

Then, whenever you log in to a website or app with your Gmail, take a moment to change it to your new address. In a few weeks, most of your important accounts will be covered. In a few months, almost everything you still actively use will be done.

I did this ~5 years ago and the only thing that still arrives at my Gmail is spam.

	▲	caseysoftware 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Same here but ~8 years. You can mitigate/speed the process using your password manager too. I still use a filter in my email so that if something comes in under my Gmail, it gets a special tag that I can filter on and treat those as a todo list. Rarely happens beyond the occasional Google Meet connection.
	▲	wafflemaker an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		For quite some time (approx 8 years) I've used an email forwarding (Blur, but any works) to avoid spam. This looks like perfect case for change of email, since lot of these accounts can be moved out from Gmail by changing the address that email is forwarded too. Looks like all this hassle with generating a new email for each service pays for the second time (by ease of changing the main mail), in addition to spam and privacy protection.
	▲	genxy 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Solid advice, but I want to double, watch out for things you only log into once a year. Making a new local account on your machine is a good first step.

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ikidd 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I just sold a domain I had for 25 years and used for everything including API endpoints, email, authentication, etc. It took a couple weeks to transition myself and my family/friends.

Pretty sure just moving emails would have take a lot less effort. I had the advantage of keeping the domain until I was ready to move, now imagine Google just turned it off one day and what your workload would be. I shudder to think about having to deal with that.

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ptero 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Register your own domain, use a third-party provider to handle actual sending and receiving (I use proton, which makes the setup very easy), forward your Gmail to your personal domain address and as renewals and reminders come in switch your email on services to your personal domain.

After a year or two losing Gmail becomes an inconvenience; after a few more years it is nothing. As everything is now on your own domain name you can switch providers without affecting anything.

That's what I did about 5 years ago and my only regret is not doing it earlier.

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ok_dad 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Just start changing addresses. Forward the rest. It takes about a year. Changing your name is way harder and tons of folks do that all the time.

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cube00 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Get your own domain so you can easily change providers in the future. Start with your password manager and change the address on all the accounts you have in there.

After a few years you'll notice you stop bothering to check your Gmail and you can delete it to close the address.

If you need motivation, skim the /r/GMail subreddit and see how many people are getting locked out daily.

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8cvor6j844qw_d6 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Do you have a recommendation for a major email provider as a fallback if you have to pick one?

I vaguely recall encountering a service that only accepted addresses from a whitelist of big providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.), even @icloud did not qualify.

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JoshTriplett 3 hours ago | parent [-]

That's a service that doesn't want your business. If you care, message them about it

I've never once run into a service with such a restriction, but I can imagine someone being that short-sighted. I have seen services that only support "log in with Google or Facebook", which is comparably terrible.

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genxy 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Discogs will not let me login with my own domain (of 30 years) and required one of the big providers. It kept complaining about "risky domain". But that is the only incident I can think of.

	▲	CamperBob2 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Discogs Who? Never heard of them, and it sounds like there's a good reason for that.

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sir0010010 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I've run into services that will flag specific tlds as invalid.

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simonjgreen an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It will never be easier than right now. Every day you stay, you dig their moat around you even deeper

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4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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ForHackernews 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Sign up at fastmail.com, set up forwarding, change your "reply-to" address. A year later, you'll have nothing arriving in gmail except marketing cruft.

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gmerc 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

took about 30 minutes to switch to proton mail

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8cvor6j844qw_d6 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Same. I still have an old Gmail address that receives forgotten but still considered important emails from various services.

What's the playbook for migrating away in this situation?

	▲	cube00 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Companies need to allow you update your personal information including your email. It may need tickets to support but it's doable.

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Hikikomori 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Just have to get started and suffer for a while and make it a practice to switch emails when you log into places.

I switched to fastmail with my own domain.

	▲	8cvor6j844qw_d6 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I went with SimpleLogin. Although I am increasingly concerned with its longevity since there's a non-zero risk that Proton might shut down SimpleLogin since Proton Pass has its own alias feature.