My mom’s Gmail account got banned for no reason whatsoever last week. Since then they removed her recovery number and 2FA as they ‘looked suspicious’.

Access to nearly 20 years of emails, photos and docs gone in an instant.

It’s been particularly painful because she used Google to log in to everything too, including for health records that she needs.

There is no way of contacting anyone at Google about it and apparently nothing that can be done anyway. It’s absolutely devastating. They’re still charging her for Google One and she can’t even manage the subscription because she can’t log in.

I urge anyone reading this to do a Google Takeout request and make a local backup of all the data they hold.

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mhitza 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I hope this page can provide some guidance in the appeal process https://transparency.google/intl/en-GB_in/tools-programs/rep...

If not directly through what is offered there, under the DSA (eu citizens and residents) have further ways to appeal their decision, and also Google takeout should be a last option even for banned accounts.

If you have any luck post a followup on HN to guide other users having a similar issue.

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bingbong4748 an hour ago | parent [-]

I had a look at the link and became hopeful when I clicked on “Appeal a disabled account”, but then the page loaded and said this -

“”” Ask us to restore your account

If you own the account, you can request access to it again.

- Sign in to your Google Account on a browser, like Chrome. - Select Start Appeal. - Follow the instructions. “””

C’mon Google, if I could do step 1 then I wouldn’t be on this page.

I will absolutely post a guide if we can figure out a way out of this mess.

Appreciate you trying to help. I’ll do a bit more digging on that page and see if I can find anything.

	▲	mhitza an hour ago \| parent [-]
		You might want to try to follow on that, maybe they do have a separate if in their codebase if you're logging in for the appeal. Otherwise the DSA approach, with whatever that may entail process wise.

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

“… There is no way of contacting anyone at Google about it …”

Of course there is: you pay your lawyer to send correspondence by registered mail.

Then you have them send followup correspondence a week or so later.

You will absolutely get a response.

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fishpen0 an hour ago | parent [-]

Everyone everywhere has the money and time to keep a lawyer on retainer. This is super equitable and a reasonable way to run society

	▲	nikanj 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Everyone Google cares about, anyway.

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nikanj 30 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My youtube student account was blocked this week. Google offers a student discount if you register with your school email, so I created a new youtube account for that.

Flagged as a potential bot, gotta tread really carefully or they'll nuke my "normal" google account too.

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exe34 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I have an auto "checkout" every month and I download my data. I don't know if it's readable, I haven't checked, but it feels comforting. My email is also just a private name@domain that forwards to my Gmail. If I ever need to switch, it would be a simple update with my registrar.

(I'm aware domains can be stolen too, but I expect to have some leverage as I'm paying for that in the UK.)