The day you cannot get in
The exact steps to get back into your own email, and what to set up today so that those steps work.
Being locked out of email is frightening, and it is almost always temporary. What decides whether it takes four minutes or four weeks is one small thing you can set up today.
Every provider will let you back in if you can prove you are you. They do that by reaching you somewhere else — a mobile number, or a second email address. If neither is set, that route is closed and what follows is slow.
Key points
- Set a mobile number and a second address so there is always a way back in
- Reset a forgotten password in five steps, without help and without paying anybody
- Know that being locked out never loses a single message
What to remember
- A mobile number and a second address. That is what turns being locked out into a four-minute job.
- Read that list again and notice what is not in it: no support number, no fee, and nobody else’s help.
- The way back in is always on the sign-in screen itself, in small gray words under the password box.
- The way back into an account is on the sign-in screen, not on the telephone. Almost nobody ever needs to ring anyone.
Try this
Go into your own account settings and look for Ways we can reach you, or Recovery. Check that the mobile number there is the phone you actually carry. It takes a minute, and most people find it out of date.
Practice: The day you cannot get in. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.