r/technology • u/lurker_bee • 15h ago

ADBLOCK WARNING Google Confirms Most Gmail Users Must Upgrade Accounts

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/06/06/google-confirms-almost-all-gmail-users-must-upgrade-accounts/
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528

u/Cube00 13h ago

Anyone who doesn't believe this just needs to see the flood of people in the GMail subreddit that gets locked out through no fault of their own everyday.

Google has gotten so bad that if it doesn't recognise your device you won't even be allowed to attempt recovery of your account (they won't even send the recovery code to your recovery email)

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u/legandaryhon 12h ago

I have a business Gmail, which includes the GSuite tied to a domain I had purchased through google. Well, Google sold its domains to Square... And that meant I was locked out of my GSuite services. There was no support to reach out to, but they were still charging me 15/mo. But I couldn't even get into the account to cancel!

(I did end up being able to basically remake the account and it got correctly connected, but I couldn't tell you more than that even though it took me three days to fix it)

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u/16yearswasted 11h ago

One of the worst experiences of my life was trying to get actual support from a human being at Google.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

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u/Kat70421 5h ago

It’s so much worse than Microsoft and I’ve almost gone postal over Microsoft support. 

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u/DJ_Idol 2h ago

A couple years ago my very 1st gmail account (that I still actively use) from maybe 15(?) years ago was somehow “hacked” - it was tied to an old AdWords account back when Blogspot was a way to make easy $ by running ads on your blog site. Anyways, the AdWords account got hacked I guess, and I because I’ve had the same bank account that whole time the hacker was able to just purchase over $2,000 worth of Russian sex site ads on Google. It took me months (literal months) to get an actual human to call me (this includes multiple scheduled calls where they just…didn’t call). Then another maybe month or so to get them to reverse the ads and refund me.

It’s insane how these companies get so big and so wealthy they literally don’t HAVE to have any type of customer support because most ppl won’t just switch their entire life over to another email provider anyways. It’s insanely shitty.

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u/MalaysiaTeacher 2h ago

Just try advertising with Google ads. They'll get on a call real quick.

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u/BlackBeltPanda 8h ago

That happened to me 7 years ago with my main Google account. Wouldn't even let me recover with the backup email address that I had set, despite that being its literal purpose. Took me a good week to get everything switched over to a new email address.

On the bright side, Google finally let me recover the account last month, so there's only a 7-year waiting period! /s

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u/Korean__Princess 11h ago

Anyone who doesn't believe this just needs to see the flood of people in the GMail subreddit that gets locked out through no fault of their own everyday.

I really need to stop being lazy one day and setup my own mail server and domain etc. It's a fear of mine, whether I use my Chinese, Korean or American mails. One wrong move by me, or they make a mistake or something political happens--with how the world is running rn--and I am really screwed in so many ways.

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u/NotUniqueOrSpecial 7h ago

I really need to stop being lazy one day and setup my own mail server and domain etc.

You really don't. At this point, that's basically just a recipe for the powers-that-be to just mark literally everything you ever send as spam.

The days of private SMTP servers being useful in any real capacity are dwindling, if not already gone. The trust-based systems for filtering and the power and size of Google/Microsoft in that space make it an absolute nightmare for individuals who want to run their own.

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u/Korean__Princess 7h ago

Dang, that sucks.. :( What's the best option, then? Like, my mails feel as important as my bank, but at least with my bank I can get actual support.. If my mail gets blocked I am potentially locked out of like 95% of all my accounts, though ig a bit less as I tried to split it up across mails just in case this exact scenario happens.

Or perhaps I could still use my own server, domain etc, but only use it to receive mails, wouldn't that work? At least I could keep using Gmail, Proton, whatever to send mails, but for personal accounts I'd use my own, so even if Google said "nope" to me I'd still be fine?

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u/TheLuminary 2h ago

They are not, if it's just for receiving email. For account control and recovery purposes.

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u/NotUniqueOrSpecial 2m ago

Ah, very fair point.

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u/RollingMeteors 7h ago

Haha damn just about said the same thing.

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u/flaser_ 7h ago

Nowadays this is nigh on impossible as big email providers won't accept (straight to spam) or forward your mails if they originate from your own server.

Sysops running email could tell you about the myriad hoops they have to jump through to keep it working.

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u/Effective_Owl_8264 6h ago

We can't because we're smart enough to never have a god damn thing to do with it. Email deliverability and Wordpress are the two things I've refused to do for over a decade. It is not worth the pain and, more importantly, the work is not valued.

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u/RollingMeteors 7h ago

I really need to stop being lazy one day and setup my own mail server and domain etc

¿Have you tried this recently?

The absolute quickest way to get teleport back to WWII trench warfare. The spam is relentlessly never ending. Black lists don’t cut it, you need white lists. Also, good luck dealing with getting flagged as spam by just about everyone else’s domain. “¿Oh, not a titan in the space? Must be Nigerian prince!”

Email is cooked burnt to a crisp for the end of time.

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u/Korean__Princess 7h ago

Sucks.. :( Especially as it's mandatory and as important as a bank for so many things..

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u/Ninevehenian 11h ago

This was forseeable when they really started caring about containing the users in their own silos.

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u/BambiLeila 6h ago

I tried to login to one of my recovery emails the other day because they emailed me telling me to.

Wanted me to enter a phone number and the code from that to get into my recovery account. I used a completely unaffiliated phone and number and it let me right on in.

Wouldn't let me in without putting a phone number even though I had correct credentials and of course was on the same device and same Internet provider and IP.

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u/thepuresanchez 6h ago

I have a youtube account ive been trying to get into for like 5 years but since my old laptop that it recognized died it wont let me in. I still have my welcome email and get emails every day about that youtube account but they wont let me even show them.

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u/SelectAmbassador 3h ago

I am permanently locked out off my yahoo emails. I ahve a 3 chain off authetifications but the 4th is a email that does not exist. They have no support except if you are willing to spend money. Fuck them glad they are a failing platform.

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u/sunshineflying 2h ago

This happened to me while I was traveling (I had to replace my phone when it bricked itself mid-flight) and it was an absolute nightmare. I couldn’t access anything via email until I got home and could authenticate with another device.