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Ask HN: How to recover Google auth after phone stolen?

· 26天前
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As we know, google has been effective at automating a lot of their systems, to the point where it can feel like there isn't any help available from a human. So what is supposed to be the plan when this type of situation happens? Basically I have a situation that after my phone was stolen, I can't get into any of my accounts that are either connected to google, or connected to the phone via 2FA. This has made it complicated/impossible not only to get info about my phone, but also my banking, email, drive, etc. Of course they offer you "multiple options" to recover an account, but not if you forgot your old email's password. At that point the options you get are, a) Use old phone (obviously the phone is long gone) b) Use current phone (the phone is gone) c) Use old email (I haven't used it in like 12 years) Does anyone know if their is a process to appeal 2FA or anything to deal with this type of situation? I'd imagine that this has happened to people many many times, and given how phones and particularly, google auth have become so critical to accomplishing essential tasks within society, there must be some way. Or maybe it's just like, once you're phone is gone, you are completely over with society? If anyone has any experience with this or inside knowledge please share it! I'm sure people here have heard of this, and maybe experienced it themselves. Is there a secret option that exists that allows us to use passwords instead of rigamarole? I would love an account that let me simply log in with a password, like google used to be. Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49742976 Points: 5 # Comments: 2

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Ask HN: How to recover Google auth after phone stolen?
12 points by keymasta 24 minutes ago | hide | past | favorite | 10 comments
As we know, google has been effective at automating a lot of their systems, to the point where it can feel like there isn't any help available from a human. So what is supposed to be the plan when this type of situation happens?

Basically I have a situation that after my phone was stolen, I can't get into any of my accounts that are either connected to google, or connected to the phone via 2FA. This has made it complicated/impossible not only to get info about my phone, but also my banking, email, drive, etc.

Of course they offer you "multiple options" to recover an account, but not if you forgot your old email's password. At that point the options you get are,

  a) Use old phone (obviously the phone is long gone)
  b) Use current phone (the phone is gone)
  c) Use old email (I haven't used it in like 12 years)
Does anyone know if their is a process to appeal 2FA or anything to deal with this type of situation?

I'd imagine that this has happened to people many many times, and given how phones and particularly, google auth have become so critical to accomplishing essential tasks within society, there must be some way. Or maybe it's just like, once you're phone is gone, you are completely over with society? If anyone has any experience with this or inside knowledge please share it!

I'm sure people here have heard of this, and maybe experienced it themselves.

Is there a secret option that exists that allows us to use passwords instead of rigamarole? I would love an account that let me simply log in with a password, like google used to be.



If you don't have the authenticator backup codes and you didn't turn on cloud sync in the app, you might be out of luck.

You can get a replacement SIM though and use it with a new phone, so the phone number recovery option should work.


This. Can't you get your number moved to a new phone? I have never don't anything magic when upgrading my phone other than move contacts.

Isn't there an SMS option? buy a new phone and have them send you an OTP via SMS.

> once you're phone is gone, you are completely over with society?

yes, I'm waiting for the Black-Mirror episode where someone drops their phone and basically dies, can't contact anyone, can't unlock or start their car, can't get an uber, can't pay for anything, can't navigate without gps, can't log into anything etc.


The only secret option I know of is to have a popular social media account and complain online.

Other than that, I copy/pasted your post into Claude and it had some good ideas.


The same way you recover any other deleted data for which you didn't make a backup: you don't. You eat the loss & make new accounts. Then you remember to make and test backups for the future.

Even if they had customer support, if that customer support had a backdoor to unlock your account it would be regularly used by malicious parties to steal people's accounts & data.


There's no way, no human contact. That's why I de-googled myself.

No human contact is a plus for security, as the human is the weakest link that can give up your authentication to someone that isn’t you.

Have you heard about Meta AI doing support?

need to save your recovery keys (text file) before you lost the phone

You were supposed to save your backup codes.



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