Blogs on Gmail and Google Accounts

There are many among us who have lost access to their Google account due to one of the following reasons: Forgetting the Password Losing access to the listed recovery and verification options Factory reset of their Android device Account getting hacked Account disabled for a perceived violation of Google's Terms of Service and/or any of its product-specific policies Account disabled for unusual activities Other cases In this blog, I am going to do a deep dive into each of the issues mentioned above; sharing caveats and best practices to highlight important details through which you can not only keep your Google account secure but also accessible. Forgetting the Password The first thing to keep in mind is the Google Password Manager will not show you the password for the account you are signed into for security reasons.  So, your options are: using a Passphrase that is easier for you to remember but difficult for others to guess by following the suggestions given in t...

How to set up an "Autoreply" in Gmail is one of the regular questions we see in the Gmail Help Community.     An "Autoreply" is different from a "Vacation response" or an "Out of Office" message. It helps Gmail users to automatically send out a first response either to important senders, or to all messages where the Gmail user is listed as a To or Cc recipient. This can be used in situations where one plans to acknowledge emails sent by specific senders or has changed their contact email address and wishes to communicate their new Gmail address to all emailing them at their old Gmail address.   The process of setting up the Gmail "Autoreply" involves two Gmail features, namely - Template responses and Filters. Because both these can't be created using the Gmail mobile apps, this setup can only be done by accessing Gmail from a supported, updated desktop browser using this link - https://mail.google.com/ .     The first thing we must...

Quite regularly, in the Gmail Help Community, we receive queries on how to add a non-Gmail email address to the Gmail Android app since it comes as the default Email app in most Android devices and dispenses with installing other similar email apps. In this blog article, I plan to document the steps, with screenshots, on how to do so. The non-Gmail addresses used are p*****@hotmail.com, a*****@yahoo.com and f*****@aol.com. All the three email addresses have 2-factor authentication enabled. One of the 2-factor authentication options being codes from the Google Authenticator or any other TOTP app. For  ease of navigation, I am going to divide this blog article into three sections, namely: Adding a Hotmail address Adding an AOL address Adding a Yahoo address We begin by opening the Gmail Android app on our mobile device and tap on the circular profile icon that's in the top-right corner. It opens a pop-up screen to display the currently set-up accounts and the options to Add an...

At times, for various reasons, we need to access the Gmail standard view and all we have with us is our mobile phone. The standard view is only accessible via supported desktop browsers and I have seen many users in the Gmail Help Community inconvenienced while having to access the Gmail standard view from their mobile devices, particularly now that the Gmail Basic HTML view has been deprecated. Hence, this blog. For the sake of convenience, I have decided to list the steps only for Chrome on an Android phone  as it is the commonly used browser on that device, and are likely to benefit the maximum number of users.  I have also ensured that the browser is running its latest version. In theory, the steps are as described below: Sign in to Gmail on a mobile browser. Request Desktop Site. It then switches over to the Gmail standard view. The following two sections describe the above steps in greater detail and also includes screenshots for easy and better understanding....