Blogs on Gmail and Google Accounts

One of the common questions that get asked in Gmail and the Google Accounts Help Communities is about ways to keep Google Accounts secure. Knowing what to do when one suspects things can help better manage those situations and initiate the necessary actions to mitigate any imminent threats.  The easiest way to check for unauthorized account access/suspicious activity is to click on the Details link below the Last account activity link at the bottom of the Gmail Inbox page. It includes any time that your email was accessed using a regular web browser, a POP client, a mobile device, etc. and lists the IP address that accessed your email, the associated location, as well as the time and date. If you find any suspicious IP addresses that may have been used to compromise your account (use a reverse IP lookup such as the  https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup  or  http://ip-lookup.net ) to acquire more details about the IP and confirm that it is (or not) something suspicious.  I have writt

In spite of the growing popularity of social media and messaging apps, Emails still retain their importance. We use it for all official and otherwise important and formal correspondences, all our important reports - medical, financial, professional get delivered to it, and if it is a Gmail address, then it also ties everything to its Google account, where you would typically have all your valuable documents stored and invaluable photos saved. Now imagine losing access to all of those, suddenly, over something you casually overlooked or were previously cavalier about. There are various ways one can lose access to their Google account. Some are more ubiquitous than others, so there is a very strong argument about better understanding what needs to be done to be able to keep your Google account accessible all the time. It is important to remember that this is NOT a blog on account recovery. There are several of them around (my favourite being this one ) and it is pointless to add one mor

Quite often, we see a different name while hovering over our name in our Gmail inbox, or our recipients may see a different senders name for us that is not easily traceable. It may happen for various reasons such as: The name on the Google account. The name entered in Gmail's "Send mail as:" option. The name your own email address is listed as under Contacts. The name entered under Accounts Settings in an email client or non-Gmail mobile app used by you. This blog goes through all the scenarios mentioned above and displays how it impacts the name on the sent messages in the recipient's inbox and where to check in case you are troubled by this issue. The name on the Google account. The name on your Google account can be changed from either of the following URLs: https://myaccount.google.com/name https://myaccount.google.com/profile/name When you click on the first link, you will be taken to the page as shown in the following screenshot after a passwor

Wendy Durham (CWD in her A Gmail Miscellany blog and wdurham in the Gmail Help Forum ) was a Product Expert and a prolific contributor when it came to explaining the intricacies of Gmail and Google accounts. Due to changes to Gmail and Google Accounts, some of her well-known blog articles are no longer applicable. The three most used articles have been updated here to be consistent with the current version of Gmail. This will keep them useful going forward as a tribute to her dedication to user education. One common theme running through all the Help Forums is confusion about Google accounts and what you can and can’t do with - and to - them. So what exactly IS a Google account? A Google account is an entity that is permanently linked to a unique and specific ID - always an email address (and not necessarily a Gmail address - see below) - which you access by signing in with that unique ID and a password. It can house one or many Google products, such as Gmail, YouTube, Docs