I went to check my Gmail account and was terrified when I saw this message:
In most cases, accounts are disabled because of a perceived violation of either the Google Terms of Service or product-specific Terms of Service.
Google reserves the right to:
- Suspend a Google Account from using a particular product or the entire Google Accounts system if the Terms of Service or product-specific policies are violated.
- Terminate your account at any time, for any reason, with or without notice.
If your Google Account has been disabled, please review the relevant Terms of Service before attempting to create another account. For guidelines on a specific Google product, please visit the product homepage for a link to its Terms of Service.
Of course I hardly ever read the full TOS like everyone else. But I am very white hat and don’t do any thing bad on the Google products I use. In fact I recently got an offer from Google to become a partner on YouTube.
Google’s form asked me to select my country and then enter my mobile phone number which I did for my iphone – but I never got the code to enter. So I tried my wife’s cell number and she got the text message right away so then I entered the 5 or 6 digit code and BAM I was logged back in to all my Google products. Now I am scared sh*tless that it is going to happen again.
Two things come to mind: 1. Wow, I have a lot of info with Google. I can’t have this happen because how will I get to all my data like Analytics? 2. How can I backup so if this happens again I can protect myself?
Here are all my account that I was locked out from.
- Account – my account is shared between 2 addresses one of them is a gmail account. My account is even Verified.
- Alerts – 11 active
- Analytics – 9 websites. Couldn’t log on.
- Blogger – 1 site
- Calendar – Couldn’t log on.
- Checkout
- Contacts – 182 entries. Couldn’t log on.
-
Custom Search – 1
- Docs – 2 documents. Couldn’t log on.
- Gmail – 293 conversations. Couldn’t log on.
- Google Sync – 1 device configured iphone
- IGoogle – 16 gadgets
- Picasa Web Albums – 11 images
- Google Video – 9 videos
- Profile – 18 entries. When I went to look at it from a ‘Dave Dugdale’ search it said Prohibited.
- Reader – 67 items. Couldn’t log on.
- Talk – 0
- Tasks -1
- Voice
- Web History – Disabled
- YouTube – 191 public. I could see all my videos still online, i just couldn’t log on.
- Google Groups
- Google News
- Google Wave
- Google Webmaster Tools – Couldn’t log on. Once I logged in there where no messages for me.
- Knol
Interesting side note that when this happened YouTube was undergoing some maintenance.
Also I did find this topic useful on Google Groups regarding Gmail.
Sending a large number of undeliverable messages (messages that bounce back).
I do get several bounce backs a day because my system sends out many email alerts for new housing rentals. Perhaps this is the cause.
Also read about this guy that got his account reinstated 2 days later.
16 users responded in this post
I have the exact same problem. Did you happen to just get an android phone?
I tried to login yesterday to my web based account and got the screen you show above. So far, it looks like the prospects for recovering my account are bleak!
Kevin, I don’t have an android phone. Did you get a code messaged to you after you put in the number. What happen after that?
The phone thing did not work at all. I did not rcv an sms message. So far all my requests for help have gone nowhere.
Its very annoying. I don’t believe I violated the tos. There is no recourse.
Kevin,
Try another phone – anyones phone it doesn’t matter which phone you use.
Did you actually receive an SMS message?
Yes, it came right away using my wifes phone. try another phone.
I’ll try that. I hope it works. What a pain!
I got one step farther:
Sorry, there seems to be a problem. The service you’re looking for is temporarily unavailable. We’re working hard to restore your access as soon as possible. Please try again in a few hours. Thanks for your patience.
But I am still locked out. Thanks for you tip. Weirdly, Google would not send the message to my phone, but it worked when I sent it to another phone.
Now it works. That is a pretty messed up system!
Yes! and it scares the hell out of me. If I had a Google Voice account and that happened I bet I would not be able to use my Android phone at all.
Yeah, my most of the features of my phone stopped working. This was not a pleasant experience. Luckily I was not waiting on an important email, and only use my blog, etc… for entertainment. If I was relying on GMail or other services, I would have been in trouble!
Wow, I guess that is big thing to consider if you are looking at getting an Android.
[...] Google: Account temporarily disabled, davecolorado.com [...]
I just got one of these today, it could not come at a worse time. I just sent an email to ask a question on a Job posting from craigslist at 6 this morning and by 4pm my gmail was temporarily suspended. The only thing I can think of for the reason to suspend my account was some mildly aggressive link building on my blog just to practice (and see what happens as far as ranking/seo/analytics etc).
Like you were, I am getting very anxious because it was my name@gmail that has analytics data and account info for facebook/myspace/blogger all sent to this address. I hope it gets worked out, I used the contact form rather then the text message so I have to wait and see what happens.
yesterday i got this trouble and resolved once i gave my phone number and the code they have sent was given verified…then i got my account back..thank God…
I got problem today.
I also got the verification code after I gave them my number. But what do I do with this verification code? I dont see any place where I can enter it…
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