Monday, 29 December 2014

Small Template Designer Tweaks Two More Variants and Bug Fixes

Last week we updated the Blogger Template Designer with two new variants for Simple, some minor tweaks, and bug fixes. Here’s what you can expect:

Simple gains two more variants, one that’s, well, bookish, with serif text and an image background,
and another with a full-width background image behind the header and tab regions. Try them out, let us know how they work for you.






Links from the background image picker directly to iStockphoto so you can browse an artist’s
entire portfolio and see if they have other images you’d like to purchase and use.






  • Bug fixes with in the template designer, including showing the correct background color in the background image picker, showing fonts better in IE, and behavior improvements on the “Templates” tab.
  • Bug fixes in the templates, such as showing deleted comments in italics, fixing the readability of the Search Box gadget’s results, and repositioning Simple’s tab bar to fit better when using a custom header image.
  • A number of stability improvements to our Internet Explorer compatibility code, which should prevent missing embedded videos, cut off backgrounds, and other odd behaviors when rounded corners and drop shadows are rendered in IE.


While the template designer and new templates are still on Blogger in Draft we’re able to change them more easily, so if you find something that isn’t looking right on your blog let us know so we can fix it sooner rather than later. Just leave a note in the comments.

Template Designer Color theme matching, faster in IE, variable-width support

A few quick pieces of news about the template designer and the new templates:
Choosing a new background image will shift the main color theme to try to match it. You can of course tweak the color theme or specific colors afterward, but this offers a nice starting place. Works best on the Simple and Picture Window variants that have a background color in their headers.
We’ve temporarily disabled the “retrofit” code that adds rounded corners and drop shadows on Internet Explorer. Its current implementation was causing some pretty dramatic freezes on many blogs. We’ll be bringing it back once we’re confident that its performance is acceptable, but in the meantime IE7 and 8 viewers will see unshadowed, square-cornered boxes. Nevertheless, if your IE-using readers were complaining about crashing and freezing on the new templates, those problems should now be gone.



There’s no user interface for it, but the templates now have support for variable widths, which you can trigger by playing in Add CSS. Here’s some sample code to get started:
For Simple and Picture Window (except for Simple’s last variant):

body {
  padding-left: 50px;
  padding-right: 50px;
}

html body .content-outer {
  max-width: 1600px;
}

For Awesome Inc., Watermark, and Simple’s last variant:

html body .region-inner {
  padding-left: 50px;
  padding-right: 50px;
  max-width: 1600px;
}

These keep the minimum width at whatever you set in Adjust width but let the blog content grow to a maximum of 1600px wide, leaving 50px or so on the sides to keep from bumping up against the edges of the window. Bear in mind that many of your readers may have small screens, especially laptops, so make sure that your blog still looks nice even when the window is in the 1000–1100px range.

PSA about Edit HTML: If you’ve changed things in Layout > Edit HTML then this might not work, since your HTML template will be based on our stock version at the time you made the edits, and will not have picked up some of the recent additions. In this particular case, you can replace your template’s <b:template-skin> section with that of a fresh blog. That being said, I strongly encourage you to not use Edit HTML unless you reeeeeaaaaalllllyyyyy need it because it does prevent your blog from getting improvements that we make to the default versions.

If you need to add a snippet of HTML or JavaScript to your blog, prefer using an HTML/JavaScript gadget over Edit HTML. If you find instructions that say “add this right before </body>,” just put the gadget at the bottom of your footer. It’s typically close enough. (Please pass this note along if you see any tutorials that recommend using Edit HTML when an HTML/JavaScript gadget will suffice.)

Finally, for those of you reading on an iPad, we’ve added a default viewport width of 1100px that will better-contain most blogs, giving a slightly nicer presentation

Panoramio Widgets let you add photos from around the world to your blog

Today the Panoramio team launches the Panoramio Widget API, an easy way to publish photos of your favorite places right on your blog. Panoramio is a collection of user-submitted images from around the world. With the Panoramio Widget, you can share photos of places visited in your far-off travels, or of your favorite local haunts.



To add Panoramio to your blog, you’ll need to add a bit of HTML. We always recommend adding HTML via the HTML/Javascript gadget (Layout > Page Elements > Add Gadget > HTML/JavaScript), or if you want images in individual posts we recommend using the Post Editor’s Edit HTML tab (Posting > New Post > Edit HTML). (Note: we do not recommend editing the full HTML of your blog since it prevents us from updating your blog with cool new features.)

For example, the images gallery above was created by adding the following snippet of HTML to our blog post:

<iframe src="http://www.panoramio.com/wapi/template/slideshow.html?tag=sanfrancisco&width=450&height=400&delay=6.5" frameborder="0" width="450" height="400" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> </iframe>

Learn more about widget customizations and get the HTML by reading the Panoramio Widget API documentation. And we love feedback! Tell us how we can improve the widget by commenting in our forum, and happy blogging!

Better Post Preview

Many of us preview our posts multiple times before we are satisfied with them for public viewing. Blogger in Draft now supports a new, improved preview feature that allows you to see how your post will actually look to your readers.



On the New Post page, click on the Preview button (this is a new button that we’ve just added), and you will see a new window open with the WYSIWYG preview of the post. This is how your blog post will appear to your readers when you hit publish, with the same format and style of your current Blogger theme.

Please note that the preview page does not automatically update as the contents of the post changes. To make sure the post looks OK after you've done further editing, you can refresh the preview page manually, or click the Preview button again.

Thursday, 25 December 2014

Introducing Blogger Stats

(Update 08/30: We’ve made these improvements to the Blogger Stats, based on your feedback and suggestions.)
  • Self-view exclusion: You can now exclude your own visits by clicking on “Don’t track your own pageviews” link on the Stats | Overview page. We’re also now excluding traffic coming from Blogger admin admin pages and post Preview, providing more accurate pageview data.
  • More effective bot traffic filtering. We’ve made several improvements to detect “bots” (the non-human visitors, such as crawlers) including extending our list of known “bots” to provide more accurate pageviews from real visitors.
  • Internationalization. Now Blogger Stats is available in more than 40 languages.
---

Although some of you use Google Analytics or other third party tools to track your blog traffic, many of you have requested an easier-to-use, fully-integrated stats feature for Blogger. We heard that, and we are excited to announce that Blogger in Draft now has built-in stats. Just go to Blogger in Draft, and you'll notice a new "Stats" tab. You don't have to install or configure anything to start benefitting from Stats.

The coolest thing about the new Blogger Stats is that it monitors and analyzes your visitor traffic in near-real-time. You can see which posts are getting the most visits and which sites are sending traffic to your blog right now. For example, if a reader shares one of your blog posts on Twitter and the post is getting lots of clicks, you will see a traffic increase in Blogger Stats almost instantly, with the particular Tweet mentioning your post being identified as the traffic source. Of course, traffic data across longer time periods (day/week/month) and all-time historical data are available as well.
 



There's also a lot more data that's being tracked, such as popular search keywords that send visitors to your blog, which country your visitors come from, and which web browsers they are using. Basically, with the new Stats feature, you know what's going on with your blog right now.

The new Stats feature shows all of this data in a simple, easy-to-understand graphical user interface. Since Stats are part of Blogger, you don't have to sign up for another service, or embed any code in a gadget.

Additionally, if you want the enterprise-level power and flexibility of Google Analytics, you can still use it, as outlined in this Help Center article. Note that the pageview data in Blogger Stats and in Google Analytics may not be identical, due to different collection mechanisms used. Also, Blogger Stats do not support private blogs for now.

Use Your Own Photo for Your Blog’s Background

After we launched the Blogger Template Designer, one of the most requested features was the ability to upload your own background image. Though we provide hundreds of professional stock photos from iStockPhoto, we know many of you are serious photo buffs and would like to use your own beautiful photo as your blog’s background image.

And now you can! Go to Design | Template Designer | Background, click on Background Image, and you’ll notice a new “Upload image” option, which will allow you to select and upload your image.





For images that fill the entire background, we recommend using a resolution of 1800 pixels wide and 1600 pixels high, and file size less than 200KB to minimize the loading time of your blog pages. We support JPEG, GIF, and PNG format images.

After uploading a photo, you will see additional options that are not available for the built-in images: Alignment, Repeat, and Scroll options.


  • Alignment: You can adjust horizontal (left, center, right) and vertical (top and bottom) alignment of your background image.
  • Repeat (Tile): If you have a small image, you can have it repeat horizontally and/or vertically to fill the page. Otherwise, we recommend that you choose a page background color that blends in with your background image.
  • Scroll: By default, your image stays in place while readers scroll the page contents. By selecting the “Scroll with page” option, both the background image and page contents scroll together. We recommend that you use an image that blends into your background color or set your image to tile vertically if you choose this option.

This feature is available on Blogger in Draft right now, so please go ahead and check it out! As always, thanks for using Blogger in Draft. We will welcome your comments, and if you have any questions, please send them our way through the Blogger Help forum.

New Stats Gadgets

Update, 9/29: 
Based upon your feedback, we've added two gadget options:


  1. In the Popular Post gadget, you can now choose the number of posts you want the gadget to display
  2. In the Blog's Stats gadget, we've added an option to let you choose the time window of your pageview counts (All Time, Last 30 days, Last 7 days)
---
After we launched the Blogger Stats to Blogger in Draft, we’ve made some improvements based on your feedback. (See the updates on our original blog post for the list of changes.) Additionally, we’ve created two new gadgets that you can add to your blog to show your readers interesting stats from your blog: Blog’s stats and Popular Posts gadgets.

The data for these gadgets is automatically taken from Blogger Stats. To use them, go to Design | Page Elements, and click on “Add a gadget.”







The Blog’s stats gadget displays total pageviews* of your blog. The gadget comes in different styles and also features an optional sparkline graph.
(* The pageviews are counted from when we rolled out the Stats feature, not from the first day your blog was created.)



The Popular Posts gadget helps your readers quickly find out which of your posts have been viewed the most by your readers. The gadget also comes with several different styles and configurations.


The new Stats gadgets are available now on Blogger in Draft, so you can go ahead and give them a try now. For any bugs, questions, or suggestions, please send them our way through the comments to this post or our Blogger Help forum.

More Fonts Means More Choice

Self expression is a beautiful thing.  It’s one of the best things about having a bloga place where you can control the look and feel of your message and how it’s presented.  Today we’re excited to announce another amazing way to make your blog truly youWeb Fonts.

The Web has traditionally been pretty limited when it comes to font selection, especially for non-Latin alphabets such as Cyrillic and Greek.  But great strides have been made in this arena by our friends on the Google Web Fonts team, and finally there are more choices out there than just Arial and Times New Roman.  In fact, there are now 40 new fonts on Blogger in Draft for you to choose from.  And we’re just getting startedlots more to come!





Simply go into the Advanced tab of the Blogger Template Designer, select the type of text you’d like to change (Post Title, Page Text, etc.) and pick from a number of exciting, new fonts such as Reenie Beanie (which we've used for the title of this post!) or Neucha (Cyrillic) or GFS Didot (Greek) or even Hanuman (Khmer).  You will be spoilt with choice! For the full list, please take a look at the Web Fonts page in our Help Center.

Search and Insert YouTube Videos

Blogger supports drop-dead easy video-blogging -- if you have a video file, you can just upload it to Blogger. But when it comes to video-blogging, we know a lot of you also choose to embed YouTube videos to your post.

Currently, adding a YouTube video to your post is fairly easy, but it still requires several steps of work: If you don't have the embed code already, you'd have to open a new browser window or tab, go to YouTube.com, search the video, and play the video to make sure it's the right video. Once you copy the embed code, you come back to your Blogger post and manually insert the code in your post.

We’ve just added a new Blogger in Draft feature that makes this process a lot easier. You don't have to open another tab or window; from your post editor, just click the Insert a Video button in the toolbar. In addition to the already existing Upload tab, you'll now see two new tabs: From YouTube and My YouTube videos.









In the From YouTube tab, you can search, browse, and play back YouTube videos all within the interface. If you have your own videos on YouTube, My YouTube videos tab will show them as well.


Once you choose the video, click on Select to insert the video to the post. You’ll then see a thumbnail image for the video, which you can move around in the post by drag-and-drop.


By the way, in case you didn’t know, it’s as easy to add a video to your blog from YouTube as it is to add a YouTube video in Blogger. While you are watching a YouTube video, click “Share” button, and you will see Blogger as one of the places you can share the video to. Click on Blogger, and you’ll see the familiar BlogThis! mini post editor -- all you have to do is to select a blog (if you have more than one blog, that is), fill out some content, and then Publish the post. Enjoy video-blogging!

New mobile templates for reading on the go

We know many of you like to view blog posts on your smartphones. However, it can be difficult at times because of the small screen size. This is why we are excited to announce our first launch of mobile templates! Initially available as opt-in functionality on Blogger in Draft, mobile templates will re-format your blogs for smartphones to enhance your readers’ viewing experience. In order to activate mobile templates, simply go to Dashboard > Settings > Email & Mobile tab, enable the mobile template option and then save settings.






Feature highlights
  • Preview: Get a glimpse of what your blog will look like by clicking on the Mobile Preview button. You can also see it on your smartphone by scanning the QR-code to the right of the options.
  • Automatic redirection: All opted-in blogs will automatically be redirected to the mobile view when accessed from a smartphone*.
  • Template support: We are initially supporting 6 variants of the Simple template and 6 variants of the Awesome template. If you have used one of these 12 templates through our Template Designer, your mobile view will be rendered in the same style as your desktop view (other template variants will be rendered as Simple). Some gadgets are also supported**.


  • Mobile ads: Mobile AdSense ads will be displayed at the top of the post pages and at the bottom of the index page if the blog has an AdSense gadget or inline blog ads.

  • Comments and videos: You will be able to make comments and watch videos.
We hope you enjoy the improved mobile experience. As always, we would love to hear from you so please feel free to tell us what you think through our feedback form.

Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Blogger Redesigned

As we shared before, our team has been hard at work on a brand new, next generation design for Blogger. After doing a sneak preview at the South by Southwest conference back in March, we received some great feedback from the media:

  • Half A Billion Blog Posts Later, Google To Give Blogger A Revamp
  • Google’s Blogger Is About to Get an Overhaul

Today, we're thrilled to announce the public launch of our redesign! But please wait a second before you go check out your Blogger dashboard, because we’re planning a gradual rollout that will start with a limited set of users who visit our new feature testing ground, Blogger in Draft. At the start, only some of you (lucky draws!) can see the new design on Blogger in Draft. Over the course of the next few days and weeks we’ll be ramping up to support all Draft users. There is no sign-up or activation process required from your side; just wait, and you’ll notice your dashboard has changed to the new design when you log in to Blogger in Draft

Although our team has been hard at work cranking out tons of new features over the last year or so, it’s been a while since our user interface has had a major update so we’re very excited about Blogger’s fresh new look. However, there’s much more to the redesign than shiny new graphics and pages—we’ve essentially rewritten the entire application from scratch, using the latest web technologies that will enable us to make future updates in more agile and flexible ways.

We decided to make the new UI available to our loyal Blogger users as quickly as possible. We realize there might be some ‘rough edges’ (see this page for the known issues)
but fear not, we’ll be continually updating and improving the experience until it’s ready to graduate from Blogger in Draft. Our team is also very eager to hear your feedback, so please don’t hesitate to let us know of any bugs or suggestions by clicking on the “Send feedback” link in the navigation bar (or directly on this form)
 

Customize Your Favicon

 
 
For many bloggers, having a custom favicon (the tiny image displayed in your browser’s window or tab) is the finishing touch that ties together the design and identity of a great looking blog. Today, we're pleased to announce that Blogger in Draft users can now add a customized favicon to their blog.

You can add a custom favicon from the Design | Page Elements tab (or, from the Layout tab if you're using the new user interface), by clicking Edit on the new “Favicon” setting above the navbar element:








A new window will then open where you can select an image from your hard drive to replace the default favicon image. This initial launch only supports .ico files, but you can easily convert your JPEG, PNG, or other non-ico image file using your own image software. There are also many conversion tools online, and a quick Google Search brings up a handful of options such as icoconverter.com











Once you’ve selected the .ico file for your favicon, click Save. We'll automatically resize the image to the correct dimensions, and you’ll then see the Page Elements updated with your selected favicon image:









When you save your template changes, you’ll see your newly-added favicon image displayed in your browser window or tab. That’s it!

In the future, we’ll add support for more non-ico image formats, so stay tuned. In the meantime, please leave us a comment below and let us know what you think.

Blogger’s Updated Interface Now Available for All Draft Users

It's been an exciting couple of months seeing more and more users try out our new user interface since its debut back in April, and today we're happy to announce another major milestone in its development. As of right now, the new interface is available for all Blogger in Draft users. Again, there is no sign up or activation process required; Just visit Blogger in Draft, and you’ll find the revamped interface, all ready for your exploration!





Over the last couple of months, we’ve made significant improvements to our new user interface. First and foremost, we’ve incorporated your feedback and made numerous fixes based on that feedback. Also, we’ve updated the look and feel of our new design, inspired by Google’s newest design evolutions.

As you know, Blogger in Draft is Blogger’s equivalent to “Google Labs.” As Draft users, you get to experience our newest features, including the new design, earlier than other users. If you’re not yet on Blogger in Draft, simply go to blogger.com, and check on the “Make Blogger in Draft my default” option on your dashboard.

Introducing Google Scribe in Blogger

Hello Bloggers! Do you ever find yourself writing slowly, staring at a blinking cursor or looking for words to express yourself? Today we are happy to announce the availability of the text suggestions and autocomplete feature of Google Scribe, which is graduating from Google Labs and can now be found in Blogger in Draft.

Google Scribe helps you write more efficiently by suggesting common words and phrases as you type. Google Scribe supports Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. The language is automatically detected using the text in the post.

Enabling Google Scribe is easy. Simply click the pencil icon in the toolbar within the Post Editor.





After Google Scribe is turned on, suggestions will appear in gray as you type, and you can accept them by hitting the spacebar or by typing a punctuation mark, such as a comma, period or question mark.




If you would like to receive more than one suggestion at a time, select "Show Multiple Suggestions" from the drop-down menu next to the pencil icon. You will then be able to see several options in a drop-down menu as you type.





Here are some keyboard shortcuts you may find handy. If you use a Mac, you can use the shortcuts below by replacing Ctrl with Command key (or 'Apple' key)
  • Ctrl-j to enable and disable Scribe
  • Ctrl-Shift-j to select and deselect multiple suggestions
  • ESC to temporarily remove a suggestion
  • TAB to restore a suggestion
We hope you like this new feature. We would love to hear from you, so let us know your feedback on our Product Ideas page.

Use your Google+ profile with your Blogger blogs

In fewer than 4 months since its launch, more than 40 million people have joined Google+, making it a living, breathing space for social connections and sharing to thrive. Today we’re excited to announce the first way you will be able to leverage Google+ -- by making it possible to replace your Blogger profile with your Google+ profile.

In addition to giving your readers a more robust and familiar sense of who you are, your social connections will see your posts in their Google search results with an annotation that you've shared the post.

Plus, bloggers who switch will automatically get access to the Google+ integrations we’ll be rolling out in the future. If you blog under a pseudonym and you don’t want to connect your common name with your blog, this integration may not work for you. That’s why we’ve made it completely optional to switch. 





This option is available for all users today in our testing ground, Blogger in Draft, and will be accessible from www.blogger.com in the coming weeks. If you have a Google+ account and would like to replace your Blogger profile with your Google+ profile, log in to draft.blogger.com and click “Get started” on the promotion message, pictured below, or click here to get started right away.

If you don’t have a Google+ account, you can create one here first, and then head back to draft.blogger.com and look for the promotion message. To learn more, check out our FAQs or visit our Help Forum. Happy blogging!

Blogger’s Brand New Google+ Page

Earlier this week, the Google+ team launched Pages, a new way for you to keep up-to-date with your interests and build relationships with the people who share them. Today, the Blogger team is launching our own Google+ Page, and we’d like to invite you to add us to one of your circles.




By adding Blogger's Page in one of your circles, you'll start seeing updates from the Blogger team in your Google+ stream. You’ll also have the opportunity to engage with other bloggers by writing comments on the posts. Here's a quick list of what to expect:
  • Product news and announcements
  • Video Hangouts with the Blogger team
  • Spotlights on Blogger users and their blogs
  • Pro tips from the Blogger team and other users
Lastly, be sure to mention +Blogger when you share your own tips -- if we come across something particularly helpful, we may reshare it. See you on Google+! Posted by Lisa Ding, Community Manager

The Blogger In Draft Blog Is Being Retired

In 2007, we introduced Blogger In Draft, a special version of Blogger where new features could reach users early and let people try new things. We also introduced the Blogger In Draft blog, and for the past five years, we’ve introduced new updates and options here, often before we told the rest of the world on our official blog, Buzz.

With the recent launch of our Google+ page, we have another great way to keep you updated on new features, both for everyone and those of you who love seeing things early. To simplify the many places you can get updates, we will be retiring the Blogger in Draft blog, with this being the final post. Going forward, we’d like to invite you to follow our official blog and our Google+ page to find out what’s new with Blogger.

This doesn’t mean the Blogger In Draft service is going anywhere, so don’t fret! You’ll still get all the shiny goodness as fast as we can bring it to you. But we’ll be talking about it somewhere else.


Sunday, 21 December 2014

Gmail Account Recovery and Security

How to Get Help

The purpose of this article is to help guide you through the process of recovering a lost account and (if it was lost due to hacking) re-securing it so that is it less likely to be lost again.

There are other sources of information including the Gmail* help centerhttp://mail.google.com/support/?hl=en and the GMail help forumshttp://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail?hl=en both of which support searching for topics of interest.

Please note that you can not recover your account by posting to the Gmail help forum. You must follow the procedures outlined below.

Table Of Contents
  1. How To Recover Your Account - a basic guide to what process to follow
  2. Account Recovery Walk-Through - a guide with pictures to help understand the recovery flow
  3. Additional Recovery Information - more information about the Account Recovery Form
  4. FAQ About Account Aecovery - read this before you post a question to the forum
  5. When You Reclaim Your Account - how to re-secure an account
  6. How To Protect Your Account Contents - how to backup your account



How To Recover Your Account

We will assume you went to https://mail.google.com/ and tried to log into your account. It didn’t work and you found your way here. You need to start with the following decision tree to determine what actions you need to take to recover your account.

If your password does not work, use the “Need help?” link on the sign-in page and then the "I don't know my password" option which will direct you to a page with up to three recovery options:
  1. Get a verification code sent to your mobile device.
  2. Request a password reset e-mail to be sent to your recovery account.
  3. Proceed to the Account Recovery Form. Look for a "Verify your identity" link if the other options don't work.
https://www.google.com/accounts/recovery

If you are told the account does not exist, it may have been deleted by the hacker, so use the Account Recovery Form to try and recover it:
https://www.google.com/accounts/recovery

If you do not remember the account name, (which might be why the account does not appear to exist), use the “Can’t access your account?” link and the "I don't know my username" option:
https://www.google.com/accounts/recovery

If you are instructed to supply a mobile number to receive a SMS code, you need to follow the process as described:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=69a33682180a6d01&hl=en
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=114129

“Lockout (Sector 4)”, is because of abnormal account usage that may indicate compromise. It should automatically unlock in 24 hours or less.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43692

“Temporary Error (502)” or 500, indicates an internal error that should correct itself soon.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=140031

Any message about account “maintenance”, indicates that temporary server maintenance is in process which should take less that 24 hours.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=63592 (article missing)

Any messages about being underage, indicates the system believes you are too young to own a Gmail account (generally under 13).
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1333913 (article missing)

Any message about your account being “Disabled” or “Suspended, typically indicates some abuse, violation of the Terms of Service, or possibly a compromised account. Follow any instruction given or provided links when you try to sign in.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=43692

If you see some other error not listed above, use the following more comprehensive list of possible errors.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=error_msg.cs (article missing)

If you are still unsure what to do, there is a help article that you can also use to walk through the process of account recovery. It handles some specific cases not covered above. You might find it more useful if you are not sure just what you should do for your specific case.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46346




Account Recovery Walk-Through

This section will document the step-by-step process of doing a recovery for several of the most common cases. This will give one some idea of what to expect going through the process. But note that as Google makes changes to the process or the individual pages the images below may become out-of-date. It's a guide to the general process, not definitive documentation. Still, it should help guide one through the process.

The overall flow of the walk-through will cover the following cases (click the link to jump to that topic):
All account access starts the same way, by going to the Gmail sign in page at:https://mail.google.com/. If you're trying to recover access to an account, you click the "Can't access your account?" link at the bottom.  Note that the link may also simple be "Help".
This starts the recovery process with the initial choices where you select the type of problem you are having.
The choice you make starts you down one of several branches towards account recovery.

Another way to do the same basic task is to use this help article where you can select the particular account access problem you are having.  But note that several of the choices end up at the same location as the above "Can't access your account?" link.https://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46346


  • I don't know my password

    If you have forgotten your password this is the path you will use. One example of how this could happen is if a browser is configured to automatically fill in the login details and for some reason the information is lost. This path may not work for a compromised account as hackers will often change the recovery details to try and prevent the original owner from regaining access to the account.  Enter your account name and click Continue


    Depending on what recovery options were configured for the account, several options may appear. Select the one you wish to use and click Continue.


    If Google identifies a security issue, it may not offer some of the pre-configure recovery options which may require one to use the account recovery form (verify your identity) described below.

    Be aware that many of the paths below will require solving a Captcha verification before proceeding. It doesn't mean anything is wrong, so just enter the letters and click Continue.




    • Get a verification code on my phone

      The option most preferred by Google is for them to send you a verification code to a pre-configured mobile device. When this option is selected a choice of receiving the code by SMS message or voice is given. Make the selection and click Continue.


      Do not leave the recovery process until you receive the code. The code will be received on the configured mobile device and should be entered on the next screen that will be presented.


      Once the code is entered, the next screen will allow the creation of a new password for the account.


    • Confirm access to my recovery email

      This option is perhaps the simplest as it just sends an e-mail to a pre-configured recovery e-mail address allowing one to reset the account password. Select the option and click Continue.


      There will be a notification that a password reset was sent to your pre-configured recovery e-mail address.

      When received, the e-mail will look similar to this.


      Click the enclosed link and follow the instructions to create a new password.


    • Answer my security question

      Another choice may be to answer a pre-configured secret (security) question. This is a legacy recovery method as new accounts no longer provide this option.  It also appears that even for accounts that have a security question, it may no longer be offered.  So it is not an error if you configured a secret question and are not offered that as a recovery option.


      If answered correctly the next screen will allow the creation of a new password for the account.


    • Verify your identity - The Account Recovery Form

      It's possible that none of the above options will work. Perhaps the settings were changed by a hacker who compromised the account. Perhaps they were never configured, or the information has gone out-of-date (the recovery address no longer exists or you have changed your mobile number). In this case, the final option is the Account Recovery Form which is accessed by the link at the bottom: "Verify your identity".

      Details of this process appear below.

      This will lead to a series of screens that ask a number of details about the account which if answered correctly will prove ownership and allow the password to be reset. The first two screen look similar to the following.



      Once the form as been submitted there will be a confirmation screen.


      There are three possible results.

      1. Success - a link will be provided to reset the password
        Congratulations...
      2. Failure - insufficient information has been provided to prove ownership. The only option is to keep trying.
        At Google, we take your privacy and security seriously. We're committed to returning accounts only when we're sure we're giving them back to the accounts' owners. Unfortunately, based on the information you provided, we were unable to verify that you own this account. To ensure that we are not compromising the security of the data, we can't return the account at this time.
      3. Additional help offer - sometimes you may be presented an offer for prioritized (posibly paid) support. Google often tests different recovery options so a new option may appear for a time and then vanish. Any offer is optional, so you may ignore it and continue to use the other provided options. The nature of any offers will vary so it's not possible to provide a specific example or document how it would work.


  • I don't know my username

    This is the selection to use if you have forgotten the username for the account. This can also sometimes happen if a browser or mobile device is configured to automatically sign in every time, or for an account that is rarely used. But this will only work if a recovery e-mail address was previously configured for the account.

    • Forgot your username

      You need to know the recovery address you used for this account, and that address should be entered at this point. There will also be a Captcha to solve before submitting the request.

      If the information is correctly entered above, the next screen will confirm that an e-mail was sent to the recovery address with a list of all Google usernames associated with that e-mail.


      When received, the e-mail will look something like this, and may contain a list of multiple e-mail addresses. Once you know the username, you may have to return to the start of the recovery flow to recover the password if that was also forgotten.



  • I'm having other problems signing in

    This is a catch-all for any problem not covered by the above choices (although it includes the above also). Enter the e-mail address and click Continue.


    You will be directed to the following help page which presents a list of options each of which expands into more options and directs you to a specific solution. A few of the options (I forgot my password, or I forgot my username) will direct you back to the above page for recovery.

    http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=2402620&page=ts.cs



  • Special situations

    There are a couple special cases that deviate from the above recovery flow.  So if these cases apply, be aware that it will change what is seen during process.

    • Two-step verification

      Accounts that have two-step verification enabled will require a verification code at some point during the recovery process. If an access code can not be obtained for any reason, one of the alternate options must be selected, which will probably require the use of the Account Recovery Form to regain access.

      The final option ("I didn't enable 2-step verification") can happen if an account is compromised and the hacker enables two-step verification in an attempt to lock-out the rightful owner. Selecting that option will lead to the Account Recovery Form to recover from this case.


      If the first option above is selected and Continue is clicked, a code will be received on the designated mobile device which is entered on the next screen.


    • Google Apps accounts

      Google Apps accounts (those not ending in @gmail.com) can not be recovered using the standard Gmail recovery procedures. One must contact the Google Apps administrator who can reset the password to regain access.



Additional Recovery Information

Doing a password reset is the easiest way to regain access to an account. But it can fail if you forgot your secret question, if the recover e-mail address is no longer valid, or it the account was compromised and that information changed.

The Account Recovery Form is the alternative method. It is important that you complete as much of the form as possible, and that the information be as accurate as you can make it. If the form is rejected you can try submitting it again. You can re-submit it as many times as you want, but always wait for a reply to each submission before submitting again. If you don’t receive a reply, check your spam/junk folder (especially if it’s a non-Gmail account). 

It’s very important that as you repeatedly submit the Account Recovery Form that you fill in more of the blanks with more accurate information. There is some threshold of correct information you need to prove ownership, so a rejection means you need to supply more. Submitting the same form with no additional information multiple times does not help.

While this system works for many people, there are some cases where it can be very frustrating. But don’t give up. There’s nothing you can do (like deleting the account) until you re-gain access to it and since Google does not offer live one on one support for the free Gmail product directly these are your options.

Also realize that the more complicated account recover process (that very few people need to use) is one of the trade-offs for not being forced to provide a lot of personal information when you create the account (that everyone has to do). Many people prefer this for privacy reasons.

Hints for successful account recovery
  • It’s not about the number of times you submit the Account Recovery Form, it’s about providing more and better answers with each attempt. If your submission is rejected, you must work harder to provide more answers, and make the answers more accurate in subsequent submissions.
  • Wait for a response before each new submission (be sure to check Spam). Responses could be delayed as much as 24 hours but you should wait a full 48 hours before submitting another form.
  • If you are not receiving a response, check your Spam or Junk folder on the account you specified for replies. Also double (triple) check that you correctly spelled the e-mail account name.
  • Duplicate submissions, or submissions without waiting for a reply can trigger a submission lock forcing you to wait a few days to try again.
  • Make your best guess on every field of the form. You never know what will help.
There may be one other option for simple password recovery if your account wasn’t compromised and you simply forgot your password. If you have your browser setup to remember your account information you may be able to view your saved password. In Firefox, you can use: Tools->Options, Security, Saved Password, Show Passwords. If you use another browser, then (install and) open Firefox, use File->Import to import your settings and then check to see if the saved password is accessible. Again, this only works for people who forgot their password due to relying on the browser’s auto-fill function, but if it applies it might be an easier than the above procedures.



FAQ About Account Recovery

Q. Why can’t I tell someone private information about my account that they could look up to verify my claim?
A. Account privacy rules are very strict within Google, and allowing employees to look at the contents of an account would be a serious breach of privacy.

Q. Why isn’t there a comments section on the Account Recovery Form where I could add additional information to prove my claim?
A. Like above, it would be a violation of account privacy for an employee to look in the account to verify any additional information supplied.

Q. Why can’t I simply talk to somebody about this?
A. Unfortunately, Google does not offer live support for the free Gmail product (see:http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=contact_policy). You must use the recovery methods provided.

Q. Why can’t Google lock the account to protect it from any more damage or outgoing spam.
A. They will lock an account that the detection system identifies as being compromised and sending out spam. But again, privacy concerns would prevent them from simply locking an account because someone claims it’s theirs and is compromised. In addition, since there is no live support, there is no one to even make such a request to.

Q. I had a really long password of random strings that would be impossible to guess. How was my account compromised?
A. Google (as most e-mail providers) have blocks to prevent trying lots of passwords to guess the correct one (brute-force attacks). Most accounts are compromised by harvesting passwords other ways. While a secure password is important, it’s only one in a long list of things needed to keep any online account secure.

Q. But I’m very careful with my password. I don’t give it to anyone except an official request from Gmail.
A. Unfortunately if you provided your password in response to any e-mail (even claiming to be from Google/Gmail) then your password was harvested by phishing. It’s very common, and can trick even the most careful people.

Q. I'm not getting any reply after submitting the Account Recovery Form.
A. First, make sure you are using a valid, working contact e-mail address that you check regularly for any replies. Also, check the junk/spam label in case any reply was miss-filtered. Then try again. You might also try a different contact e-mail address.

Q. My contacts were deleted by the hacker, how do I recover them?
A. Deleted contacts can now be restored to any point in the last thirty-days:http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1069522

Q. My e-mail history was deleted by the hacker, how do I recover it?
A. Have you looked in All Mail and Trash for the missing information? Have you used Search to try and find it? Unfortunately, messages deleted from Trash or Spam can not be recovered. If you would like to request Google attempt to recovery messages deleted by a hacker, see:http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=8256

Q. My account was deleted by the hacker, can I recover it?
A. The Account Recovery Form can sometimes restore a recently deleted account. That is your only option in this case.

Q. I don’t care about the account, can I just get the e-mail history or the contacts from it.
A. Unfortunately, you have to be able to access the account in order to transfer any information out of it. This means you need to try and recover the account.

Q. I don’t care about the contents, I just need the e-mail address back because I have other things linked to that address.
A. Account names are never re-used, so you can’t re-create the account. So to get the name back you will have to try and recover the account.

Q. Can I find out who did this? Can anyone prosecute them?
A. About the only information you have available is the list of the last 10 IPs to access your account (see the Details link below the Inbox). But given how easy it is to fake IPs, and how inaccurate they are, it’s unlikely that more than a general location can be determined. In general, law enforcement is not interested in a simple compromised account, and Google is not a law enforcement agency. Bottom line is: one’s energy is better spent on recovery and re-securing the account.

Q. Isn’t what the person did illegal? Can I sue them or get them arrested?
A. Any legal questions should be asked of local law enforcement or an attorney. Google is neither of those and can not advise you on any actions.

Q. Can I find out what they did in my account while they had access.
A. There are no account activity logs available, so you can’t find out for sure. If there is spam in your Sent Mail, they you know they used the account for that. But there’s no way to know if or what messages they may have looked at, so take appropriate precautions.

Q. How was my account compromised?
A. There are many ways passwords can be harvested and account compromised, but the most common ones include:
  • Using the same password on multiple web-sites. A less secure site is hacked and they get the user database (e-mail and password) and then just try them all. If the person did not use a unique password, the hacker gains access to the e-mail account.
  • Phishing e-mails that ask for account information or direct you to a phishing web-site. Don’t dismiss this because the messages are a lot more convincing that you would imagine, often using text copied from actual Google e-mails or on-line forms.
  • Use of a computer that is infected with a key-logger or other malware (most common for public computers like at a school or library) which records your login information.


When You Reclaim Your Account,
How To Secure Your Account

Begin by scrolling to the bottom of your Gmail page and see if there are any other sessions signed into your account (“This account is open in 1 other location”). Then click the word “Details” where it says “Last account activity” (lower/right) and then “Sign out all other sessions”.



Now change your password to anything reasonable but without worrying too much about how secure it is because you are going to change it again. Next check all the following items and verify that they are set correctly.

Note: in the following “Settings” is accessed using the Gear icon in the upper/right of the Gmail window. If you using the Basic html version of Gmail, then “Settings” will be one of the choices along the top.

Note:  in the following pictures "Accounts and Import" may be just "Accounts".  The Import function has been unavailable for some time.


Also note that you may have to scroll down on each specific page to find the referenced setting.

Potential Spam
Settings that could result in spam being attached to outgoing e-mail.
  • Settings -> General -> Signature
    Make sure nothing as been added, and be sure to scroll down in case additions aren't visible.
  • Settings -> General -> Vacation Responder
    Make sure it's disabled and empty.
E-mail Theft
Settings that could result in the theft of e-mail (perhaps without any indication that it is happening).
  • Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP -> POP Download
    It is best to disable it unless there is a clear need for it.
  • Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP -> IMAP Access
    It is best to disable it unless there is a clear need for it.
  • Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP -> Forwarding
    Forwarding should be disabled or verified that the forwarding addresses are correct.
  • Settings -> Filters
    No filters defined, or at least no filters that forward or delete e-mail.
  • Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Send mail as
    Make sure it is using your correct e-mail address, and delete any unrecognized entries.  Also click the "edit info" link on the right and verify each entry you have (including the default one) do not have a reply-to address set to an account you do not own.
Account Security
Settings that improve the security of the account as well as make it easier to recovery a lost account.
  • Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Change account settings -> Change password
    Pick a new secure password.
  • Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Change account settings -> Change password recovery options
    Verify mobile phone number, recovery e-mail address, and secret question/answer (if available).

  • Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Change account settings -> Other Google Account settings [new page] Personal Info -> Email & phone -> Edit
    Verify your name and other settings.

  • Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Change account settings -> Other Google Account settings [new page] Security -> Account permissions -> View all
    Revoke Access to any sites listed that aren't recognized or absolutely needed.

  • Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Change account settings -> Other Google Account settings [new page] Security -> Password -> 2-step verification -> Setup
    For additional account security, enable 2-step verification, and be sure to save a set of backup codes as instructed during setup.

Now that your account is secure, check again for other sessions logged in. If there is still another session on the account, repeat the above until you successfully get everything secured while no one else is logged in. Now that the account is fully secured and you've verified no one else is logged in, you may want to change the password one last time.

Additional Information
  • Gmail Security Checklist: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=checklist.cs&tab=29488
  • Keeping account secure: https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46526
  • Protecting your account: https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=29407
  • More account security info: http://www.google.com/help/security/
  • If your account is compromised: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=50270
  • If you are missing messages after recovering your account:http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=8256
  • Someone using your address: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=50200
  • Google Employee comments: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=560d53dee40be5e6&hl=en&start=70



How To Protect Your Account Contents

As some people learn, even when a compromised account is recovered sometimes the hacker has deleted the e-mail history and/or the contacts. Unless you have backed up that information to your local computer, it may well be lost forever.

There are several ways to backup a Gmail account and a number of tools to help you. Perhaps the most appropriate for Gmail the free utility http://code.google.com/p/got-your-back/ which supports backup and restore of both Gmail and Google Apps account with full support for labels and the ability to be run as an automated scheduled task. It stores the files on your local computer so they can be include in your normal computer backup.
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