Getting locked out of your Gmail account is frustrating when there's no clear explanation as to why it happened, but more worryingly, you may never regain access to your emails again and be forced to look for an alternative.
Game publisher Mike Rose tweeted a transcript of a live chat he experienced recently with Google Support after his Gmail account was locked for "suspicious activity." Hoping for an explanation as to why and ultimately a way to unlock his account, Rose was met with no support at all.
Rose initiated a live chat with Google Workspace Support, and a support person named Daniel explained that "We don't have the tools to troubleshoot personal emails unfortunately." That may not come as much of a surprise to anyone, but Daniel goes on to admit that, "I locked myself out of mine a few months ago and I'm still locked out to this day."
If Google employees can't even unlock a personal Gmail account, the rest of us really do have no chance. Daniel goes on to explain that it's because "These account have very strong security measures and if something is outdated on the account, it's nigh impossible to get access again." So while it's good news that the security is very strong, it might be worth reconsidering relying on Gmail if it's critical you never lose access to emails, contacts, and files stored on Google's service.
This support chat does at least have a happy ending, though. Rose managed to figure out how to unlock his account and shared the steps with Daniel who hopefully managed to repeat the process to unlock his own account. Daniel ended the chat by saying, "I'm really happy as these things don't normally have a happy ending. As you can imagine."