Take 2 Minutes to Check Your Gmail Recovery Info & Security!
Anytime is a good time to check your Gmail recovery phone number and recovery email address—and today is as good a day as any!
If you ever forget your Google password, get locked out of your account, or try to log in from a new computer or phone, Google relies on your recovery phone number and backup email address to verify that it’s really you. If those details are outdated—like an old landline number you no longer have or an email address you haven’t used in years—recovering your account can become nearly impossible.
Checking and updating this information only takes a couple of minutes.
How to Check Your Gmail Recovery Info
Open your web browser and go to your Google Account page at myaccount.google.com.
On the left menu (or top menu on mobile), click on Security.
Scroll down until you see the section titled “How you sign in to Google” or “Ways we can verify it’s you.”
Look at Recovery phone and Recovery email:
Make sure the phone number listed can receive text messages (SMS).
Make sure the recovery email is an active address you can currently access.
If anything is outdated, click on it to update it!
Important! Your recovery email address should ideally be a non-Gmail address (such as an email provided by your ISP like Comcast, Spectrum, AT&T, or another service like Outlook or Yahoo). If your primary Gmail account ever gets locked, using a secondary Gmail account as a recovery address can sometimes trap you in a loop where you can’t access either code. Having a completely separate, non-Gmail recovery address ensures you’ll always have a reliable way back into your account!
Bonus Check: See Who Is Signed Into Your Account
While you’re on the Security page, take another minute to scroll down to the “Your devices” section and click on Manage all devices.
Here, Google will show you a complete list of every computer, phone, tablet, or browser currently signed into your Gmail account.
Look over the list: If you see an old phone you no longer own, an old computer, or a location you don’t recognize, click on that device and select Sign out.
It’s one of the easiest ways to kick out unwanted users and keep your email safe and secure!