How Can I Get Into My Email if I Don't Remember My Password or ID?
By Si Kingston
It is not uncommon for users to forget their user names and passwords, especially when trying to access an email account not often used. Email providers like Yahoo! and Google are aware that users forget and have implemented a way to identify the user in this situation. In order to use this retrieval method, you must have submitted an alternate email address when you signed up for that email.
Go to the email sign-in page. Notice the option underneath the login fields for users that have trouble signing in; in Yahoo! Mail this option is "I forgot my Yahoo! ID" and in Google Gmail this option is "Can't Access Your Account." Click this option.
Enter the alternate email address entered when you set up up your email address. Yahoo! Mail users also need to enter the birth date, country and postal code entered when the email address was set up. Click "Next."
Log in to your alternative email address and click the email provided. Your email user name is available in the body of the email. Click the link within that email to reset your email password. To reset your email password, the provider might require that you answer your security question.
Go back to the email sign-in page and log in using your user name and new password.
Tips
- If you're unable to retrieve your email user name and reset your password using this method, your only additional option is to contact the email provider's customer support department. The provider needs you to verify your identity during this phone call and might require you submit some personal information.
Writer Bio
Si Kingston has been an online content contributor since 2004, with work appearing on websites such as MadeMan. She is a professional screenwriter and young-adult novelist and was awarded the Marion-Hood Boesworth Award for Young Fiction in 2008. Kingston holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Mills College.