Locked Out of Your Email? Help in Texas

Why the recovery keeps turning you down

The recovery number is out of date. This is the most common one. The code is going to a phone number you dropped a couple of carriers back.

The backup email is locked too. Very common when it was an address from an old internet provider, since those addresses quit working when you switch companies.

You're giving the right answers and still getting a no. Google, Apple and Microsoft weigh where you're signing in from, which device you're using, and your usual sign-in habits. Trying again from your usual device on your home internet often gets through when nothing else has.

Two-step sign-in is turned on, and the authenticator app lived on the old phone. Its codes stayed behind when the number moved. This is the toughest kind to recover from.

What a Local Nerd can do, and what nobody can

We take the provider's recovery steps in the right order, on the right device, with the details it really checks. A lot of the time that's all it needs.

Nobody can get around Apple, Google or Microsoft, us included. Anybody promising they can is either not being straight with you or planning something you wouldn't agree to.

When an account truly can't be recovered, the job becomes rebuilding: a new address, the important accounts moved over in a sensible order (the bank first, the pharmacy next, then the rest), and recovery done right on the new one.

Worth a try on your own

Give these about ten minutes. Now and then one of them clears it up completely, and you won't need a visit at all.

Try from home, on the computer or phone you always use, on your own internet. The providers trust that pairing, and an attempt from somebody else's computer in another town is far more likely to get turned down. A daughter's laptop in Fort Worth looks like a stranger to an account that lives in Longview.
Make sure you're on the right account. A second Gmail address, or an old work account that's still signed in, trips up a lot of people.
Check your phone's saved passwords before you decide the password is gone. On an iPhone, open Settings and then Passwords. On an Android, type Password Manager into the search box in Settings. There's a good chance it's sitting right there.
If the code keeps going to an old number, stop asking for new ones. Too many requests can lock the recovery for a day.
Copy down the error message exactly as it reads. The exact words point to which problem you've actually got.

What a Local Nerd won't take on

Hardware repair, meaning anything that calls for new parts or a soldering iron. It's better you hear that before you book.

We can't break through the security at Apple, Google or Microsoft, and we won't act like we can. If someone guarantees they can get into a locked account, they aren't being honest with you.
We only help with accounts that belong to the person sitting with us. We won't help anybody into someone else's account, a family member's included, unless that person is right there.

What you pay

A visit at your house takes $39 to book, and that $39 is subtracted from what the visit costs. The hourly rate depends on how far your address sits, in a straight line, from downtown of the city it falls under: $110 an hour inside 25 miles, $130 an hour from 25 to 50 miles, and $145 an hour from 50 to 75 miles. Nothing is added on top for travel.

A remote session begins with us calling you at the time you chose, and it is $39 for 30 minutes. For help a few times a year, there is Nerd on Call: $14.99 a month, with two remote sessions and one in-person visit included every year.

Payment is by card. Local Nerds can't take cash or checks, so nobody will ask you for either at the door. The FAQ has the rest of the detail.

Want to talk it over first? A Local Nerd will call you at no charge, and you aren't signing up for anything.

Where Local Nerds come to you

A visit can reach as far as 75 miles from downtown of each Texas city with a page below, and every one of those pages lists the towns it reaches. To see what your own address gets, put it in the ZIP checker. Remote sessions don't depend on where you live.

Questions we hear a lot

Can you get me back into my email?

Often, yes. Most lockouts come from recovery steps tried in the wrong order or on the wrong device, and going through them carefully is frequently what brings the account back. Nobody can get around Apple, Google or Microsoft. If it truly can't be recovered, we'll say so and help you start fresh.

The code keeps going to a number I don't have anymore. Now what?

Repeated tries can freeze the recovery for a day, so quit asking for new codes. Most accounts have other ways in, like other recovery questions or signing in on a device the account recognizes. That second way is why we start from your own computer at home.

My authenticator app didn't make it to my new phone. Can that be fixed?

Sometimes. It turns on whether the app backed itself up to your account, whether you saved backup codes, and whether the account has another way in. It's the hardest lockout there is, and a strong reason to keep the old phone around for two weeks after you switch.

Does someone need to come to my house for this?

Usually not. This one suits remote help well, since it goes smoothly from your own computer at home. A remote session often covers it. When it involves several devices, or you'd rather have someone next to you, a Local Nerd can come to the house.

How do I keep this from happening again?

Add a phone number you actually use and a second email address to the account as recovery options, write the backup codes down on paper, and keep your passwords saved in the phone's password manager. That all gets set up before we wrap up.

What happens if my account is gone for good?

The rebuild goes in an order that keeps the damage small: first a new address, then the bank, the pharmacy and the doctor's office, then everything else, and last, recovery set up right. Carefully done, it's a couple of hours, and after that you're past it.

Locked out of your email, and every other password reset goes to it.