If a “Sorry, your account has been disabled” message when attempting to log in to your account appears, that’s when your troubles are starting.
Even if you believe that your account has been disabled in error and you are going to contact the assistance to let them further investigate into your situation, it’s likely you are going to be have some trouble for many hours.
If to disconnect the service is a company like Google, and you are working in the digital marketing industry, then the pain may continue for many days (if you will ever have the chance to have your account restored).
This kind of things look to have happened quite a while in the past, and the last time I’ve found it’s not too much far away.
It looks like once the account has been disabled everything is gone: from the Gmail to Reader, from Webmaster Forum to Google Docs. Even AdWords, their primary earning method, results locked (well, in this case it’s quite funny as the Ads continue to be displayed and your budget reduced).
And that’s the reason of this article.
Whoever you are, an account locked means thousand of pounds (or dollars) of damage.
If you work in the digital industry, and you live in Europe or US, in theory your Google account is the thing you use most after your browser (can you imagine an alternative universe?). So I let you imagine what this loss could mean.
But whoever you are, if you have relied on some online service (regardless they are Google Service or not), not being able to access anymore to your online data is the most painful digital sick you can get.
So, relying on service on the cloud is not always the best choice, especially if while accepting the TOS you quickly skinm them without paying too much attention to phrase like “The company reserves the right to shut down the service without notice” or something like that.
How can I get back my account?
I’m afraid my friend, but I don’t have the answer you are looking for. The best thing I can suggest you is to approach the customer service and make them aware their actions are literally letting you down.
However, I can suggest you something you should already have done: a backup.
It’s not a strange complicate concept, is it?
Ok, backing up the Google Accounts it’s not the same as sticking a bunch of files into DVD or a USB stick, but the concept is the same.
Let’s start with the mail
For sure, the email is the most important aspect of our digital life. We can have dozen of social network profile, XX of notifications and ZZ of alerts, but if our email address is locked, there is no way to stay in touch with the rest of the world.
My suggestion is to buy your own domain name. Yes, you read it right. Having your own domain, not only will help you with your own brand management (or online reputation) but will assure you that in circumstances like the one above described you will be able to move your mail service somewhere different in a few hours.
As the Mail protocol has been designed with redundancy in mind, you will be able to stay “off-line” up to 48 hours without losing anything. And trust me, you can do whatever you want with so much time.
So, it doesn’t matter if you rely on Gmail or any other provider, it would be just a matter of changing the IP address to some A records.
Google contact
As soon as you enter your email, and press the contact button, the next interface that will load have an export link on the rightmost side of the screen, underneath the border.
Google Calendar
In this case, the best solution is to share the calendar with other people and even give them the right to edit events. Click on “Calendar settings” then go to share calendar and fill in the form at the bottom to share the calendar with a specific people.
Google Analytics
Once in your account, edit the profile you want to share and add an account as an admin. If your account contains more than a profile, you have to repeat this action for the number of the profile available (or you want to “share”). However, once the account has been already added, you have to select the second option button that says “add an already existent user”.
Google AdWords
In this circumstance the Desktop Application for Google AdWords maybe our best friend. As the app can perform a full backup of all the information into account, the best option is to use it, so you will be eventually ready to upload again the information into a new account.
I need to be honest with you, I’ve never tried doing such a thing, but that should be possible.
Other Google service
As the above are the main service that I normally use, I don’t know what else to add. However, I think that at this stage you may have understood what to do to prevent data loss in case a Google account will be locked.