Google Disabled My 15 Years Old Account Without a Single Reason [Part 1]
Yes, as its sounds. Fifteen years of using Google products everywhere, and in one day, all that is gone, and I have no access! In the following posts, I want to share my journey and hope to help me cope with this unpleasant surprise by Google.
I always expected that technology someday would bite me big time, but I was very optimistic (like everyone) that this won't happen anytime soon when robots are here to take over the planet! But I was very wrong! Robots are here! And apparently, they took over already when Google AI decided to disable my entire Google account one day without any notice, warning, or reason! And all I got was that I violated the term of use! Not a single detail! Yes, that's it.
A lifetime of more than 15 years of using Google products (Gmail, Google Search, Google Photos, Google Drive, Google Pay, Google Maps, Google Chrome, Google Assistant, Google TV, Google One, Google Keep, Google Tasks, Google Play, Google Podcast, Google Translate, Google Domains, Android, and of course, Youtube). I stored my photos, notes, documents, apps, articles, favorite places, and restaurants; they are all gone, and I can't access them! Not only that, even the apps and websites I registered to via Google SSO can't access anymore, and I can't reset a password because I can't log in to my email anymore!
All this happened in a minute, in the afternoon of the 9th of August 2022. I received a notification from Google on my phone saying that my Google account had been disabled. And I can ask for a re-review of my account by Google! So, I asked for that to at least get any information on what just happened. They didn't take more than 5 minutes to respond with the following message:
Hello,
Thanks for reaching out to us.
We have reviewed your request regarding your account rashidXXX@gmail.com and confirmed that you have violated our Terms of Service. Therefore, we will not reinstate your account.
Please refer to our Terms of Service for more information about our policies and the actions we take in response to policy violations on our products.
At this point, I was shocked by so many questions. How? Why? What to do now? Did I lose all my data? And the following question in my head was, "How to get to Google Support? I still have hope!
So, I started searching the internet, Google, to be specific! And found the support page, which wasn't much of a help, but I found myself on this page where I can submit an appeal form to ask Google again to look into my problem! I submitted that form and got a response to wait up to 2 business days to get an answer. Okay, there is hope!
Nope … it's been more than five days since my life just stopped, and no one has responded to me. While waiting, I started asking people around, posting on social networks, or searching Google (Opaaa) for an answer.
I found the way how Google treats its users! And it's crazy for a company of GOOGLE's size! People lost their data and accounts in all Google services from 1 mistake! A lifetime of data is hidden and can't be reached! or even deleted! I found that I'm not the first, and many people got their accounts disabled without any information on why that is! And the crazy part is that those people spent months trying to get their accounts back. Not many succeeded!
After a year and a half, #Google has finally deleted my wrongfully disabled account, with again no way to recover anything from it, so I guess that's the end of it for me… At least the public-facing pages I couldn't change, like my YouTube channel, were finally deleted.
And here I lost my hope!
I lost hope of getting any information soon on my account! I lost hope of waiting for someone from Google to respond, even if the AI, anyone, just someone, gave me any info on why my account got disabled!
Oh right, Yesterday, Google still charged me for my YouTube Premium subscription!! So I will keep paying for things I can't access now!
Tomorrow, I'm going to Google Office to talk to a Human! to see if that can change my luck and get my hope of getting my account back! Very very soon 🤞
How can the Internet community help?
Are you or know someone who is working in Google Accounts Team? Please reach out via any channel you find fit on the contact page. You are much appreciated.
