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Would You Please Recover My Password?

An often desperate situation.

Please?
Please? (Image: canva.com)

Every day, I'm asked to reset lost passwords, recover hacked accounts, or retrieve lost information in them. Here's my answer.

Question:

  • Someone has hacked my email address and changed my password, my personal information and my secret question. I can’t log into my own email account! Please help me recover my password. The id that has been hacked is *****. Please rescue me.
  • I am not able to log into my Yahoo account that I’ve been using for the past 10 years. I clicked on the “forgot password” link and filled in all the details. It’s asking me for answer to my secret question – “who’s my friend?” How would I remember who would it be 10 years ago? Please reply and save a soul. I have very important information in my mails.
  • I’ve forgotten my password and the answer to my secret question. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can you send my password to *****@*****.com?

No.

There is nothing I can do. I have no way to help you.

Here is what you can do…

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TL;DR:

Please recover my password

I cannot recover your password. Your only recourse for password recovery is to carefully follow the account recovery process outlined by the service you’re attempting to sign in to. If they have customer service, make use of that option as well.

How to recover your password

Follow the account recovery or lost password steps offered by your service provider. Usually this begins with a “Forgot password?”, or “Trouble signing in?” link on the service’s sign-in page.

Forgot your password? Start here.
Forgot your password? Start here — Gmail example. (Screenshot: askleo.com)

Even though it says password, this is where you begin the account recovery process regardless of why you can’t sign in.

If the recovery process doesn’t work for you — maybe you don’t have the recovery email or phone — make sure to follow the instructions carefully and completely. Many folks come to me looking for shortcuts or having skipped steps in the recovery process. Don’t. Take your time, read the instructions carefully, and follow all of the instructions.

Many services make additional options available after you’ve exhausted all the solutions they present initially.

If the recovery process doesn’t work for you and there is no customer service (common with free services), then I know of no way to recover the account.

I cannot recover your password

I have no tools available that you don’t have available to yourself. I have no special contacts, no back doors, no magic techniques to recover your password.

If you’ve followed the instructions above and failed, try contacting the service provider.

Unfortunately, there’s rarely anyone to contact if the account is free.

Having no support is part of the “cost” of it being free. You get what you pay for.

I wouldn’t if I could

I don’t know you. For all I know, you’re trying to scam me into getting you access to an account that isn’t yours.

You’ve just failed trying to prove you are who you say you are to the service in question. I have no additional way to prove you’re the rightful account holder.

Speaking of scams…

Don’t fall for scams

Unfortunately, there are many individuals ready and willing to take advantage of your desperation.

Scammer in a YouTube comment.
Scammer in a YouTube comment. (Screenshot: askleo.com)

Don’t fall for it.

These scammers posing as hackers or so-called white-hat hackers have no more access than you or I do. They don’t have magical ways to break in. They’re just trying to get your money.

Bottom line

I need to be as clear as possible.

If:

  • You’re using a free service such as Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo, and others
  • … and you forgot or lost your password
  • … and you did not set up an alternate email address or phone number, or you lost access to them
  • … and customer service is not responding to you

…you are out of luck.

I know of no way to recover your account. I cannot help you.

Learn from the mistake

If you lose access to your account and cannot recover it, you’ll have to set up a new account. Learn from what’s happened.

I’m sorry to have to say it again, but based on the number of questions I keep getting, I must:

I cannot recover your password or your account.

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65 comments on “Would You Please Recover My Password?”

  1. my password has been changed by someone and I don’t know. please help me to get back my password.

  2. Hey I have a facebook account and I’m no longer using the numbers I was using on facebook before and and now I even forgot my password and because I’m no longer using those numbers I cnt get a confirmation code please help I cnt lose my account

    • If you have lost all of your recovery information and your password, then I know of no way to recover the account.

      • I don’t know who to ask but I tried to reset my password , Facebook sent me a password code and when I answered it it said unknown error , then it says I have tried the password code too many times to try later , I tried earlier the first time and got the error right away , I don’t understand why it would not except the code that they sent to me on my text ? It just keeps saying I’ve tried the password code to many times try again later

  3. i need to set up my Google account but when i use my email address for recovery email address it wont sign up. so which address must i use or created.

  4. Dear Respectable Sir .. my question is that can we recover http://www.outlook.com account forget ID even we remember alternate email and mobile too .. please answer me if u have some good advise for me in this case i m so much tens for this one thing
    i shell be thankful to you

    • I don’t know any way to get it from the outlook.com website, but a couple of thing you might try are to look for any emails you may have received in your alternate email inbox which were sent when you signed up for outlook.com, or get in touch with one of your email contacts and ask them if they can send your email address.

  5. How do I receive my yahoo password reset if the alternate email no longer exists and the only reset option for password is my alternative email

  6. My hotmail email account {removed}@hotmail.com was hacked a week ago and all my credentials viz. sign in password, alternate email id and phone number were changed by the person who hacked it.
    After making continuous request to the person who hacked it, he was kind enough to provide me the changed password and also to change back the alternate email id and phone number back to that of mine.
    Now after trying to access my email id {removed}@hotmail.com with the changed password and with the Microsoft Account Security Codes received through my email id and on my phone, I am not able to sign in and got a message that I will not be able to sign in for a waiting period of 30 days that ends on 5/2/2015 unless I found the previous security info i.e. the email id and phone number that were added by the person who hacked my account.

    Please help in getting me the previous security info i.e. email id and the phone number.

    • a) if you read the article that you just commented on you’ll see that we cannot help you.

      b) you should NEVER post your email address in a public forum like this – it’s essentially ASKING for spam, and worse.

  7. That’s quite an amazing story and something I never thought of doing… send an email to the hacker via your hacked account.

  8. new here in your blog. send you an email requesting prompts how to retrieve or recuperate
    my 4,000 emails lost by Verizon. Verizon’s assured 2 days ago they would be retrieved,
    though after waiting over 50 hours , when I called Maryland, an employee said they would
    be recuperated.
    pl. reply thanks

  9. how to add my mobile number on my facebook account when we did not remember the password on my facebook account.

    • You need your password. If you can’t prove you’re the rightful owner by supplying the password then you likely won’t be able to make security changes. (Think about it – if you didn’t need the password, anyone could walk up and hack your account.)

  10. I have tried everything I was told to do and I got nothing all I want to do is get into my emails and I have been trying for two days, so can you please help me out today…

  11. Hi
    Not even sure if this will send ,I haven’t forgot my password,I just can’t send mail when I need to reply .Flag coming up say password does not match email.this is rubbish as I have logged out and back in again I even deleted the account and re-opened it .Im not sure what is going on with outlook.

    • In a program like Outlook the configurations to receive and to send are separate. You’ll need to confirm that you have the correct configuration for outgoing mail / SMTP.

  12. my father recently past away and he purchased Office 365 but i cant reactivate it and when i call or communicate with someone they either hang up or i cant get this activated. I have receipt and activation code. How can I talk to a human voice or is this one of those situations where they made money off a family

  13. Oh god.. what shall i do then!
    How can i call my email service provider?
    Did they help me?
    Thank u so much sir…

  14. I made a account in 2013 and gave a phone number of my friend in option my mistake but the page at that time could not want to verify the number and the account is made easily.i want to know that is that possible that they could access my account with that number which is not verified at that time

    • It seems like it should work, but probably the only way to find out is to test it. Make sure your friend knows what’s going on so they can send you the recovery code that is generated.

    • They have the capability of taking over your account for themselves. As for accessing your account, if your account is with a company which takes security seriously (like Gmail, Microsoft etc.), they would only be able to steal your entire account by changing the password, but they wouldn’t be able to get your current password as it’s encrypted. A less secure system would allow them to recover your current password. So if your account provider only allows a password reset, and you can still access your account, then your friend couldn’t have accessed the account without changing the password. In any case, you should go into your account and change your password and the recovery phone number and check all of the other recovery information.
      https://askleo.com/email_hacked_7_things_you_need_to_do_now/

  15. My email has been hacked and the alternate email address which was given has been changed as well as my mobile number has been changed I want to recover my account has I have contacts allover the world which is very important . my alternate email is {email removed} as well as my mobile number is {number removed}.
    Many times I tried to reset and I received the security code but then also I tried my level best but could not reset. please help me in recovering my email account.

  16. Dear Sir / Madam,

    Hello,
    My Insta Was working fine till 4Aug 2017. But from 5th Aug 2017 in the morning when i opened my insta it was showing that Suspicious Activity and they sended a code to my email id. which now i dont have any access to that email id anymore now because i have’nt checked that id more than 2+ years.
    And when i tried to open that yahoo email id. it is not coming, so i request please help me out why because i have my pics in that account thats my personal account. please help me out to log in my insta account.
    Thank You!

  17. I can’t sign up my facebook account because my gmail was hacked. Please help me.It is very important for me

  18. I was ha led on FB. IT KEEPS Coming up refresh lets get started. It’s asking for my old password and I can’t remember it. I M now locked out on all devises. HELP!!

  19. i dont have the phone number or email account for myfb anymore and i forgot my password what can i do can i add someone else phoe number so i can get my password changed

    • Depends on the password you’ve lost. I’ve covered lots of options in the article above. Contact the service whose password you’ve lost, for starters.

  20. i cant recieve sms, alert in my old mobile facebook account, so how can i recieve a message to chang my facebook pass word

  21. My email account has been blocked which is registered in leo account that was {removed}@gmail.com. please recovery my LEO account that was {removed}.My mobile number which is registered in leo account that is {removed}.

  22. Some one was change My Gmail Account Email and password, i want to know who’s that person!
    The gmail {removed}}@gmail – Someone was change , with my password,
    I have try any way to log in but Google Answer ……
    I have try verification with number and Email , but my number with Email lost from that Google Account i can’t got that code
    Gmail Has been chage onother user Password has been change another people!!
    Can u help me Mr, Leo?? help my Find that person Identiti

  23. We’ve closed comments on this article. Most of the comments have been asking us to open closed or lost accounts for them. As the article states, We cannot recover lost accounts. All the advice we have on that topic is covered in this article and the articles in the Read More section

Comments are closed.