add recovery phone number to gmail account

#Add recovery phone number to gmail account password#

Then, they could use my phone to 'recover' my main Gmail account.Īnd then, even if I use my secondary Gmail account as a recovery option for my main Gmail account, I'm thinking that the attacker owning my phone to 'recover' my main Gmail account would trump me using my secondary Gmail account to recover my main Gmail account. That is, I'm thinking it would be a bad idea, because if I lost my backpack, then anyone who found my backpack could gain permanent access to my Gmail account in a way that I could not prevent:Įven if I act quickly and use a different device (ie, one that I didn't lose) to force my main account to log off of the stolen laptop, the person who found my backpack would still see that my main Gmail account is used on this laptop (ie because when they open up google, they see google accounts 'added' to the Chrome browser as account options for logging in). Is it a bad idea add to my phone number as a recovery phone number to my 'main' Gmail account? (I tend to keep both in my backpack, instead of keeping my phone in my pocket).

My main concern is to keep my 'main' Gmail account secure, even if I lose my laptop and my phone at the same time.

Is it better to not use a recovery phone number? (This secondary email has my phone number as a recovery phone number, but as I explain below, I'm thinking that this might be unsafe?). I rarely log into this secondary account.

#Add recovery phone number to gmail account password#

My secondary Gmail account's password is written in a safe physical place (not in my wallet or backpack). I have a secondary Gmail account, which I list as a recovery email address for my 'main' Gmail account. I rarely log into my main Gmail account on my phone but whenever I do, I only stay logged on for a few minutes, and then I log back out. I do not keep myself logged into my main Gmail account on my phone. This 'main' Gmail account is important, because it's the email address I used to sign up for many other services (and, so, if I forget my password on these other services, I get the password reset link sent to this Gmail account). I have a 'main' Gmail account, which I set to keep logged in, on my laptop.