I've had a Gmail account for a few years but for no apparent reason it now refuses my password. I have contacted Gmail countless times but each time they give me the same advice, which is to tell the system I've forgotten my password, then wait five days, when I'm meant to be asked my security question. I've now been through this process six times, but each time I try, it tells me once again to wait five days. Rebecca Miller
This is common. There are lots of reasons why you can be locked out of Gmail. These include "receiving, deleting, or popping out large amounts of mail (via POP) in a short period of time", sending a large number of undeliverable messages, opening multiple instances of your email account, using third party file-sharing or storage software, using the account for other purposes than email, and "browser-related issues" such as continual reloading.
Any online mail service can also have technical problems, accidentally delete your email, or be hacked. The last one is particularly nasty if the hacker is able to change your security question to one you can't answer, in which case you can probably give in. Of course, you can email the support team. However, any free system with tens or hundreds of millions of users is not going to offer much support.
I'm not getting at Google: all web-based services have the same issues, and the old Hotmail may still delete all your mail if you fail to log on every month. You should not rely on a web-based service to look after any mail you cannot afford to lose, which means keeping copies on your PC hard drive -- perhaps by using an email client such as Thunderbird.
