to want to stamp on Google until it's a bloody pulp beneath my hob-nailed boots?

[LordTrash]

I started an online course yesterday.

As part of the online course, I get sent youtubes to watch. It turned out youtube wouldn't let me watch them unless I signed in with a gmail account.

So I set up a second gmail account (I have another, but I like to keep separate email addresses for different aspects of my life) and let the course directors know.

I use Chrome as a browser, and tend to rely on it to remember my passwords (which it always has done until now). But as soon as I had 2 gmail accounts, it failed to autofill the passwords, which I promptly forgot, and couldn't recover, as when I checked the list, I could only see dots.

So I changed the passwords. Chrome asked me if I wanted it to remember them. I said yes.

This morning, I tried to sign into my course account, but the passwords weren't autofilled again, and as I had changed so many passwords (I got into a hideous password-changing loop that took 50 minutes and involved changing my microsoft mail passwords too) I couldn't remember which applied to which account, so I tried to change the password AGAIN.

Only to be told that my account was disabled.

I filled in a form to ask what I could do about that, but the form won't submit - just a buffering round-and-round thing next to the Submit button.

I looked online for ways to contact Google. There are none. All you can do is go on the gmail help forum - but you can only post on there AFTER SIGNING IN.

I CAN'T SIGN IN. WTF AM I SUPPOSED TO DO? There is no one to talk to, as apparently Google don't do customer service.

Sorry if you're losing the will to live reading this (thank you and well done), but I'm losing the will to live in this society right now.

(Just looked at the form again and the little buffering circle is still going round...and round...and round...twenty minutes later.)

www.google.com/contact/

would this help?

I don't want to add to your anger, so I apologise if You've already done this, but have you tried shutting down your browser, rebooting your computer and seeing if you can submit the form then?

And btw, Google isn't responsible for the fact that you are relying on autofill. You should be able to remember your passwords or store them somewhere safe. Just to test if my judgy pants still fit me. They do

Google is evil. Fact. When they bought YouTube, they (without permission) linked my daughter's gmail with my Youtube account, fortunately there was nothing dodgy for her to see, but my Youtube is now full of chuffin Minecraft recommendations. And Google killed the Youtube app for Windows phones. Yanbu.

Thanks .

I could weep with frustration. Going to rebooting and see if that will at least get the form submitted.

I know I should be keeping lists of all these passwords but dear God.

It won't help your problem now but when you do gain access you can have both open together and switch between them easily. If you go to google homepage and click your profile picture in the top right corner and click add account - then just press that whenever you want to switch between them.

From what I can remember autofill can get a bit confused with multiple accounts.

Thanks, Elspeth - I really wanted a way to do that, but couldn't find one.

My real issue here is that, now they have gone and disabled the account I need for my course, there doesn't seem to be any way of getting it back, or any way to talk to anyone about getting it back. It's utterly shit customer service.

I didn't even want this extra stupid email account! Once the course was over, I would have deleted it anyway.

I'm going to look into living a Google-free life after this. I want to know that, if I come into trouble, I can get it sorted.

Oh, and rebooting hasn't fixed the issue with the form that won't submit.

Given you're using the autofill in Chrome, which is made by google, I think your annoyance at google is justified if it told you it had remembered the password but the didn't.

I suspect though, that you are not fully aware of which identity you are trying to access things under each time and aren't keeping those properly in line. Even google don't claim to be able to read your mind yet!

Keeping separate identities is a little bit tricksy and you may need to spend a bit more time understanding how all the Google services link together if you want to do this without getting mixed up again.

Hope you manage to sort it out.

Sucks about the form.

Do you have access to any of your google accounts?

You need to use a password manager like LastPass or 1Password if you want to reliably have multiple passwords for the same site. The stuff built into the browsers just isn't flexible enough.

I CAN'T SIGN IN. WTF AM I SUPPOSED TO DO? There is no one to talk to, as apparently Google don't do customer service.

You're only Google's customer if you're paying them money. My experience of dealing with them as a for-money customer is pretty good. If you're using their services for free, well, you're getting it free, aren't you?

Oh this is the least of your worries if you are going to be dealing with any Google programmes in the future. Their help documents and step by step instructions are all in gibberish. I get so frustrated almost to the point of tears trying to work them out at times (I did once go on a mad spree of rating all the articles as extremely unhelpful because I got so pissed off). On the plus side, if you call them their support team are brilliant at getting things sorted quickly and are always friendly!

Would it be easier to set up a third gmail account. Write down the password, let your course directors know and at least get on with the course?

Getting what for free, Ricardian? They've disabled my account and have provided no way of getting it back.

I do have the other account, and will go and post on the help forum using it, I think.

But would rather be getting on with my coursework!

It might come to that, gleam.

Excuse me while I tear out my remaining hair .

Been there!

You could also ask whoever is running your course why they haven't chosen a more open option for hosting videos. YouTube don't insist on login for every video and there are plenty of other hosting services too.

Definitely going to make that point, Boom. I know I wasn't the only one who had to muck about opening a dedicated email account just for the youtubes.

Can you create another gmail address and submit this to the course directors explaining why?
Then write down your password.

I think I'll end up doing that, rat. Then getting it disabled the next day probably .

Ahh, thanks to all of you. The rant did me good.

No help now but why don't you keep a record of your passwords?

There's no way I can remember my logins for all my different accounts without making a note of them

Isn't there a file in chrome that keeps all your passwords?

Try looking under help.

Hth

Could you have one password saved, and write the other down (paper and pen ). Assuming the video-watching-only account has no important details attached.

I feel your pain; I bought a chromebook a few years ago on a friend's recommendation, just before going on an extended trip abroad. Good spec for the price. Except... you have to be connected to the internet to use the thing. Once you've signed in to your google account it apparently has an offline function you can activate, but you have to connect to the internet first off. (Cue a very happy man who bought a chromebook brand new at 3/4 of the price, and a mad dash to shops for me to buy a suitable netbook for writing etc. the day before I left!)

Went looking online and found others annoyed by this too. One particular thread had someone arguing the merits of chromebook and saying it's no problem, as in this day and age it's rare to be somewhere without internet. I wanted to scream "Disconnect! Go and stand on a mountain top and breathe some fresh air!"

Ah, Once, it's a unique kind of 'argh!' isn't it?

The password thing is a side issue really, and easy enough to resolve for the future.

It's the sheer irritation of having no recourse to anything or anyone if I want my disabled account back that's grinding my gears.