My Gmail account got locked twice in the past week. The reason given provided no clue as to what I might be guilty of. Since I use Gmail as my primary account, getting it locked was not very convenient. I wrote to the e-mail address given asking for the reasons. As usual I got the standard reply which asked me to write back if anything in a list of no-no’s was applicable to me. I was under the impression that the Greasemonkey script that I use to add a ‘Delete’ button might be the culprit. When I enquired if that was the case, the reply I got was another standard copy-paste mail, but, this one said something that was applicable to me –
- Receiving, deleting, or popping out large amounts of mail in a short period of time
- Sending mail to a large number of recipients in a short period of time
- Using 3rd party file-sharing or storing software in your account
- Logging in from multiple locations in a short period of time
- Using your account for purposes other than email
It looks like Gmail will lock your account if it is accessed at the same time from two different places. The problem was that I access Gmail from work and home, and as I reboot the computer at work only once a month at best, Gmail is always open. I then access it from home during nights at and weekends.
But, the problem I feel is with Gmail itself. It automatically refreshes every two minutes (yes, a stopwatch was involved) and so, if one forgets to close the window at one place it’s as good as accessing the account from two places simultaneously. Users should atleast have the option to switch the two minute page refresh off.
The message that was displayed when the account was locked said upto 24 hours, but it was unlocked within a few hours. Anyway, the good news is that the Greasemonkey script that I use isn’t the reason for the lockdown, though some other scripts might be responsible as the repository points out.