Set up a recovery phone number or email address

Losing access to your emails, documents, and photos can be frustrating. To make sure you can get back into your account quickly, easily, and securely in the future, add password recovery options.

You don't have to provide a recovery email address or phone number, but having one makes it easier for you to regain access to your account if you forget your password or are locked out.

If you've lost access to your account, you can try to regain access through our account recovery form.

Add or change a recovery phone number

Sign in to My Account.
In the "Personal info & privacy" section, select Your personal info.
Choose Phone.
From here you can:
- Add a recovery phone: Under "Recovery phone," select Add recovery phone.
- Change your recovery phone: Next to your phone number, select Edit . In the box that appears, choose Update number.
Enter your phone number and follow the onscreen instructions.

Note: You must use a mobile phone with text messaging turned on.

Ways we will use your mobile phone number

We'll use your recovery number only to ensure the security of your account. Here are some ways we'll use it:

To challenge people if they try to get into your account without your permission
To send you a verification code so you can get into your account if you ever lose access
To provide an alternate way for you to verify that you own an account
To alert you to possible threats to your account's security (for example, when your password is changed)

Ways we won't use your mobile phone number

Unless you make a specific request, or provide your mobile phone number to us in a different way, we won't use it for anything other than protecting your account. Unless you tell us to, we'll never:

Sell your phone number to other companies or organizations
Call you for marketing purposes
Publish your phone number online

Why mobile phones are more secure

Your mobile phone is a more secure identification method than your recovery email address or a security question because, unlike the other two, you have physical possession of your mobile phone.

Add or change a recovery email

Sign in to My Account.
In the "Personal info & privacy" section, select Your personal info.
Choose Email.
From here you can:
- Add a recovery email: Next to "Recovery email," select Add recovery email.
- Change your recovery email: Next to "Recovery email," select your email address.
Enter your recovery email address.
Select Done.

Which email to use

Your recovery address should be an email address that you use regularly.

If you use Gmail, you might have added a recovery email address to your account when you first signed up.

If you don't use Gmail, your password recovery address is the email address you used to sign up for your account (for example: myusername@yahoo.com).

Ways we’ll use your email

We'll use your recovery email address to communicate with you under these circumstances:

We need to confirm your username after you create an address
You can't sign in to Google
You've forgotten your password
You're about to run out of storage space
We need to alert you to any unusual activity involving your address

Ashley is an Accounts expert and the author of this help page. Leave her feedback below about how to improve it.

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