So, for some reason that I cannot figure out, Google suspended my main account today. I have filed an appeal, but from what I can see, maybe only 5% are re-instated. Most all of my work from the past 3 years was on the cloud and I had been using Google docs for my writing.
None of my other linked Google accounts were affected, but my work was on the account suspended. My rambling, happy-go-lucky, coming of age project was like 350 pages long and it was project that brought me a lot of happiness and now it's pretty much gone...
Anyone ever deal with Google regarding a suspended account? If so, what advice, if any, can you spare me? Thank you in advance.
Never rely on only one backup. I always save to my hard drive and go to the cloud for a backup. Even if you have to use the cloud, go to more than one, such as OneDrive.
Same but in reverse
Primary is cloud and then once a week (or very large session) save to computer and email it to myself
So it’s stored on one drive, Google email and my external hard drive
Either way works, as long as you have redundancy. Your scheme sounds pretty reasonable. The only way I'd make it better is to use a free outlook.com account to go cross vendor. Of course, a second free Gmail account would do.
Yep, same. Plus i have some trusted friends with access to the doc for feedback purposes so as long as the document is accessible in that way (i have no idea if that is the case in OP's situation) I can at least have them make a copy for me.
One backup is none backup.
Great saying!
Did you ever sync it to a desktop? If you open that device without Internet you might be able to get an old version.
This is pretty good advice OP.
I back all my stuff up just through one drive but I have it synced to three laptops, my desktop and a phone all of which I use regularly. So if anything ever happens I'll have copies somewhere.
I'm aware I have a lot of computers. I swear there's a perfectly legitimate reason for that. Totally.
Can you clarify why the account was suspended?
That's my only question too. Up until today, I hadn't ever heard of such a thing.
They will tell you why, but if you don't have a recovery email address then that message may only go to your Gmail account in which case you might never see it to know the reason why.
You can do some reading online to see some of the common reasons why they might suspend an account. It's usually because they have reason to believe there's some kind of illegal or illicit activity.
Good luck honestly I really hope you are able to get it back
There are stories out there of people having their account suspended for various reasons and the difficulty they've had getting their account recovered. Thinking about what I have in email, spreadsheets, and docs, having my account suspended for something innocuous and not being able to get it back would be more than a little frustrating.
I tried to find the article I read about this but my google searches just turn up page after page of how tos of recovering a suspended google account.... (DuckDuckGo search was the same)
I found a number of articles, including a number of businesses that suddenly get their accounts suspended and have to scramble to change directions. Either I violated some IP laws somehow according to them or I dunno what.
What the articles I saw came down to was that it is initially bot decision that the low-level functionaries then rubber stamp with about a 5% reversal rate.
There are only two types of people: those who do 3-2-1 backups, and those who will learn to do 3-2-1 backups.
As they say, rules are written in blood (and lost manuscripts).
OP, you have my condolences. I worry about that constantly. I have nothing more to add except what everybody else said. Keep it on your hard drive and keep it on a thumb drive.
That seriously sucks, I’m really sorry, you’re allowed to grieve a project like that. One tiny, practical thing: when you appeal, attach proof it’s your original writing (screenshots, drafts, timestamps) to strengthen your case.
I had an account suspended for no clear reason and it was very easily reinstated. I had made the account to host one specific work file, so there wasn't much on it, but I didn't have any problem getting it back.
Good luck and if you do get it back, be sure to make backups!!
I really don't want to be that guy, but why wouldn't you have backups like say a thumb drive or keep them internally on a PC or laptop? Maybe just email them to yourself so there is an extra copy???
Did you actually just keep mostly everything solely on the cloud?
I had some older back-ups. Honestly, I have too much junk on my hard drive and was stupidly being overly reliant on the cloud.
This came up sometime ago. I remember a lot of writers were having their account suspended for their work because it contained stuff like writing about rape, human trafficking, basically there are keywords that the AI at Google is looking for and it can't distinguish that it is part of a story. Obviously I don't know exactly what your story is about, but if you had a moment where your character talked about a past trauma with somebody they really trust as part of their healing process, that might have triggered it. I also know some other things that got the same treatment were lists, it's one of the reason a bunch of people jumped shipped to a program called ellipsis
Next time, follow the 3-2-1 backup strategy:
Tell me more
In the future back up your work on something other than Google. Use a thumb drive or portable hard drive.
I would seriously consider hiring a lawyer to recover lost data ASAP or do anything in my power to get back in.
If you cannot get access through your appeal process, a court order is pretty much the last resort, but there's a pretty high bar to compel them to release your data.
Yeah, I don't have funds for those resources. If i did, I would have bought more hard storage, heh.
Was your appeal rejected?
I have yet to hear back. I will probably have to start changing my saved email address on a number of sites after Christmas.
Sorry this happened to you and I hope you’re able to get your account back. For others: people put way too much trust in cloud platforms. Anything that’s account-based can be taken away from you at the whim of the company even by mistake. Bot sensing systems can fuck up. Physically backing up documents to a flash drive and also literally printing them out occasionally is extremely easy, no reason not to do it.
I had this happen to the non profit I work for. I made a form that would send confirmation emails to people who finished the form. Had a bunch of people use it at once and got auto flagged as a spam account. I sent the appeal or whatever it was but I didn't hear back and they had said the account would be deleted in two weeks with all the data. I freaked! I started looking for any way to contact them in person. The only thing I found was a number for Google 1. I called them and told them the situation. They said it wasn't their department but they would see what they could do. (I have a 2 terabyte plan for data with Google, on my personal account. I think as a paying customer they took me more seriously) I did get sent a message that just said the account had been unlocked but I would need to log in before the end of the original 2 weeks or the account would still be deleted. I had one day left. I logged in and everything was still there. Thank God! I had a lot of work on that account.
Multiple backups.
I hope that you remembered what you wrote and I am very sorry that this happened but please continue to write. I lost two books and writing the first one from memory was hard and it felt redundant. It will be hard but keep going.
I’m sorry for this. I always keep it on
Personal notes
Google docs
AO3/other posting cites
Rule #1 of writing that my writing mentor has told me is never EVER only have one place to store your work. This goes for literally anything, like art and writing. Find multiple apps.
I’m really sorry for your loss, and I hope you get your stuff back.
Is it possible that you were sharing your writing with the world and someone found it through a search and was uncomfortable with the content so they reported you?
No, no dissemination with anyone.
I do all my work in Google Docs, so this would be a disaster for me.
That said, I go back-up all my work as much as I can. I do need to upload that stuff somewhere.
I'm sorry that happened and I really really hope you get it all back some how.
But this is why I will never write on something like Google docs or cloud anything. Multiple copies live on my computer and on flash drives.
Have you ever synced to a computer? You may have a copy lying somewhere, even if it’s a local old copy it’s better than nothing. I hated when my Google Drive synced because it ate up space on my computer without me knowing but I suppose it would be good in this kind of situation.
An SD for every purpose. And I email drafts to myself.
Don't 👏 keep 👏 your 👏 shit 👏 on 👏 the 👏 cloud 👏.
Don't keep your stuff on Google's cloud.
Proton Drive for the win, plus local backups on physical media.