How Do I Find All Of The Email Accounts Under My Name?
How Do I Find All Of The Email Accounts Under My Name?
If you’re like 95% of people, then the chances are that you have more than one email address. Most of us usually create an email in our teenage years to sign up for social media or instant messaging profiles. It’s usually something embarrassing, so by the time we’re in our late teens, we change it again so college applications go smoothly and admittance officers aren’t scratching their heads.
Then, we might go to school or get a corporate job that gives us a .edu email address or a company email address. Then we create additional emails to run additional social media accounts…. The story goes on and on and on… By the time we’re in our mid-twenties, chances are that we’ve accumulated at least 4 to 7 different email addresses.
We probably don’t even use half of them.
So for those of you who are like the rest of us, we’re about to show you how to organize your digital footprint a bit more. From finding email accounts in your name to identifying lost social media emails, consolidating email accounts, and email security, we’re going to give you a complete guide to finding and managing your email accounts!
Why It’s Important To Identify All Of Your Email Accounts
When it comes time to organize email accounts, most people understandably get a bit antsy. It’s one of those daunting tasks that’s similar to cleaning out an old filing cabinet. Who wants to even bother, right?
BUT, we’re here to show you otherwise. For one, organizing your emails is important for your online security. Secondly, it’ll help you manage your bills. Lastly, it’ll make your digital profile cleaner and better organized.
1) Removes Potential Security Loose Ends
The biggest reason why having a bunch of stray emails is bad is that it represents a boatload of loose ends for your digital profile. You probably have one or two key email addresses that you’re using right now. The rest of them are probably outdated and haven’t had a password update in years. Sound about right? Yeah… we thought so…
Are Emails Hackable?
This is bad because all of these “lost” email accounts represent a security threat. Because they’re not readily accessible, probably don’t have two-factor authentication set up, and haven’t had passwords updated, they’re easier to hack. If a hacker gains access to your email, they can steal your other passwords and even gain personal information they can use against you in the future.
While using a VPN is a great way to make your current emails anonymous, they won’t do much to protect your old emails; especially if you don’t even remember them in the first place!
2) Prevents Unwanted Billing And Subscriptions
3) Helps You Stay Organized
How To Find Linked Accounts In Google
The first step to finding your emails is to visit your main Google account. This will give you an idea of any backup emails you have linked to your account as well as which sites have third-party access to your email. This will help you narrow down and organize your email accounts and linked social media accounts.
- Go To Your Account Dashboard: On Chrome browser, click your little avatar icon in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen. Select ‘Account’ to be directed to your account dashboard.
- Select The ‘Security’ Tab: On the left-hand side of the screen, you’ll see several tabs. Select the one that says ‘Security.’
- Scroll Down To ‘Ways We Can Verify It’s You’: Next, scroll down a bit to the ‘Ways we can verify you’ section. This should have your phone number listed as well as your backup email address. Take note of this backup email address as you’ll be able to repeat these same steps to discover any other emails linked to your backup emails (e.g., backup backup emails).
- Scroll Down To ‘Apps With Third-Party Access’: Scroll down a bit further, and take a look at all of the apps and sites that have third-party access. These are sites and apps that you log into using your Google account. The more sites you have linked, the more potential there is for your email to get hacked, and the more often you should change your Google password.
- Scroll Down Further To ‘Signing Into Other Sites’: Finally, scroll a bit further down and find the ‘signing into other sites’ section. This will show you all of the passwords you have saved in your Google account along with other sites you log into using your Google account. It’s a good idea to remove access from sites/apps you no longer use and update your password.
- Repeat This Process With All Of Your Other Gmail Accounts: Now, make a list of all of the other Google Gmail accounts that you have and repeat the process with them.
Finding Your Social Media Emails
Once you’ve finished finding all of your email accounts, it’s time to double-check your social media accounts. If your password/login info is saved on your phone or laptop, then the chances are that you’ve probably forgotten both the email address and password you use to log into them.
So, begin the process of logging into each social media account you have. Then, go under the ‘Settings’ > ‘Account,’ to see which email address you have your social account linked to.
Consolidating Social Media Emails
Hopefully, most of your social media accounts are linked to a single central email address. The only exception should be separate business accounts, which you’ll want to keep linked to their individual business email addresses.
If you happen to find social media accounts that are linked back to random emails, take note of these emails. Then log into those emails, repeat the steps above, and see if there are any backup emails linked to the other email.
As you move along, use a spreadsheet to keep track of any and all emails as well as major social media logins associated with each email address. Once you’ve finished your work and you think you’ve identified all of your previous email addresses, you can begin the process of consolidating them, interlinking them, and ensuring that all of their passwords are updated with new, secure passwords.
How A VPN Can Keep Your Email Safe
Yes, we understand that this whole thing seems like a bit of a pain. But it’s one of those things that you’ll really appreciate once you do it, and realistically it should only take 45 minutes or so.
Once complete, we recommend downloading a fast, high-quality VPN (such as ProtonVPN) to use while you’re sending and opening emails. This will keep your future messages safe from prying eyes and hackers seeking to exploit your forgotten emails and your current email addresses alike!
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