On: When you get locked out of your Google account, what do you do? (2021)

[muh_gradle]

This was more or less my exact same scenario as well. MFA with an old phone number makes account recovery from Google about close to impossible. I had a friend who worked at Google that was able to create a support ticket for me. Before talking to my friend, every single customer service support rep more or less confirmed that I was completely SOL.

It is the reason why I have transitioned from Google.

[arubania2 → muh_gradle]

But if you’re changing phone numbers, why don’t you just set the new one in your Google account while you still have access to the old one?

Also wouldn’t backup codes help in this scenario?

[muh_gradle → arubania2]

I moved countries and lost access to my old phone number. I didn't account for my Google MFA during the move.

[bogomipz → muh_gradle]

I'm curious was the second form of auth an SMS text with an auth code or is their Google Authenticator app somehow tied to the phone number?

[muh_gradle → bogomipz]

SMS text with the auth code.