Email is the master key. Once you're locked out of it, every other reset goes through a door you can't open. That's why it's worth doing the recovery carefully.
$39 books an in-person visit and comes straight off the price. Remote help is $39 for 30 minutes. Card only, and you approve the price before we start.
The recovery phone number is an old one. The usual culprit. The code goes to a number you gave up two carriers ago.
The recovery email is an address you also can't get into. Common when an old internet company's address was used, because those stop working when you change providers.
You're answering correctly and it still says no. Providers weigh where you are, which device you're on, and how you normally sign in. Going back to the device and the house you normally use often works when nothing else has.
Two-factor is on and the authenticator app was on the old phone. The codes didn't move with the number. This is the hardest version to get out of.
We work the recovery process from the right device, in the right order, with the details that matter, and we get back a good number of accounts folks had given up on.
We can't go around Apple, Google or Microsoft, and neither can anyone else. Anyone who guarantees it is lying or about to do something you wouldn't want done.
If the account can't be recovered, the useful work is the rebuild: a new address, the accounts that matter moved across in the right order (bank, then pharmacy, then everything else), and recovery set up right this time.
Some of these fix it outright, in ten minutes, and save you the visit.
We don't do hardware repair, the kind that needs parts or a soldering iron. Better to know that before anybody drives out.
$39 books an in-person visit, and it comes straight off the price of the visit. Our hourly rate steps up with distance from downtown of the city that serves your area: $110 an hour within 25 miles, $130 in the 25 to 50 mile band, and $145 in the 50 to 75 mile band. That's how we cover the drive, so there's no separate travel fee.
Remote help is $39 for a 30-minute session and starts with a phone call at the time you picked. If you use us a few times a year, Nerd on Call is $14.99 a month and includes two remote sessions and an in-person visit each year.
Cards only. Local Nerds aren't permitted to accept cash or checks, so you'll never be asked for either at the door. Full detail is on the FAQ.
Rather talk it through first? Have a Local Nerd call you, free, no obligation.
In-person visits reach up to 75 miles out from downtown of each city we serve, whichever state that address is in. Remote help works anywhere. Check your address on the ZIP checker, or see the whole state on the map.
Often, yes. Most lockouts are a recovery process attempted in the wrong order or from the wrong device, and working it carefully gets a lot of accounts back. Nobody can bypass Apple, Google or Microsoft, so if the account can't be recovered we'll tell you and help you rebuild.
Stop requesting more codes, because repeated attempts can freeze the recovery process for a day. There are usually other routes, including alternate recovery questions and signing in from a device the account already trusts. That second one is why we try from your own computer at home first.
Sometimes. It depends on whether backup codes were saved and whether the account offers another route. This is the hardest kind of lockout, and the best argument for keeping the old phone for a couple of weeks after a switch.
Not usually. Remote help suits this one well, because it works best from your own computer at home, and a $39 remote session is often all it takes. If several devices are tangled up in it, or you'd like someone beside you, we'll come out.
Get a current phone number and a second email address on the account as recovery, save the backup codes on paper, and make sure your passwords are saved in your phone's password manager. We set that up at the end of every one of these jobs.
We rebuild, in an order that limits the damage: a new address, then your bank, pharmacy and doctor, then the rest, then recovery set up right. Done carefully it's a couple of hours of work, and then it's behind you.