Email is the master key. Once you are locked out of it, every other reset goes through a door you cannot open. That is why this feels so much worse than one lost password, and it is why it is worth fixing properly.
The recovery phone number is an old one. This is the usual culprit. The code goes to a number you gave up two carriers ago.
The recovery email is an address you also cannot get into. Very common when an old internet company's address was used, because those stop working when you change providers.
You are answering correctly and it still says no. Providers weigh where you are, which device you are on, and how you normally sign in. Trying from an unfamiliar computer makes the check harder, not easier. 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 did not move with the number, and this is the hardest version to get out of.
We can work the recovery process properly, from the right device, in the right order, with the details that actually matter, and we get a good number of accounts back that folks had given up on.
What we cannot do is go around Apple, Google or Microsoft. Nobody can. If someone tells you they can guarantee it, they are either lying or about to do something you would not want done.
If the account genuinely cannot be recovered, the useful work is the rebuild: a new address, moving the accounts that matter across in the right order (bank, then pharmacy, then everything else), and setting up recovery properly this time so it never happens again.
Some of these will fix it outright, and that is fine. We would rather you solved it in ten minutes than paid us to do it.
We are a support and setup service, not a repair shop. Saying so plainly saves everybody a wasted trip.
$39 books an in-person visit, and it comes straight off the price of the visit. Our hourly rate steps up with distance from the town your Local Nerd works from: $110 an hour within 25 miles, $130 in the 25 to 50 mile band, and $145 in the 50 to 75 mile band. That is how we cover the drive, so there is 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 are not permitted to accept cash or checks, so you will never be asked for either at the door. Full detail is on the FAQ.
In-person visits reach up to 75 miles out from the town each Local Nerd works from, whichever state that address is in. Remote help works anywhere. Check your own address on the ZIP checker, or see the whole state on the map.
Often, yes. Most lockouts are a recovery process that was attempted in the wrong order or from the wrong device, and working it properly gets a lot of accounts back. We cannot bypass Apple, Google or Microsoft, and nobody can, so if the account truly cannot be recovered we will tell you and help you rebuild instead.
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 it is the best argument for keeping the old phone for a couple of weeks after a switch.
Not usually. This is one of the things remote help is genuinely better at, because it works best from your own computer at home and a $39 remote session is often all it takes. If there are several devices tangled up in it, or you would just rather have someone beside you, we will come out.
Get a current phone number and a second email address on the account as recovery, save the backup codes somewhere on paper, and make sure your passwords are actually saved in your phone's password manager rather than remembered. 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 and pharmacy and doctor, then the rest, then recovery set up properly. It is not the outcome anybody wants, but done carefully it is a couple of hours, not a couple of months.