I finally recovered my Gmail after it was hacked, locked behind unauthorized Family Link supervision, and seemingly deleted
A few weeks ago, my main Google account was compromised after I downloaded a Minecraft modpack ZIP that I now believe may have been connected to the attack.
What followed was a nightmare.
The attacker gained control of my Gmail account and, somehow, unauthorized Family Link supervision was added to the account. This created a recovery problem where I was being asked to get approval from a “parent” account that wasn't mine.
I tried the normal Google Account Recovery process repeatedly, contacted different Google and YouTube support channels, and spent days trying to prove that the account belonged to me.
Things got even worse when Google disabled the account for security reasons. A few days later, the account appeared to be recently deleted, and I was terrified that I was running out of time before it became permanently unrecoverable.
I started collecting every piece of evidence I still had:
- Old Google account recovery emails sent to my recovery address
- Evidence showing my recovery email was connected to the account
- Screenshots of my old YouTube channel
- Screenshots documenting the unauthorized Family Link supervision
- Evidence and messages surrounding the original compromise
- A timeline of everything that happened
Eventually, a support representative named Joyce told me that my case had been passed to an Account Recovery team and that they had been given my working contact email.
After waiting and honestly stressing myself out wondering whether I would ever see the account again...
I got my Gmail back.
I'm still going through everything and checking what data survived. I've also started a Google Takeout export so I can back up whatever is still available, including any remaining YouTube data.
I'm posting this because when I was going through this, I spent a lot of time searching for stories from people who had been stuck in strange recovery situations involving hacking, Family Link, disabled accounts, and deleted Google accounts.
So if you're currently stuck in a horrible account recovery situation: don't give up immediately, document everything you can, preserve old recovery emails and screenshots, and keep a clear timeline of what happened.
I'm incredibly relieved to have the account back. Now I'm working on securing it and seeing how much of my old YouTube channel and other data survived.
Honestly, after everything that happened, seeing that Gmail account accessible again felt unreal.