Use Two Browsers, When Working With Multiple Google Accounts

Google has been providing single login access, to (almost all) Google services, for many years.

Properly maintained, we can have one Google account, which lets us access all services, using one login. The single login approach is a convenience, when all of the services, which we use, are part of the same Google account.

The single login approach becomes a challenge, when some of the services, which we use, are part of different Google accounts. As owners of Blogger blogs, there are some scenarios, where we have to deal with two different Google accounts simultaneously.

• Accessing non Blogger applications, like Google Apps.
• Recovering account / blog control.
• Transferring control of a blog.

When we have to deal with two Google accounts, simultaneously, the single login approach becomes a problem.

Frequently, when you request assistance with a problem which involves your Google account, we'll start by advising you to

Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3) - then restart the browser.

This advice is neither ceremonial, nor pedantic - it's practical. And, it solves more problems than you would believe.

That simple advice works - because many problems are caused by the Google account login cookie, which is used to retain login status from application to application, within the various Google services which we may use. This is how Google provides single login to their various services.

That simple advice works best when we care only about the Google service immediately visible - and it requires careful maintenance of cookies filters. In cases where two services - or two Google accounts - are involved, you'd need to switch between account / service, rapidly and repeatedly. Rapidly logging out of one account, to login to another account, is both exhausting and technically unsafe.

Rapidly logging out then back in, to various Google accounts, creates odd symptoms, like the well known monolithic error

You have logged out from another location. Do you want to log in again?

Who among us has been able to correctly answer this simple query properly, without undue rise in blood pressure?

Another problem with clearing cookies, routinely, is that not all browsers allow selective clearing of cookies. Many have observed problems with non Google websites, after solving a Google problem which involves

Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3) - then restart the browser.

Yes, there are websites outside the Googlesphere!

If we need to work with two Google accounts, simultaneously, the only safe technique is to use two browsers, simultaneously. Since the Google login cookie is created separately, in each different browser, use of two browsers lets us maintain two Google sessions, simultaneously, without interaction between the two.

Since no two browsers are alike, we know realistically, that using two different browsers should not be done routinely. Many blog owners have a most favourite, and a least favourite, browser - and won't willingly use a different browser except when absolutely necessary.

Fortunately, many modern browsers, to retain their own customer base, allow for multiple sessions - where cookies and other preferences and settings can be maintained separately. Chrome has the "Incognito Window", and Firefox has "Private Browsing" - both of which let you, temporarily, setup a second browser session, with separate cookies, preferences, and settings.

In most cases, then - and if you are using Chrome or Firefox - when we advise you to

Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3) - then restart the browser.

you should be able to, alternately,

Activate a second browser session, when you are not currently using a second session.

In cases where you are currently using a second browser session, the advice would be more correctly phrased

Close the current second browser session, then start a new second browser session.

This advice would flush all current cookies, preferences, and settings which could possibly involve multiple Google accounts, and avoid various problems with Blogger and non Blogger applications.

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Account / Blog Recovery, With Team Blogs, Requires Well Managed Membership

We've known for a while, about account recovery for team blogs.

We've sent login instructions for the blog at http://mybloggerblog.blogspot.com/ to you and the other blog authors.

Apparently, team ownership recovery has its limits.

I used "Forgot?", and got the advice

Your blog has too many authors to email them all. Please enter your email address into the form below to look up your account information.

The blog has too many contributors. Since some of these contributors' accounts are no longer active, there's no way for me to easily identify the account which has now has the administrator rights.

Like account recovery for a blog with inactive team members, the "Forgot?" wizard won't work well with large membership lists, which are not well maintained.

In this case, the would be owner (former owner?) now has two possibilities.

1. If he was the only administrator, the blog now has no administrators - and any author can now claim ownership of the blog, by using “Forgot?” and providing the proper email address.
2. If the blog still has administrators, the former owner now has to identify an administrator who is active and accessible, and who is willing to restore his account to administrator status.

What to do, now?

Once again, we see the advantage of keeping the membership list well maintained.

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Team Blogs, And Confusion About Blogs Locked After Detected Account Hacking

We've been discussing deleted blogs, resulting from Blogger accounts locked after suspicious account activity is detected, for some time.

Recently, we've seen a variant on the account lock / deleted blogs problem.

I made one of my friends an admin for my blog. When Blogger deleted His Blogger account and his blogs, they deleted my blog also.

Here, we see the possibility of detected hacking, affecting other members in a team blog ownership.

If someone sets up a blog, then invites his friends to be administrators, everybody on the team becomes equal owners. This can also happen when one person maintains two or more Blogger accounts - whether accidentally or intentionally.

That's the definition of a team blog - and it's one known problem with team blogs. This case shows us another problem with team blogs.

If somebody on the team has a Blogger account locked for detected hacking, all blogs owned by that account are taken offline, for security checking. Any blogs owned by that account are going to simply disappear from the dashboards of all owners - because all owners produce the same security risk, to any owned blogs.

When a Blogger account is locked, review of blogs owned by the account starts after the account is unlocked. If the team member with the locked Blogger account doesn't get the account unlocked, the blogs owned can't be reviewed.

Once again, we see why it's a good idea to only have active team members, as blog owners.

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Account / Blog Recovery May Involve Your Friends Email Archives

Recovering ownership of a Blogger account or blog may be a frustrating process.

Recovering control of a long forgotten account or blog starts with having a token sent to the recovery email address. If you don't have access to the recovery email account, you may be able to use the Google Account recovery wizard - if you can at least provide the email address that you used long ago, and a few personal details.

But what if you don't even remember the email address? Blogger won't just tell you what the address was.

In the latter case, you may have to involve your friends - and some detective work.

Now, you hope that when you registered your Blogger account long ago, you provided an email address that you used for real life activity.

When you need to identify the email address used, long ago, for registering your Blogger account, think back. Who did you email, long ago, around that time, for serious discussions?

If you're lucky, one of your friends, carefully searching her / his email archives, can find your email - and provide the email address that you were using.

With help from your friend, and now knowing the email address, that may even help you remember the password that you may have used. If you're lucky, you may be able to use that email address and password, and instantly recover control of the blog. Just don't spend a lot of time guessing, and cause account lock (aka "suspicious activity").

Having recovered the email address, try the Google Account recovery wizard, again. This is your best bet. Without this, you're probably going to need to establish your identity using a court order, issued by a sitting judge.

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Being A Hacking Victim Is Not Always The Fault Of The Account / Blog Owner

Even though being the victim of a hacking attack is not (always) the fault of the account / blog owner, the blog owner may have to bear some of the responsibility.

Since hacking detection is a fuzzy process, it's not always going to be detected immediately. The previous article discusses what happens when Google does detect a hacking attack - and in some cases reacts too diligently.

If Google is not able to detect an attack, in some cases, an attack may be successful.

With some blogs, that are not updated frequently, a hacker may take control, and successfully hijack a blog.

Occasionally we see another report

I just discovered that my blog contains spam - and I can't access the dashboard, to clean the blog!

This may well be a successfully hijacked blog, discovered too late.

Unfortunately, the latter report may also be another devious attempt to steal control of somebody's blog. Blogger Support cannot, reliably, support hacking recovery, on an individual basis.

From what I can tell, Blogger / Google is working on the larger picture - making the automated detection process more reliable. Given this concern, Blogger / Google won't be frequently available to diagnose and return control of individual hijacked blogs - even when the issue is righteous.

In general, blog owners have to support themselves, and learn how to protect themselves. This may be yet one more reason why 2-Step Verification is becoming less optional.

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Blog Content, And Confusion About Blogs Locked After Detected Account Hacking

One Blogger mystery involves the varying periods of blog unavailability, after hacking activity is detected.

My blog just disappeared from my dashboard - and no, it's not listed under "Deleted blogs"!

When the owner mentions the notice about "suspicious" / "unusual" account activity, or having unlocked the account (by solving a CAPTCHA, receiving a phone message, changing the password) - and is advised to wait "24 to 48 hours" - many ask the obvious.

Is "24 to 48 hours" really accurate?

In reality, the legendary "24 to 48" hour time period is only a ball park figure - and both Blogger / Google, and the blog owner, contribute to the uncertainty.

The well known advice to "Wait 24 to 48 hours", after a Blogger account is locked for suspected hacking activity, is only an estimation of the waiting time, which the owner may have to endure. This is account / blog integrity verification.

There are several factors which can contribute to the accuracy of "24 to 48 hours" (which maybe should be stated as "one to two business days").

• Availability of essential Blogger / Google personnel.
• Current hacking activity level, and ongoing Blogger / Google workload.
• Blog content, which complicates hacking payload analysis.

We've referenced the first two factors (personnel, and hacking activity level) in the well known Blogger FAQ How long will it take?. The third involves detail which only the blog owner can provide. Many blog owners contribute to this uncertainty, in the development of their blogs.

There are several types of content, which hackers like to add, to blogs temporarily under their control.

1. Advertising - and similar shiny accessories.
2. Custom code - and various template tweaks.
3. Links to other blogs - and to websites outside Google address space.
4. Team memberships - and multiple blog owners.

All of these features, also added by the owner - and allowed (and encouraged) by Blogger - can require extra effort as a blog is validated, after detected hacking activity.

Blogger / Google security experts, in examining an account / blog, must look for features possibly added by the hacker. Security experts have no immediate knowledge what was added by the owner, long ago - as opposed to by a hacker, more recently.

Any advertising, custom code, external links, or team memberships, intentionally added by the owner, will contribute to time spent validating blog integrity.

• Leave a setting or tweak added by the hacker - and the blog remains a security risk, when returned to service.
• Remove a setting or tweak added by a blog owner - and the blog becomes broken, when returned to service.

Neither is desired, by the blog owners - nor by Blogger / Google.

More accessories and tweaks == more time spent by security experts == more time the blog remains offline, while the owner waits in uncertainty.

This uncertainty, added to delayed deletion caused by cache latency, leads to mystery.

All of this brings to mind the old adage.

KISS

Keep it simple, stupid.

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Abuse Reporting Is Not For Deleting A Blog For Which You Lost Control

Sometimes, people lose control of their blog, with no ability to regain control - and simply want the blog deleted.

How do I have Blogger delete the blog, for me, since I can't prove ownership?

When advised that Blogger does not delete blogs on behalf of former owners, the next thought by the former owner is to have the blog deleted as abuse.

What category of Abuse should I use, to have a previously owned blog, deleted?

While not genuinely fraudulent, the latter approach is misuse of the Abuse reporting process.

The Abuse Reporting process is properly used to report blogs owned by another party, for TOS Violations.

Blogger currently provides the Blogger Help: Report abuse form, which has specific categories of abuse.

• Legal issues
• Hate speech, violent or crude content
• Harassment
• Spam, phishing, or malware
• Nudity
• Posting of private information
• Impersonation

All of those categories refer to content published by another person. Nothing there is for reporting a blog previously owned, with control lost by negligence.

Whatever the loss of control, it's yours to correct.

• Corporate blog, control lost.
• Personal blog, control lost.
• Team blog, control stolen.

None of these scenarios warrant abuse / TOS violation reports.

Note a very specific warning, about misuse of the DMCA Violation complaint.

Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights. Indeed, in a recent case (please see http://www.onlinepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/ for more information), a company that sent an infringement notification seeking removal of online materials that were protected by the fair use doctrine was ordered to pay such costs and attorneys fees. The company agreed to pay over $100,000. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether material available online infringes your copyright, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.

If your company publishes a blog, you are responsible for retaining control of the blog, as with any corporate asset. If you lose control of a corporate asset, you don't contact the vendor, and demand that they delete the asset that you lost. Your problem is with the current owner - whether it's a civil or criminal issue, it's not the responsibility of the vendor to correct an ownership problem.

If the blog was personally yours, and you forgot the account name and / or password, it's your responsibility to regain control.

If the blog was under team ownership, and another team member stole the blog, your problem is with the former team member. If the team member was (righteously or spuriously) classified as a non repentant spammer, you may have to get the blog reviewed, to regain control.

If you believe that you can prove your right to control (or delete) the blog, you may hire a lawyer, and have a judge certify your identity. None of these cases can be resolved, using abuse / TOS violation reporting.

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Recovering And Protecting Your GMail Account

Blogger blog owners may have productive action, when their Blogger accounts are successfully hacked through an attack on their GMail accounts.

GMail account owners can get detailed instructions on recovering a successfully hacked account, and on preventing future hacking attacks from being successful. Some of the instructions are specific to GMail use - but overall, Blogger account owners will benefit from their use.

To benefit from the GMail instructions, one should consider the differences between Blogger, email, and Google accounts.

Gmail Account Recovery: Gmail Account Recovery and Security provides complete and detailed instructions for recovering a hacked and stolen GMail email account.

The Recovery instructions include specific mentions of Disabled / Suspended accounts, successfully Stolen accounts, and accounts locked or deleted because of Underage owners.

Accompanying the recovery advice is Gmail help and information: How NOT To Get Hacked. These are instructions for preventing a recurrence of a reported problem. This includes discussion of using a strong and secure password, identifying hacking techniques that involve the account owner, and preventing attacks which are conducted using the computer or network in use by the account owner.

The Prevention instructions, many which are common sense issues to any IT professional or security expert, are specifically written to apply to GMail account owners. There may be additional issues which apply in general, to Blogger accounts - and specifically, to Blogger accounts which are based on non GMail email accounts.

There are a few differences between Blogger blog ownership and GMail account ownership, which will cause issues that cannot be easily resolved by Blogger Support, or by GMail Support, to the satisfaction of the (former) blog owner.

GMail accounts are, by nature, single owner - and ownership of a GMail account is never transferred. In contrast, Blogger blogs can be under team ownership - and ownership can be transferred.

• Intentional team blog ownership. Team blog ownership can cause problems with loss of blog control, when all known blog administrators (accidentally or intentionally) remove themselves as administrators, leaving an unknown administrator.
• Intentional transfer of control. A blog owner may assign administrator status to another person, voluntarily - then later regret his decision.
• Un intentional transfer of control. A blog owner may assign administrator status to another person, voluntarily - and the other person may then remove the former owner administrator status.
• Ownership theft after account hacking. A hacker, having temporarily gained control of a Blogger account, may transfer ownership of a blog to another Blogger account.

All of these scenarios are regarded as simple transfer of blog ownership, by Blogger Support.

Though maybe not preferred by the (former) blog owner, the blog in question will now be under control of another person. It's possible that some of these scenarios are considered by Google Security, when reviewing Blogger / Google accounts after hacking activity is detected.

Blogger accounts, based on non GMail email addresses, will be subject to the typical uncertainty which accompanies any third party service in Blogger. Some details may be involve the email provider, while others will involve Blogger - and arbitrating between the two will be the responsibility of the Blogger account owner.

Owners of Blogger accounts which are based on non GMail email addresses will need to contact the providers of the actual email service, for resolution of some of these issues.

In general though, the GMail Account Loss Prevention and Recovery instructions provide good advice, for any Blogger account owner.

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Confusion Over Accounts Locked For Suspicious / Unusual Account Activity

One of the more intriguing tales of Blogger blogs, currently being explored, involves blogs mysteriously deleted by Blogger.

My blog just disappeared from my dashboard - and no, it's not listed under "Deleted blogs"!

In some cases, the owner knows more than is implied, from the obvious wording of that problem report.

As Blogger / Google continues to improve the hacking / malware detection and removal process, they are making the recovery of accounts locked for "suspicious" / "unusual" activity easier - and more transparent. The increased transparency may, in some cases, cause mystery.

Diagnosing the many mysterious blog disappearances, currently being reported in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, may involve what the blog owner does not report - as much as what the owner does report.

Blogger / Google is constantly refining the hacking detection / recovery process, to both improve the possibility that any activity will be detected, and to make it easier for the victims of the hacking to deal with the recovery process. As they make it easier for the owners to recover the accounts locked, they make it less likely that the owners will mention the locked account recovery, when later reporting the blogs, mysteriously missing from the dashboard.

In some cases, the blog owner will provide vague clues, which refer to an immediately previous account unlock.

• Required to change the account password.
• Required to provide a phone number - and receive either a text or voice message with a recovery code.
• Required to solve a CAPTCHA.

All of these clues can be relevant to a locked account, or to various other anti-hacking / anti-spam activity by Blogger / Google - and can be overlooked as a locked account symptom, when stated in a forum problem report.

In other cases, the only clue provided will be that the blogs in question are missing, and not listed in any dashboard list - "Deleted blogs", "Locked blogs", or "My blogs". In cases where we've simply reported missing blogs for malware / spam review, to Blogger Support, we're later advised to instruct the blog owner to recover the account.

Since immediate review of any blog cannot be always guaranteed by Blogger Support, it's to everybody's benefit that we request clues to verify the problems being reported. Unfortunately, the questions asked may not always seem relevant to some blog owners, unhappy about the mysterious loss of their blogs - even though they may contribute to the problem, inadvertently.

And thanks to the possibility that not all blog owners may even get a notice when their accounts are locked, owners with multiple accounts may not even realise that a given Blogger account is locked. These owners find out that a given blog has been deleted, only after it goes offline and expires from cache. This will make some blog owners even less cooperative, when asked to provide diagnostic details about their problems.

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If You Cannot Prove Ownership Of Your Blogger Account, Your Next Step May Involve Court Action

We've explored the issues of Blogger account and blog recovery policy, repeatedly. We've mentioned the business concerns, the personal support issues, and even the strategic hacking possibilities. Even so, we continue to see evidence of blog owners who just don't understand the message, posting in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I started a blog under an alias, to be able to post anonymously, and can't remember the login details or the e-mail recovery. How can I regain access to my blog?

Last year, Blogger Support offered the "final" word about account recovery assistance, in the forum.

Due to the sensitive nature of these issues, we won't be able to troubleshoot your issue in this public forum.

Even giving that advice, some blog owners still insist that Google is not cooperating, in refusing to restore access to Blogger accounts and blogs, to people who cannot prove their right to ownership.

The policy on ownership recovery is quite simple. Anybody requiring recovery has to prove their right to a given Blogger account or blog, using the tools provided.

Because Google doesn't ask for much personal information when you sign up for an account, we don't have many ways to verify that you own an account.

Blogger / Google provide two automated recovery tools - and that is the limit of their cooperation. Every Blogger blog owner, who actively publishes a blog, and who wants to keep their blog under their control, needs to appreciate this limit - this is how Blogger and Google prevents devious hijacking of our blogs.

For those blog owners who truly need - and deserve - control of their lost blogs, there is one final recourse. Any owner, who cannot use the Blogger / Google automated tools, are entitled to take their concerns outside Google, and have their identity certified by the courts. Start by hiring a lawyer, take the matter to a judge, and get a properly issued court order. Then, serve the court order, properly, to Google.

Let's let the courts assume responsibility of deciding who is a worthy blog owner - and who is potentially a hacker.

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Confusion Over Recovery From Locked Blogger / Google Accounts

Not all blog owners understand the reasons behind the locked Blogger / Google accounts.

Even less understand why recovery of locked accounts, and of the blogs owned by the locked accounts, is not immediate. We see the occasional report, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I had to change the password on my account - and now my blogs are deleted! Why should I wait another "24 to 48 hours" to get my blogs back?

This blog owner does not understand the possible reasons for the locked account - and the work that goes on after the account is unlocked.

Brute force hacking of our Blogger / Google accounts, by hackers / spammers, who have use of the various botnets in the Internet, is a constant activity. Opposing activity, by the Security teams in Blogger / Google, to not let hackers and spammers take control of our accounts and blogs, is just as constant.

Some of the Security activity requires our patience - and blog owners, having to recover their deleted blogs, are not always patient.

The Security processes, in Blogger / Google hacking prevention, have to work from a worst case scenario, when detecting hacking activity.

Account hacking cannot always be detected instantly. When hacking is detected, the hacking prevention process has to consider the possibility that the accounts under attack have already been compromised.

When Blogger / Google Security detects possible brute force hacking against an account, they lock the account - and delete the blogs owned by the account. Alternatively, they quarantine the computers used in the hacking activity. This is where we see the notice of "suspicious account activity" - and possibly the dreaded "403 Forbidden".

When we discover a locked account, and request its restore, the security process looks for signs of security weaknesses allowed by the account owners - or possibly added by the (temporarily) successful hacker. In some cases, the owner may be required to change the account password, and receive instruction on using a more secure ("strong") password.

Ongoing efforts by Blogger / Google, to make the account recovery easier for the blog owners to endure, may cause mystery about blogs missing from the dashboard, without obvious recovery options.

After the Blogger / Google account is restored, the integrity of the blogs owned by the account must be verified.

• The blog content must be examined for spammy content added.
• The blog Permissions list must be checked, for backdoor accounts added.
• The Mail-to-Blogger settings must be considered as a possible backdoor.

These are simply examples of what must be done, to ensure that our blogs were not compromised, even temporarily, by the hacking just detected. After you get your account back, it's not a bad idea for you to verify this, on your own. If you just got your blog back, after resetting your Blogger account password and / or verifying your phone number, check your template carefully, looking for references to unfamiliar JavaScript code, hosted outside Google address space.

The process of account and blog integrity verification will require an unpredictable time period - and needs to be done with the blogs inaccessible to anybody but the Blogger / Google security processes. The blog being offline may not be immediately observed by the owner - and this may cause more confusion.

Blogger Support is aware that nobody wants to deal with the stress of having a locked or deleted blog - especially after they have gone through the process of verifying their account. They are also well aware of the frustration that is present when someone reports

Somebody is publishing spam on my blog - and I can't access the dashboard to remove the spam!

Locking the owned blogs, after hacking activity is detected, complements the ongoing policy of not disclosing the account names, in helping to keep our blogs under our control.
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Use Of Google+ For Networking, And Keeping Your Blogger Account And Blogs Safe

One constant activity in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken involves blog owners whose blogs were deleted - either righteously or spuriously - as part of the ongoing battle against spam, in Blogger blogs. Generally, the problem comes directly from the blog content.

Sometimes, the problem is more subtle.

When I tried to login to Blogger, I got a screen that said my account needed to be verified, due to "unusual activity on my account". Having verified my account, I see that my blogs have been deleted.

This is part of one of the more intriguing episodes, in the never ending fight against hacking and spam, in Blogger.

Some Blogger blog owners participate in comment based discussions, and provide their email addresses there. Some state their email addresses openly, in the body of the comments, for the world to see when viewing the comments. Others post comments using their Blogger accounts, knowing that the blog owners can see their email address in the comment moderation / notification email messages - and can contact them using email.

Spammers use comment based networking, to their advantage. They subscribe to any comment thread, using the "Notify me" option - then wait while blog readers comment using their Blogger accounts. As the email comes in, from blog readers commenting, they scrape the email addresses from the email content. Since most people commenting either openly state their blog URLs in the comment bodies - or link to a list of their blogs - the spammer now has two essential ingredients, to be used for hacking someone's Blogger account, and gaining control of the blogs owned by the account.

Google now provides Google+, where we can network with a designated audience, and avoid spam in our email. Using Google+, our email addresses are not revealed, and spammers have less incentive to use Google+ for email address harvesting. This protects our Blogger accounts and blogs against hacking, and relieves us from email based spam.

For people who update their Blogger accounts to use Google+ based profiles, but continue to network using Blogger comments, Blogger now protects us by using anonymous email addresses in all comment generated email. This leaves people who continue to comment, using Blogger accounts with native Blogger profiles, vulnerable to ongoing email address harvesting, and account hacking.

Blogger account hacking, using email addresses harvested from Blogger blog comments, will typically involve brute force password guessing. Blogger, detecting brute force attempts against a vulnerable Blogger account, will lock the account and the blogs. Once we verify ownership of our Blogger account - and hopefully change the Blogger account password to something less vulnerable to guessing - the blogs owned by a possibly compromised account remain locked, until they can be examined for signs of tampering, by Google security / spam analysts.

We also must consider the possibility that not all brute force password guessing attacks are being detected by Google - and some Blogger accounts are being deviously, and temporarily, hijacked.

People who setup Blogger accounts based on bogus email addresses - or who have accounts based on old email addresses which they can't use - continue to present a challenge here. These people will never receive essential email advising them of a problem in either verifying their Blogger account - or their blogs. This will continue to make our initial spam lock advice relevant.

Can you login to Blogger? Do you have a dashboard link "Deleted blogs"? That's where you start.

You wait 24 to 48 hours after submitting a Restore request - then you post back here, and we take the next step.

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Blogger Supports Their Customers - But They Support Their Active Customers More

Every week, in Blogger Help, we see the cries of frustration.

Many years ago I had a Google account with a "gmail.com" e-mail address. But I deleted this account, because I didn't need it anymore. Later, I wasn't able to login to Blogger, to delete my blog. And I also wasn't able to remove it by contacting Blogger. Why doesn't Blogger support their customers?

The point being overlooked here is that both Blogger and Google do support their customers.

Blogger / Google, like every commercial enterprise worldwide, simply supports their active customers more than their not-so-active customers.

1. They have millions of customers, who spend much time maintaining and publishing their blogs.
2. They also have some customers, who start blogs, and leave them dormant for many years - then require assistance recovering access to their Blogger accounts, because they have forgotten the account name or password, and the backup email address can't be used.

Considering that Blogger / Google is not a non profit organisation, and needs to support customer activity, which group of customers should they support most readily?

Blogger / Google wants to encourage us to maintain and to publish our blogs regularly. People who don't use their services regularly, then demand special assistance when needing to use their services, are not going to receive the same level of support.

1. People who use Blogger regularly will develop a level of proficiency - and won't require special assistance as much as those who don't use Blogger regularly.
2. People who use Blogger regularly simply require a working Blogger interface, and a level of security that keeps their blogs under their control. People who don't use Blogger regularly need a different and more complicated Blogger interface - and a lower level of security, so they can continue to access their Blogger accounts.

The needs of the few (who don't use Blogger regularly) have to be considered against the needs of the many (who do use Blogger regularly).

Recently, we had a series of well organised hijackings of actively published Blogger blogs. After Blogger / Google recognised this ongoing threat - which endangers all Blogger blog owners - they tightened down their security, and restricted assistance to those needing help recovering access to their Blogger accounts. People who don't use Blogger regularly don't understand the reasoning behind this reduced level of assistance, and increased level of security.

Unfortunately, understand it or not, we all have to learn to live with it - if we wish to continue publishing Blogger blogs.

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A Team Blog With No Administrators Is Given To The Authors, For Their Control

We have known, for a while, that every Blogger blog has to have at least one administrator.

That rule is enforced by the Permissions wizard, which gives any administrator the choice to demote or remove any administrator, from the Permissions list - but only when there is at least one other administrator in the list.

When the Permissions list is displayed, if there are at least two members with administrative authority, each administrator entry, in the list, has a link to demote or remove that member. If there is only one member with administrative authority, there is no such link - and that member can be neither demoted or removed from the list.

As long as only the Permissions wizard is used, to demote or remove administrators, this article would be meaningless (see the above link). But, there is another way for administrators to be removed - and this occasionally leaves blogs with no administrator.

If the only way to lose an administrator (or member) from a blog was by using the Permissions list to demote or remove, then the Permissions list setup, as described above, would be sufficient.

Unfortunately, the Blogger - and Google - account deletion processes don't consider the member lists for the blogs owned by the account. When a Blogger account is deleted, the fate of the blogs owned, by that account, has to be decided later.

Any blogs which have only one member (the owner) are either frozen or deleted - as with only one owner, there is no need to keep those blogs. Any blogs with more than one member simply lose that one member. But what if a blog has more than one member, but only one administrator - and that one administrator takes a hike?

With a team blog with one administrator, and one or more authors, losing the one administrator would leave a blog that was being published (by the authors), but could not be managed (because there was no administrator). This would, in the past, lead to panic in the forum.

The administrator for my blog deleted his Blogger account - and now my blog has no administrator! What do we do now?

With no administrator existing, Blogger Support would be summoned, and would have to determine whether a blog:

• Had no administrators.
• Had at least one author.
• Was being requested by a person who had a legitimate need to request control (a former administrator, or a current author).

Failure to ensure that each condition was being properly met could, with the right problem report, allow a hijacker to improperly assume control of someone's blog - with only Blogger Support to blame for enabling the hijacking.

To allow control recovery without needless delay, and avoid the need for endless detail in verifying any such panicky report, Blogger Engineering made a simple procedural change. The "Forgot your username or password?" wizard, when control recovery is requested for a blog with no administrator, simply sends the appropriate access tokens (aka "login instructions") to all blog authors - as long as the membership list is well maintained.

Any blog authors, able to receive the login instructions, then become de facto administrators - and can jointly determine the fate of the blog. The control recovery process can be automated, and the risk of possible hijacking of actively owned (administered) blogs is reduced. This simply requires that at least one blog author uses a Blogger account based on an active and genuine email address - and if necessary, can search persistently for the email sent.

When this reset process is done, each author of the blog initially has the same power as each of the other authors. Blogger leaves it to all authors to act honourably - and to politely choose one or more authors to be administrators. As long as the author submitting the reset process is able to locate the email message in his Inbox immediately, he can make himself the sole administrator - if he decides.

If one of the authors has problem locating the email, it's possible that the other newly appointed administrators could unwisely hijack control of the blog. If this happens, it will be up to the authors to jointly establish order. Blogger Support will not be involved in any conflict.

The more authors a given blog may have, the greater the chance that one author, receiving the email message, may act dishonourably, and hijack the blog. In cases where there are a large number of authors (precise number not known, right now), Blogger will defer to the author requesting the reset.

In this case, the author requesting the account reset can enter his email address, that is used by his Blogger account, to have the password reset email sent directly to him.

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If Your Blog Was Deleted, It's Good To Know Why

Of the many problem reports that we see in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, possibly the most ambiguous might be

My blog was deleted. How do I get my blog back?

The confusion, evidenced here, is normal - but overlooking the reason for the deletion can waste time - and delay or prevent getting the blog restored.

Any time someone reports a deleted blog, it's good to understand - and possibly verify - the cause of the deletion.

1. Was the blog deleted by the owner?
2. Was the blog deleted by Blogger - as a suspected abusive content host?
3. Was the blog deleted - because the owning Blogger account was locked by Blogger / Google?

Each of these possibilities can have different consequences - different recovery protocols - and different prognoses. To avoid wasting time - and affect the options for recovery - it's good to triage the diagnosis.

A blog deleted by the owner must be recovered by the owner. If the blog was deleted because the owning Blogger account was deleted, the owning account has to be restored, to start. And the time limit, for restoring a blog, deleted by the owner, is limited.

A blog deleted by Blogger, as a suspected abusive content (malware, porn, spam) host, must be reviewed and restored by Blogger. The good news here is that the review and restore process has, theoretically, no time limit for either initiation or completion.

A blog deleted by Blogger because of a deleted or locked Blogger account, likewise, has no time limit. However, there are two possibilities here.

1. If the Blogger account was locked for "suspicious activity", the account must be unlocked, following owner request - then the owner must wait, patiently, for the blog(s) to be verified and restored to service.
2. If the account was deleted, because of ownership of other blogs suspected as spam hosts, all blogs suspected must be reviewed.

Here, having the Blogger account associated with an active email account is a necessity, for finding the warning notices from Blogger, and deducing which cause contributed to the deletion. And, we see yet another reason for limiting your use of multiple email / GMail accounts.

Bearing in mind the limited time window for getting an owner deleted blog restored, it's a good idea to first identify all owner initiated deletions. If we wait for Blogger to review the blog, as a suspected spam host, and they respond with

The blog was trashed by the owner.

this won't help the owner when he realises

Oh yeah, I may have deleted it - last year (and over 90 days ago!).

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Legacy Accounts Are No Longer Supported - The Final Chapter

Today, I was advising the latest legacy Blogger account holdout.

I got the email that says

You are receiving this message because your email address is associated with an unmigrated legacy Blogger account. As we announced in April of last year, legacy accounts will no longer be accessible after May 30th, 2012 unless they are updated to the Google Account system. Any blog content associated with this account will also be unmodifiable after that date.

Upon reporting this latest support need to Blogger, I was advised of the sad reality, by a Blogger Engineer.

Legacy support has been deprecated.

We have seen this coming, for a long time - and it has finally arrived.

What this advice means is simple - if your blog(s) are owned by a legacy Blogger account, that account, and blog(s), is now frozen.

• You can't convert your account.
• You can't update your blog(s).

You have been warned, repeatedly. Now, Blogger has moved on - and you can't be helped.

• They won't delete your blog.
• They won't take the URL away from you.
• You can't delete or update the blog - or re use the URL.

It's possible that the Legacy Claim form may help you - though the queue for action can be a week, or more. Here, as always, you have a much better chance of success if you know both the Username and Password.

Alternately, if you can setup a new Blogger account, try recovering the blog into the new account. Alternately, checkout the Known Blogger Issues article, for some possible solutions.

Other than that, let Blogger move into the future - don't demand special treatment, which will only help enable future opportunity for account hacking.

If you wish to publish using Blogger, start a new blog, under a new Blogger account. If you're here because you have not published your blog since 2006, the changes to Blogger have been so extensive that you'll be starting over, anyway. Start a new blog - you can always include the old blog, in the new one, as static content.

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Blog Control And URL Availability Hacking - Four Sides Of The Same Story

Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see various queries about our blogs, and how to gain or regain control.

• How do I get a blog, which is attacking me (impersonating me, insulting me, publishing my secrets), removed from Blogger?
• How do I claim a dormant URL?
• How do I recover control of my blog?
• My blog is now under somebody else's control! How do I get my blog back?

In some cases, all of these queries are simply one more attempt to gain control of a blog, or a URL. As we gain experience in reading between the lines in Blogger Help Forum, and as Blogger Support gains experience in researching blog histories, we can start to see patterns, and signs of multiple attempts to assume control of the blog - or the URL - in question.

Many blog or URL hacking attempts start quite innocently. Two of the more common ones are quite naive, and completely separate, tales.

• Some people want to recover control of their blog, after having forgotten the username / password.
• Other people want to start a blog - but find that the desired URL is not available.

Some people, denied recovery of the blog, because they can't prove ownership, will try another tactic.

I'll tell them that the blog was stolen from me. Surely if they think the blog was hacked, I can get it back, since I used to be the owner!

People trying to gain control of a dormant blog will likewise use their imagination.

If I get the blog deleted as spam, I can grab the URL. Surely a Dormant blog is just another type of Spam, in Blogger!

Unfortunately, these techniques have been used, already - and have resulted in still other tales of anguish.

It requires the wisdom of Solomon - and the patient persistence of Gil Grissom - to sort through the problems reports. Claims

I just graduated from college, and I can't use my email address to recover the password!

and

I just woke up from a 7 year coma, to find my family blog under control of a hacker!

and let us not overlook

My friend just died. Can I please have control of the blog, so I can put a notice to all of his friends, on the blog?

and

I never updated my Blogger only account to a Blogger / Google account - and I never got any email, warning me of the impending change!

All of these tales have enormous human interest - and seem to justify mercy for the plaintive requests.

Unfortunately, these stories - and others like them - are not always what they seem. What we sometimes see are the other side of the story.

• Attempts to steal control of an active blog.
• Attempts to gain control of the URL which would be perfect for their new blog, if only the URL was available.
• Attempts to probe and reveal the identity of a blog owner, who is guaranteed anonymous blog ownership, by Blogger policy.

So, if you beg and plead for attention

None of these tools help me, in the least. Can I please speak to a live human, so I can explain my special need?

Please, do not be surprised to be directed to read about why Blogger Help is the only contact, and why you absolutely must prove ownership of the blog, before being given control. And even the ultimate insult, you must provide a copy of the death certificate plus get a court order, as you grieve for the loss of your friend or loved one.

The bottom line here is that, if you intend to publish a Blogger blog, it is your responsibility - and only your responsibility - to maintain control of your blog. You are an adult (or are presumed to be one) - and you have responsibilities, as an adult.

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Attention June 2012 Graduates: Transfer Ownership Of Your Blogger Blogs, Now

As you pack up your personal belongings, and close down your various student activities related to your college / university life, you're probably spending some time creating various traces, to point to your new life, which is now starting. One such activity would involve filing various "change of address" notifications, for people / services who communicate with you through postal mail, addressed to the college postal address which you use.

Similar to postal mail, you probably have a college email address, issued to you when you registered as a student. Hopefully by now, you have setup a non college email account, and are busy filling out change of address "notifications" for the many services which communicate with you through email. As you do this, you should think of your Blogger account, which owns your Blogger blogs.

Before you lose access to your Blogger account that's based on your college email account, setup a new Blogger account, based on your new non college email address. Then, transfer control of your blog(s), to your new Blogger account.

Don't delay - do this now - before you end up asking for help that can't be provided.

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The New GUI (2011) Is Here - And Is Not Going Away

Last month, Blogger took the next step in making us use the New Blogger GUI, and started migrating our accounts, aggressively. This change did not please a lot of people.

Why won't Google admit the new interface is an utter failure, and scrap it?

This is an example of misguided optimism. Blogger is not simply going to scrap it.

The people such as in the latter example, who are protesting the coming of the New Blogger Interface, are making three mistakes.

1. They are wasting their own time and energy, protesting.
2. They are not telling people, specifically, what problems they see.
3. They are encouraging other people to waste time and energy.

The New Blogger Interface is not going to go away - nor is it an utter failure.

No previously controversial Blogger features, seen in the past, have been scrapped.

• Auto pagination.
• Automated account and blog recovery.
• Spam mitigation.

Each of those features have received far more criticism than The New GUI - even considering the problems discovered, in The New GUI, to date. And, each of those features are still in place - and are tuned, occasionally.

Better get used to it, folks. The New Blogger Interface will, eventually, become The Blogger Interface - with, or without, your approval. If you want to accomplish something, tell everybody what, specifically, you consider to be a problem. Just tell everybody what problems you see, while there is still time to get something done - before we see a Gear icon, with no menu entry for "Old Blogger interface", on everybody's dashboard.

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(Update 9/19): This week, the end just got here.

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