By Charles Miller
I have a dream. In that dream, I need to type in a password. I enter it, but maybe I mistyped one letter, and the computer says, “Close enough!” In the real world though, that never happens. We all know that when typing a password, if we enter one wrong letter or a lowercase where there should be a capital, the password will be rejected. In the real world, password-protected systems are strictly inflexible. If you forget your password, then you will need to go through a process to recover it.
Recovering a lost password can be as simple as sending a reset request to your cellphone. Setting up a new online account today almost invariably requires that you provide a cell number, but if your account was set up years ago, before providing a cell number became obligatory, then you might not have it entered on your account. You should check to see that your cellphone number is correctly entered in case it is needed for recovery.
Another frequently used recovery option is a second email address. This can be another email account that you have or the email address of someone you trust. You might have entered this information years ago, so it is important that the recovery email address be kept up to date.
“Secret questions” are a real problem. For example, when you set up an account, you were asked to supply the answer to a question—an answer you would always remember, for example, the question “Where did you meet your spouse?” You know the answer, but years later if you are asked to confirm the answer, you might not remember it exactly as you entered it before. You know the answer, but in originally answering the question, did you enter New York, or Columbia University, or New York City, or Morningside Heights, or Manhattan, or Havemeyer Hall, or NYC, or Broadway, or NY,NY, or The Big Apple? Many familiar with geography know all those answers can refer to the same location, but a computer is going to recognize the preceding as 10 distinctly different answers, only one of which will it accept as the correct answer. A human being might listen to your guessing at the answer, recognize that Havemeyer Hall is on Broadway at Columbia University, which is in the borough of Manhattan in New York, and say “close enough.” Unfortunately, computers never do that.
Trying several guesses hoping to enter a correct password is a very bad practice. Most websites only allow a limited number of wrong guesses before locking your account. Even worse, some sites use a “silent fail” that locks you out without telling you that you are locked out. In that case, even entering the correct password will not work, so please do not start trying different passwords hoping to find the right one. Odds are that you will not guess the correct password before being locked out of your account; then you have a bigger problem.
If you have done a good job of keeping all the aforementioned recovery information for your accounts up to date, recovering a forgotten password is usually possible.
Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981, and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 415 101 8528 or email FAQ8@SMAguru.com.
