Ask HN: Is there no way to remove yourself from a delegated Gmail account?

67 points by kkoppenhaver 3 years ago | 42 comments

For context, my wife was given delegated email access to a Gmail account >10 years ago and no longer has contact with the account admin. She'd like to remove herself from this delegated access but multiple chats with Google support reps have indicated that the only way to do this is by contacting the account admin and asking to be removed.

I've been looking into this and seen multiple forum threads of people delegated access by ex's, relatives who have passed away and the like who are unable to remove themselves from this access even if it's extremely painful.

It blows my mind that this isn't a feature that exists or that Google can't help you remove your _own_ delegated access.

Anyone encountered this before and found a solution?

computerfriend 3 years ago |

Trigger a password reset, use delegated access to reset the password, take over the account, remove delegation.

michaelmior 3 years ago | |

I believe the delegated access does not allow you to change passwords.

pancrufty 3 years ago | |

Sounds good unless you have 2FA

refurb 3 years ago |

Find original email that delegated you access to the account, hit ""To reject this request, please click the link below:"

https://support.google.com/mail/thread/24721429/can-t-remove...

Brajeshwar 3 years ago |

My assumption is that Gmail delegation is possible only with Suite/Workspace. Since she has access to that domain, ask one of the admins to do that. Otherwise, I have no idea how the public Gmail.com account can be delegated (this is a nice feature).

Otherwise, it might be a forward.

In that case, the only option is to add a filter -- if email is marked TO:themail@domain.com, then mark as read, delete, not marked as important.

Ensorceled 3 years ago | |

Delegation is possible with gmail.com, I’ve set it up when I created my parents email accounts. This person is trying to turn it off.

I’ve had about a dozen people over the years add my gmail.com account as the delegate and, luckily, Ive been able to decline since it looks like a real pain if I hadn’t.

barney54 3 years ago |

What is delegated email access?

samwillis 3 years ago | |

It's allows the "delegated" gmail user to access the inbox, and send email on behalf of, another gmail user. It predates GSuite.

It's a useful feature for spouses or if you have a PA. Or in my case where my wife regularly points out she is effectively my and our children's PA...

themitigating 3 years ago | | |

". Or in my case where my wife regularly points out she is effectively my and our children's PA"

As someone with aspegers it took me 30 years to realize this type of communication. It's so open but without emotion that I assume they don't care. The reality is often they are trying to be nice about expressing their frustration

radu_floricica 3 years ago |

Same with plain forwarding. Yeah, doesn't make sense, after all you had to give permission to set this up - now there's no way to revoke. Just set up a filter and forget about it.

rahimnathwani 3 years ago |

Several comments in this thread suggest solutions make no sense. Perhaps the commenters have never seen how delegated access works in Gmail?

Once you've been delegated access to a Gmail account, it appears in the list of accounts you can switch to, but only within the Gmail web UI.

When you explicitly switch to that account, you see the other person's mailbox. If you never click on the switcher, you wouldn't even remember you had access.

Given the above:

- filtering makes no sense, because the mail items never appear in the same mailbox anyway

- changing password makes no sense, as you can only access gmail and not the whole Google account

ecf 3 years ago |

Receiving a response from Google support is a win in and of itself. Unfortunately they didn’t help out, but most never get that far.

Ensorceled 3 years ago | |

Sisyphean Support: sooooooooo close to the top on that one

bluena 3 years ago |

Would suggest to keep delegated access but use automated filters in Gmail so that those mails: - skip the inbox - are automatically marked as read - either deleted or place those mails in a separate and hidden folder

Painful memories should be avoided this way

rahimnathwani 3 years ago | |

This is not how delegated access works. It doesn't affect how your own inbox looks at all.

To switch to the delegated mailbox, you need to choose it from the account drop down on the top right.

sebazzz 3 years ago |

Since you're delegated, I suppose you could plant a email in the inbox. I'm not sure if the legality of this though.

nl 3 years ago |

I don't have any particularly useful suggestions, but I wonder if this falls under the can-spam act?

isthisthingon99 3 years ago |

I use fastmail and use sieve filtering to reject all emails I don't want. They don't even show up in my email account, there is no record of them.

neximo64 3 years ago |

If i'm honest it makes sense the admin should do it. For the person invited to uninvite themselves after is a bit weird.

capableweb 3 years ago | |

Why is that weird? If I have an account, that has been given access to some resource, it makes sense that I can remove access to that resource myself, just like the admin could. It is my account after all.

Imagine if someone could invite you to a calendar event, but you can't clear it from your own calendar if you say no. How does that make sense?

heavenlyblue 3 years ago | | |

There was recently a spam group that would use Google Calendar Events to spam you in your calendar. They stopped for a while ago, seems like Google needs more spammers like these in order to get this problem solved.

n3storm 3 years ago | | |

"Opt out" of any online service or communications should be a human right

silisili 3 years ago | |

I'd think the admin should know if their delegate doesn't want to be so, before the time comes they're needed. The current system seems set up as 'oh, you can't login, let's ask your ex you just had a bitter divorce with for help', which isn't great for either party.

firstcommentyo 3 years ago | |

> For the person invited to uninvite themselves after is a bit weird.

If I invite you to my party and you agree, your not allowed to leave before I allow you. Yours sincerely, Vlad Drăculea

KyeRussell 3 years ago | |

If you aren’t a Googler, you should be. “[description of their assumed use case], therefore [forcing something on the user]” is the right mindset.

Ensorceled 3 years ago | | |

As a developer with pretty good product instincts, my first reaction is always “WTH? Why did someone implement this” and then there is someone in the comments who defends the situation and thinks this is the way it SHOULD be implemented.

That’s the best part about these problem reports on HN: It answers those Why would and Who would questions.