Guide
Forgot which email you used for an account? How to find it
You want to log in, reset a password or delete an account, and the site asks for your email address. You have three of them, and you have no idea which one you used in 2017. Here is how to find it, starting with the quickest checks.
1. Search every inbox for the service name
Log in to each address you have ever used and search for the name of the service. Do not only search the sender: try the brand name as a plain word, since the welcome email, an order confirmation or a newsletter may come from a different address. The inbox that has a welcome email is your answer.
Check the Spam and Trash folders too, and in Gmail use in:anywhere servicename to search everything at once.
2. Look at your saved passwords
Browsers and password managers store the username next to the password. In Chrome, open chrome://password-manager/passwords and search for the site. On an iPhone, open the Passwords app. The username shown is very often the email address you registered with.
3. Try the Forgot password page with each address
Enter each of your addresses in the site's password reset form, one at a time. The one that receives a reset email is the right one. Many sites show the same message whether or not the account exists, so check each inbox rather than trusting the message on screen.
4. Follow the money
If you ever paid the service, your bank statement or PayPal history shows the date. Search your inboxes for a receipt around that date. App store purchases are also tied to the Apple or Google account you were using at the time. The same receipts help you find subscriptions you forgot about.
5. Ask support, with proof
If nothing works, contact the service's support. Give them what they can check: your full name, the approximate sign-up date, an order number or the last four digits of the card you paid with. Most services can then tell you which address is on file, or update it.
Avoid the problem next time
- Once you find the account, change its email to the address you use today.
- Keep one main address for accounts, and close or forward the old ones.
- Keep a list of your accounts. Your inbox can build it for you: see our guide to finding all accounts linked to your email.
Your inbox already knows every account you have. HealthInbox reads only your Gmail headers to list them all, flags the forgotten ones and tells you what to do with each, privately and on your device.
See how HealthInbox finds them