Here are some suggestions to place you in the best possible position to get your stuff back.
Your options beyond Google’s suggestions may be limited, so it’s best to be prepared ahead of time. Google does provide a list of methods to try if you’ve been locked out of your account - either because you’ve forgotten your password or because somebody has hacked into your account and changed it. When researching this article, I came across several accounts of people who had been locked out of their accounts after forgetting their passwords - and a few who had still not been able to get back in, even after several weeks. Losing access to your Google / Gmail account can be an incredibly frustrating and unhappy experience.
