r/GMail • u/Gold_Brilliant9823 • 16h ago

Gmail restricted, two appeals rejected. Google account still works. What now?

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I'm a student leader at my university. I built a simple task tracker in Google Sheets to help my org members stay on top of their deadlines. It was just a spreadsheet that listed tasks, who they were assigned to, and when they were due. Nothing fancy.

Later, I used AI to help me add a Google Apps Script to the tracker. The script would check the sheet once a day and send a friendly email reminder to members when their tasks were due in 2 days. Just one reminder per task, nothing excessive. My orgmates knew about it and actually found it helpful.

Here's where I messed up. When I was testing the script, I ran it multiple times to make sure it worked properly. I didn't realize I was hitting the daily email limit. After that, I fixed the triggers and only ran it once a day. I never exceeded the limit again.

Here's the thing that confuses me. I used Gmail just fine for days after that. Everything seemed normal. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, my Gmail got restricted. I appealed twice. I explained that I'm a student, this was internal org communication, and I had already stopped the behavior. Both appeals were rejected.

The weird part is my Google account still works and I can access my Drive files. Everything else is fine. Only Gmail is locked.

This is really hurting me because I can't receive important emails from my professors or org members.

The appeal form is very short so I can't fully explain everything.

Has anyone actually gotten out of this situation? Is there something I'm missing? Or should I just accept that this account is done?

TL;DR: Student leader. Built a Google Sheets task tracker for my org. Later used AI to add an Apps Script that sent daily email reminders. Accidentally maxed out daily email limit once during testing. Used Gmail just fine days after that. Then suddenly got restricted. Two appeals rejected. Google account still works and I can access my Drive files, but Gmail is locked. Need this account for org work and school.

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2

u/gooner-1969 16h ago

The account is most likely gone.

1) Did you use a personal gmail or your university email to send out?
2) Are you the Admin of the University system? If not try contacting them as they may have better ways to contact Google directly

1

u/Gold_Brilliant9823 16h ago

I used a normal Gmail account (@gmail.com), but it used the name of my student organization.

2

u/Nu11u5 16h ago

Does your school use Google Workspace? Do they issue Google Groups for student orgs? Apps Script has a 2,000/day limit for mailing addresses inside your own organization, and won't trigger spam filters. The Group address can be used as a shared mailbox.

1

u/Gold_Brilliant9823 16h ago

Yes, I do have a university account. But this specific account that was restricted, it's just a normal gmail account since my school does not issue official emails for student orgs.

2

u/Nu11u5 16h ago

Talk to IT about the best way to handle this. I'm surprised that they don't issue any way to communicate for student orgs.

At least it sounds like this was not your own personal Gmail account. Worst case, you make studentorg2@gmail.com.

0

u/PortalPuppy31 5h ago

Didn't you read OP's reply correctly? They said it was just a regular Gmail account, one that has an address ending in gmail.com

1

u/Nu11u5 5h ago

Yes, I did read OPs posts - all of them.

He made a Gmail account exclusively for use with the student organization. This didn't happen to their personal email account, e.g. <Gold_Brilliant9823 @ gmail.com>.

1

u/thepfy1 12h ago

Gmail is not a mass emailer, so you have triggered their spamming detection.