How can you find all the accounts associated with an email address? Is it really possible that we can search and view all of those pages in 2022? And most importantly, what can you do to get all the profiles you created and forget about online through your Gmail address or other providers?
Now, let’s get into this. Creating accounts on social media, forums, and online platforms is what most of us do every day. However, what we neglect is the fact that people can find these accounts by email.
So, you have to worry about that, especially if you used dating sites or others. The good news is that there are working ways to trace those hidden profiles you created with the same email you used for signup. So, here is how to do that.
Finding old accounts linked to your email
Lookup the email address
If you want to find all the existing accounts that you’ve created through your email address in a few minutes, then you should definitely try this. A reverse email lookup is an online tool that searches a huge database of data. Then, it can tell you where that specific email address is being used.
That makes things easier, and there is no need to spend weeks and even months searching thousands of sites. Then, hope to find that forgotten profile you created years ago, and now you don’t know how to find it back and remove it.
This method speeds up the process of finding those hidden accounts you forget about on many sites. That includes profiles on Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, POF, dating sites, and all the public databases in the US. So, make sure you try it and remove those profiles later.
Google account access
If you’ve been using Google to sign up for websites in the past, then, actually, you should have many sites that still have your name, contact details, and of course, Gmail address there.
With Google, you have two options to see what websites you’re using to sign in with your email. You can achieve that through account settings within this section, or by doing an advanced search on Google which will be the one just after this.
To get the list of apps and sites that you sign in to, or sign up for, by Google email, follow these steps.
- First, make sure you’re logged into your Google account
- Visit your central management dashboard, it’s best to use a laptop over a smartphone
- Now, from the menu on the left of the screen, find “Security” and click on it
- You should see the security-related options there, scroll down and find the section named “Third-party apps with account access”
- Finally, you’ll get the full list of sites and apps that access your Google account and use your Gmail address. Just click on the site name, then, you should get the “remove access” button next to it.
Here is a screenshot of how to find that security tab on Google accounts:
Then, here is the list of apps to manage from the Google security tab:
I want to mention that you can also access the same page from the “Data and Privacy” tab. Next, the dedicated section for website access with your email and Google account will be at the bottom of that page.
By following this technique, users can trace the apps that access their email addresses through Google. But even if they remove that access, the email will be stored in their databases. That’s why it’s worth double-checking the Google search (below solution) to find additional sites.
Check your email inbox
This is a clever way to find all the accounts linked to your email address. Just login to your email service provider like Gmail. Next, type that same email in the search field followed by words like “welcome”, “account”, “activation” or other.
That way, Gmail should show you the past emails you received after activating your accounts on different websites at once. There is no need to browse the thousands of emails you received. Just focus on the ones with these words on them.
Here is an example, I wanted to find all the old accounts on websites I created with my current Gmail address. So, I used the Gmail search filter and added the following words. That way, I can see the associated sites with the account confirmation or activation.
welcome, account, confirm your email
From the right corner of the Gmail screen, there is the filter icon that you can use to exclude emails you received by date or other settings. Make sure you adjust that filter as it’s powerful in telling you what websites or services you used your email address on.
If you see “Newsletter” emails, that’s a sign you have an account with that site or company behind them. So, visit their site and try to log in and remove your account from their email list if you want. But after checking if you already have a profile with them.
For Yahoo email, Outlook, iCloud, or others, do the same and check your emails. You may see those old accounts you created through that email ID.
Advanced search by Google
The advanced search by Google is so powerful. In a few minutes, you could see the public profiles you created where your main email address appears there. It doesn’t matter where that email appears, in page title, content, or other; the main goal here is to find that forgotten account you created a long time ago with that exact Gmail address.
If you need to find your old accounts by email address, use the following search structure in Google and change the Gmail ID, of course. (your-id@yahoo.com etc…)
allintext: “youremail@gmail.com“
That shows the public profiles where that email address appears in the text of the page. That should be enough to see them all in one search. Nevertheless, when you want to find the accounts that are not public (and so, they’re private) then, only the first option of this page can help or search that exact site directly.
For Microsoft and Bing
It’s always possible that the idea that every account you create through Outlook emails, Yahoo, or other services by Microsoft could be found online. Yahoo does not have its search engine, and it uses Bing for that. In addition, the Bing search engine crawls the web in other ways, and it’s not the same as Google.
That means you have to search the site for your email address and see if there are accounts associated with it.
To view the list of sites that have access to your Microsoft account and its associated email, follow the next steps:
- Login to your existing Microsoft account
- Visit the account settings page
- Click on “Privacy” like the following screenshot.
Now, you have to scroll down the page until you find the section called “More privacy settings“. From there, click on “Apps and services“, and next, you can revoke access to those lists of apps.
Finding profiles on social media by email
When you have doubts that some profiles you created on social media sites are still there, you have to search by email to find them. But this won’t be a fast process if you have so many profiles and pages.
Instead, you can do it with this technique. Let’s say, for example, that you have a secret Facebook account. Then, you’ve lost access to it or even forget it completely, so, what you can do is this.
- Visit the Facebook site
- Click on the “forgot password” link
- Now, you get the option to reset your password by email address (or phone number)
- Type your email and click “search” to see if it belongs to another account there
- Next, check your email inbox to see if you got a password reset link or not. If that’s the case, then, you have another profile with that email address, and you just found it.
For Twitter and other sites, it’s nearly the same process. You visit Twitter, then click on the login links, and after that, the forgot password. Twitter will then ask you for the email address you possibly used on their site. So, type it and let it find that account for you. When you see your hidden profile on Twitter, reset its password by that same email.
For Instagram, it’s exactly like Facebook; you need to find the “Forgot Password” option and see if you have that account you created a long time ago. But sometimes, they may ask you to verify that you’re the real owner of that account. That might be annoying especially if friends and followers changed their names or photos.
Conclusion
These are the best ways to find all the online accounts associated with your email address. Some of the strategies work faster than others. So, by searching, you should be able to retrieve access to those forgotten website accounts you have never used again for years. That should protect your privacy online and solve many issues linked to security and other things.
