One ID. Many devices.
I don't think I need to elaborate on that. We all do it! We have only one Gmail account, and we operate it from so many places. We have our account open in our Smartphone 24x7 in the Gmail app. It is open in our Tablet so that we can access files that can't be accessed through the Smartphone. And in our PC too! You know, just for a backup.
Yet when we go to the cyber café ( for instance) to get a printout, we forgot to log out from our account before leaving; or when we used our friend's PC once, we forgot to sign out, out of habit of closing the browser directly; and many more situations like these cause us to leave our account open to hacking and other malpractices. Not even our friends can be trusted with the kind of sensitive information our accounts hold, let own the cyber café owners and the like.
But we, as humans, do tend to forget, and track of everything can't be kept.
Our e-mail ids hold the key to all our other accounts, like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. and sometimes our bank accounts or other work related accounts. And such information can't be risked at any cost.
Gmail, being the largest, most used and most popular mail service, can't afford to compromise with its customer's information and hence provides you with this fantastic service. With just one click, we can close all our active accounts in one go! Sounds perfect for people who tend to forget to sign out, quite frequently from their email accounts when using it from elsewhere. You can now breathe freely and
See Also: - Automatically Delete Spam Messages from Gmail
Usually whenever you log out from your Gmail account from any device, all the other accounts, synchronized with it are also logged out immediately leaving no chance open for hackers. But if your account is open on some other device, the accounts in sync with it are also in jeopardy. Anyone can pry in and read your messages, edit them or cause some other trouble.
live with no worries of your account getting hacked or anything else. With just one click, you did it!( OK OK...thank me later)
For example, even after several log-in and log-out attempts from the other devices, your Smartphone will still receive and send emails via Gmail when connected to the internet. This happens for the reason that Google stores cookies information on the device and creates separate sessions for each of the devices you logged into, to provide you with multiple device access. So, when you log out from one device, it only means that accounts open in that device will log out. If they are open on some other device, they will be unaffected.
To log out Gmail from all the devices, except the one you are using, follow the simple steps given below and save your accounts from the evil eye of someone:
- Login to your Gmail account from the browser or the Gmail app from a device which is implicitly under your ownership and can't be accessed by anyone else.
- Once inside your account, scroll down to find the Last Account Activity details and click on Details.
- A window opens, giving you a list of all your open activities (a.k.a. sins :P) from all the devices that you have ever used and even their geographical locations with their IP addresses.
- This list will only enlighten you with the real time active sessions of your account. If your account was opened somewhere else but is now inactive, it will not be visible on this list.
- Select the device on the list whose session you want to close (you can identify the device by its location and IP address provided and also the time and date it was used on).
- If you aren't able to distinguish the device you want from others, the best way is to click on Sign Out All Other Web Sessions and all the other sessions open all the active devices, except the one you are using, will sign out from the Gmail account and the synchronized accounts that very instant.
All Heed Now: A Word of Caution
Although you have logged out of all your active accounts, you aren't entirely out of risk. Someone could be accessing your account but keeping it inactive to avoid detection. That means someone has access to your password!Also, one can
To avoid such felonies, it is highly recommended to change your password time and again. Do the same, if you find any unrecognizable entry of activity in the Recent Activity list. enable two-step Gmail verification for deep security.
There is another option available, right below the Activity list, called Alert Preference. This option, allows you to change the alert settings of your account, so as to warn you if there has been a sign in from any device which you usually don't use.
The Google team will immediately send you an email regarding it with all the details of the sign-in ( location, IP address, date, time, etc.) and ask you whether it was you or not. If it was you, you could ignore the message. If not, then there will be a link provided in the email itself to report that activity to Google.
