Allow super administrators to recover their password

As your organization's super administrator, you can choose how super admins get back in to their account if they forget their password:

• Turn on account self-recovery—Super admins who added recovery options to their accounts can click the Forgot password? link on the sign-in page. They’ll get a verification code via text, phone, or email, and can follow instructions to reset their own passwords. For details, see Add recovery options to your administrator account.
• Turn off account self-recovery—Super admins who forgot their passwords must contact another super admin or Google Support to reset their password.

Note: For most current and all new customers, super admin account recovery is off by default. If you’re an existing customer with fewer than 3 super admins or 500 users, the setting is on by default, to match previous behavior.

Turn super admin account self-recovery on or off

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using an account with super administrator privileges (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  SecurityAuthenticationAccount recovery.
3. Click Super admin account recovery.
4. To apply the setting to all your super admins, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit or a configuration group.
5. Click Allow super admins to recover their account.
6. Check or uncheck the Allow super admins to recover their account box.
7. Click Save.
8. Ask your super admins to set up a recovery phone number or email address for receiving password recovery instructions.

Prevent unauthorized access to a super admin’s account

 Immediately remove a super admin’s recovery information if...

• The super admin is terminated or leaves your organization. That way they can’t recover their password to access their old account.
• You suspect the account has been hijacked and the super admin’s recovery information is no longer legitimate.

To remove a super admin’s recovery information or check if it’s been hacked, sign in to the account as the super admin. Then follow steps at Set up a recovery phone number or email address.

When super admin account recovery is turned off

If a super admin clicks Forgot password? on the sign-in page, and you haven't turned on super admin password recovery, they see a message to contact their administrator. Make sure you've provided a way for super admins to contact another super admin if they can't sign in to their account.