Why your account locked after failed sign-ins
Too many wrong passwords temporarily locks your account. Here’s how the lockout works and how to get back in.
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Overview
To protect your account from password-guessing attacks, GS Poetry temporarily locks sign-in after several failed attempts in a row. The lock is automatic, time-limited, and clears itself — you don’t need to contact support to get back in.
How the lockout works
- Limit: After 5 failed sign-in attempts, your account is temporarily locked.
- Lockout duration: The lock lasts 30 minutes.
- Auto-unlock: The lockout is time-based — once 30 minutes have passed, your account is automatically accessible again. There’s nothing to reset and no one to email.
For your security, a failed sign-in always shows the same neutral message — “Invalid email or password.” — whether the email isn’t registered or the password was wrong. We deliberately don’t reveal which, so no one can use the sign-in form to find out whether a given email has an account. Once the limit is reached, the message changes to tell you the account is temporarily locked.
What to do if you’re locked out
- Wait it out. The simplest fix is to wait 30 minutes and try again — the lock lifts on its own. Repeatedly retrying while locked won’t get you in any sooner, so give it the full window.
- Reset your password if you’ve forgotten it. If you keep failing because you’re not sure of your password, use Reset your password to set a new one, so your next attempt (after the lock clears) succeeds the first time.
A password manager is the most reliable way to avoid lockouts — it fills the correct password every time. Turning on two-factor authentication adds a second layer of protection on top of your password, so even a leaked password alone can’t get into your account.
Failing at the two-factor step is different
The lockout above is about your password. If you enter your password correctly but can’t complete the six-digit two-factor code — because your authenticator app or backup codes are unavailable — that’s a separate situation with its own recovery path. See Lost access to your two-factor authentication for the ways back into your account.
Where to go next
If you’ve simply forgotten your password, start with Reset your password. To harden your account against future trouble, see Setting up two-factor authentication.