Ordeal of renewing custom domain name on Blogger + Google + Godaddy

I received an email from Google stating that I don't have auto-renew option enabled on my domain constant-learner.com and hence I stand a chance to loose this domain. I frantically tried to enable the auto-renew option and guess what ? it is not very straightforward and friendly.

Google used Godaddy as underlying domain registrar and creates an admin account bloggeradmin@ to manage domain registration along with other site issues. At time of custom domain registration for blog, it was just a few clicks and I never bothered to sign in to this account. Now when my domain is about to expire I am trying to desperately access it and avoid loosing years of my effort.

If you go through Google Help & Support documentation, you are just going to go through circles since there is no easy way to reset the password. One of the Google instruction in my case was to change the CNAME setting allowing a sub domain to forward to google.com. Since I don't have access to any DNS settings, how do they expect me to proceed ?

I am not a big-enterpricy customer for Google, and hence don't qualify for any of their in-person support. All I am left with is going through documentation and web searches. I almost thought I would loose my domain and started to put in request for Domain Nab service that would cost as high as $50 instead of the usual $10 for renewal.

Later on I stumbled across the Google Product Forum here. As I hoped, I was not the only one was so disappointed with Google support and trying to resolve the mess. As it happens, you can reset the admin account password for your account through this wonderful yet very secret link (https://admin.google.com/DOMAIN.com/ForgotAdminAccountInfo). I was able to reset the bloggeradmin@ account which sent out password reset email to my primary email address and access the option of renewing my domain before it expires.

After going through this horrible experience with Google Domains, I decided to opt out of its service. The integration with Godaddy is horrible and I would rather manage my domain registrations through other providers, my preferred one is name.com. The domain transfer request is underway and hopefully there should be no hiccups in the future. Hope this information helps other bloggers who are going through similar ordeal.