How exactly does Gmail counts locations and sessions?

Question

For past few days I am being nagged by Gmail's warning system that my e-mail client is being used from another location (today: from two another locations) even thougs nothing change in my home / network / software stack.

I am (currently and for past many years) accessing my Gmail:

• from my home PC as a main access channel,
• from my mobile phone.

It may be important to underline that my phone sticks in my pocket for most of the time, it has screen turned off most of the time and I am using mobile version of Gmail about once per week.

Yet, this is what I captured just a moments ago:

What puzzles me is that:

• I've been using this stack (PC + mobile) for years, but I see warning only these few days,
• it claims about three locations, while there are two in fact (PC + mobile),
• it claims about three locations in main window and about one in details view,
• there is only one IP address listed everywhere, so how can we say about many locations?

Is there anything I should be worried about (some session's hijacking)? Or is this just a glitch in Gmail / Chrome?

Answer 1

Possible reasons

• "...my phone sticks in my pocket for most of the time, it has screen turned off most of the time..."

  Keep in mind that the fact the screen if off does not mean the phone is off.
  Please try switching the phone off (if you can during the day or even better at night time) and see what you get.

• You access (or have accessed) your email from a private window and cookies have not cleared yet

• You moved around the house, your mobile lost the signal and reconnected again.

You can also click on the Show details under each Access Type to find out more info about the system, client etc. used.

If still in doubt, get an app and find out what other systems are logged in your IP (if any) and change your router password.