Help!!! I've spent hours trying to recover my Google account and apparently have, but fail on inputting my old password.

[elocs]

I have a new password, but along with a new Google logon I need to input my old password and not remembering, or failing to input the old password that I had written down, I keep getting the red notice that it is the wrong old password. Under the "can't remember old password" I do not want to delete my local data.
Google has 3 methods of verifying that it is my account so why are none of them good enough?
If I could remember my old password I wouldn't be in this fix.
TIA