Heads up — your Google account may get deleted next month
Owners of a Google Account that has been inactive for at least two years have started receiving email warnings informing them that it will be permanently deleted starting December 1, 2023, if they do not log in. According to The Independent, the warning messages are a part of Google’s recent policy change that was announced earlier this year.
The alerts are not surprising. Google announced in May Accounts that have not been used for a long time are an open invitation for security threats. Keeping this in mind, Google amended its policy and revealed that accounts that have been inactive for two years or more will be terminated.
With the deletion of Google account, all the important Workspace (formerly G Suite) services associated with it will also be gone forever. This means that all your emails, media stored in Photos, files in Drive, Docs content, and Notes along with other things will be deleted.
The account deletion process will formally begin in December 2023, but not before multiple warning messages are sent to account owners. Google will phase out the account termination process, starting with accounts that were created but never used.
How to save your Google account
If you have a Google account that’s on the verge of being deleted, Google will shoot several alerts into your Gmail inbox months in advance. And as an extra step of caution, the same warning message will appear in the inbox of the second account that has been set as the recovery email address.
Thankfully, the scope of “activity” outlined by Google is largely simple. You can simply open your Gmail inbox and read an email to confirm the activity. Alternatively, users can simply open their linked Google Drive account, watch a YouTube video, download an app from the Play Store, perform a Google search, or sign in to a Google Account for a third-party service. -Can use these facilities.
The only requirement is that, whatever action you take, you ensure that you are logged in with the Google account at risk in that app or web browser. Any active subscription using a Google Account will also qualify as a signal of user activity.
Some more rules to follow that help find out the active status of an account in the company’s own words:
- Your Google Account was used to purchase a Google product, app, service, or subscription that is current or ongoing.
- You have a gift card with a monetary balance in your Google account.
- Your Google Account owns a published app or game that has ongoing, active subscriptions or active financial transactions associated with it. This can be a Google Account that owns an app on the Google Play Store.
