If you want to keep any personal Google accounts you may not have used for a while, now is the time to protect your data. Beginning on December 1, Google will start to delete “inactive” personal accounts that have not been used in at least two years.
Google accounts provide users access to the company’s other products like Gmail, YouTube, Drive, Docs, Calendar, Photos, Docs, and Meet.
That means emails, photos, documents, videos, and all other content in an inactive account are at risk of being lost.
Fortunately, Google has been sending multiple notifications in the past few months to both the recovery email and account email addresses.
The data purge will be a phased approach, beginning with accounts that were made and never used again. However, any account that was set up through work, a school, or other type of organization will not be automatically deleted.
How to Save Your Data
Before taking any action to preserve your data from unused Google accounts, know there are currently several exceptions:
- Any account that was set up through work, a school, or another type of organization is safe
- Videos from retired YouTube channels are safe
Sign in to any account that you feel may have been inactive for 18 months or more, including all applications (like Google Drive).
You may wish to save your content but do not otherwise have use for an inactive account. Use Google Takeout to download and export data. Folders, documents, and media can also be downloaded.
Why is Google Deleting Inactive Accounts?
Aside from potentially cutting costs on storage fees, Google has stated the official reason is security. Abandoned accounts are more at risk of malicious threats, including phishing, hijacking, spam, and more.
The policy says, “If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised. This is because forgotten or unattended accounts often rely on old or re-used passwords that may have been compromised, haven’t had two-factor authentication set up, and receive fewer security checks by the user.”