Don't Lose Your Data: A Guide To Prevent Your Google Account From Being Deleted

If you have an alternative Google account that you don't use too often, you might want to go back and check again. Old, dormant Google accounts will soon start being deleted, but you can save yours if you have any.

What Happened: Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google will start deleting accounts that have not been used in the last two years.

Google updated its inactive account policy in May 2023 to weed out accounts that were not in use. The company said inactive accounts are often those that have been compromised.

"These accounts are often vulnerable, and once an account is compromised, it can be used for anything from identity theft to a vector for unwanted or even malicious content, like spam," Google said, explaining its logic behind updating the inactive account policy.

See Also: Apple Settles Family Sharing Class Action Lawsuit For $25M: Here’s How You Can Claim Your Share

As a result, if Google determines that an account is inactive, it will delete it. This means all the data associated with that account, including email, photos, files, and more, will be deleted forever, too.

However, users often create alternative or anonymous Google accounts to use them for a particular third-party service or for a particular purpose they don't want to associate their primary account with.

You may have probably created an alternative Google account, too, but stopped using it recently.

If this scenario explains your situation, your Google account is at risk of being deleted.

How To Prevent Google Account From Being Deleted?

Google defines its inactive accounts as those that have not been used in the last two years.

If you want to prevent your Google account from being deleted, ensure you do at least one of the following activities:

• Reading or sending an email.
• Using Google Drive.
• Watching a YouTube video.
• Downloading an app on the Google Play Store.
• Using Google Search.
• Using Sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app or service.

Will My Google Account Be Deleted?

Google says it will use a phased approach to deleting inactive accounts.

In the first phase, those accounts that have never been signed in will be deleted.

Following this will be those accounts that have not been used for any activity in the last two years.

Before deleting an inactive Google account, the company will send reminders for several months both on the Google account and the recovery email provided.

Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.

Read Next: Missing iMessages On Beeper Mini? Here Are 2 Possible Fixes For Now