Google has announced that the Gmail accounts that have been inactive for two years will be deleted this coming December. It means if you have a Gmail account and important emails in it but have not used them for two years, they will be permanently deleted from Google this December.
Including Google services: Gmail-email, Google Drive Files, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Photos. In short, your whole Google account based on that particular email ID will be deleted.
So what can you do in this situation? Why does this happen? How can you save your Google account from being permanently removed by Google? In this post, we will discuss it. Read further to learn more about it.
How does Google define that your Google account is active?
First of all, we should know what an inactive account is. An inactive account is one that hasn’t been used for many years. Google monitors user activity, and if an account shows no signs of login or activity, it may be deemed inactive.
Google account activity is shown when you sign in to your Google account and do some activity in some of the common areas:
Sending reading and composing emails
Using Google Drive
Watching YouTube videos
Using Google photos
Downloading an App
Using Google Search
Sign in with this Google account to other services or applications
Most Google products reserve the right to delete our Google account if we do not use it for two years. December 1, 2023, is the earliest that this policy has been executed.
Why does Google Remove an inactive account?
According to Google, the major reason behind the removal of inactive Google accounts is the security of their users. An inactive account has:-
Outdated security
A prime target of hackers
Compromised Password
Lack of two-factor authentication
Not receiving a security check for a long time
Due to the reasons listed above, the user of an inactive account can face identity theft and data breach situations. To protect against these, Google has taken the decision to permanently remove inactive accounts, but before doing this, it sent emails informing them to remove inactive accounts as well.
For more information, read https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/updating-our-inactive-account-policies/
How can you save your Google account?
Follow these tips to prevent Google from removing your inactive Gmail account.
Access your Google account and log in to verify your identity.
Confirm your account recovery information, including your email and phone number.
Review and update your security settings, including password strength.
Add an extra layer of security by enabling 2FA for your Google account.
Keep your account active by regularly using Google services like Gmail, Drive, or Calendar.
How can you protect the data in your Google account?
We have many sensitive and essential data in our Google account, such as important working documents, PDF files, cherished memories, mostly valued pictures, and videos of past memorable moments. However, storing it only on a Google account is not a wise decision. Due to virus attacks, valuable data can be lost.
To save your data from this unfortunate situation, we can backup our important data to an external hard drive, pen drive, or SD card as well.
Final Words
Last but not least, if you have an inactive Google account and have useful data, it is high time to take action to save your important data. By following the tips written above, you can significantly save your Gmail ID from being permanently removed.
But if your photos, documents, videos, or other data is somehow lost from your storage device, such as a hard disk, SD card, pen drive, etc., worry not; it can be recovered. You just have to contact us at Techchef Data Recovery at 1800-313-1737, and our experts in data recovery will help you further.
FAQs
How can I recover data from my permanently deleted Google account?
You can recover data from your Google account within 20 days of permanently deleting it. For this, you have to visit the Google Account Help site.
How do I download Google data?
With archiving data from the Google account help site, we can download or export our e-mails, documents, calendars, photos, YouTube videos, data registration, and account activity.
If I didn’t use my Google account for many years, then what happened?
Not using a Google account for a long time can make your particular Google account an easy target for hackers; your data can be breached, and there is a risk of identity theft. If you don’t activate your inactive account soon, it will be removed by Google as well.
How can I save my Google account from being removed?
If your Google account has been inactive for a long time, by following the tips written in the article above, you can save your Google account from being removed.
