Last Wednesday, Google announced an update to its policy on deleting inactive accounts; Accounts that have not been logged in for two years or more will be deleted, which means that everything on your account will be lost. This includes: Gmail messages, files stored in Google Drive, photos in the service (Google Photos), and other data from apps and services associated with the account. But why are inactive accounts deleted and how do you prevent your account from being deleted?
Firstly ; Why does Google delete inactive accounts?
Google states that the reason for this action is security; Because if the account has not been used for a long time, it will have to go back to the old or reused passwords that may have been hacked, and these accounts also lack security measures such as duplicate passwords. Factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to prevent suspicious logins.
Many Gmail users still have valuable data even if they don't log into their account regularly. For example, Gmail users can have multiple accounts because the old primary account ran out of storage space, and as some users pointed out via Twitter, inactive accounts can contain important information for various reasons.
second; How to avoid deletion of your account and protect your data?
Google will begin deleting inactive accounts in December 2023, with accounts created but not used to be deleted first.
Google says it sends multiple notifications before an account is deleted. Such notices are sent to the primary account's email address and any associated email addresses. But don't wait, it's easy to forget. That's why it's better to start activating your account now than to risk losing the data you want to keep.
Google offers some simple tips to help you keep your account active, including:
- Log in to your account and send an email from time to time.
- Log in to watch YouTube videos.
- If you're using one of its workspace tools like Google Docs, here's a simple solution: download the Google Docs app to your phone, create a new document from time to time and write notes in it.
To keep old Google Account data that has not been used for more than two years, you can use the (Google Takeout) service that collects Google Account data in one place and allows you to export a copy of the content from the account to keep as an archive backup or use in an external service. last.
You can use the export service to download a copy of your data to your computer or email a copy of your important data to another active account.
To learn how to use Google Takeout, read the article: "What is Google Takeout and how to use it?"