Google may delete your Gmail account if it's been inactive for too long

Google's Gmail logo

Google is altering its policy regarding inactive accounts, with a new time limit on idle accounts aiming to bring even more safety and security to its digital offerings.

On Tuesday, Google announced that its previous policy regarding inactive accounts is being altered a bit, all in the name of security. In the announcement, Google says older, inactive accounts are more prone to be compromised for a variety of different reasons, including reuse of passwords and not having two-factor authentication enabled.

Going forward, instead of idling an account with the potential for data recovery, Google will delete the inactive account in its entirety.

The company says that if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, then it is possible the account will be deleted, along with all of its data. That data extends beyond just Gmail, though, with Calendar, Meet, Docs, Drive, YouTube, and Google Photos also getting the clean sweep.

However, the announcement does also note that this new policy only impacts personal accounts. Accounts associated with schools or businesses will not be touched.

Google also says there will be plenty of notice, with the company sending out multiple notification emails to the account before it is deleted. And this isn't happening right away, with the company noting the first inactive accounts will start being deleted in December of this year.

The whole process will be a phased approach as well. Google is starting with accounts that were set up and then never used after that.

How keep your Google account active

Use Google Drive
Downloading an app with that account via the Google Play Store
Use Google Search
Utilize Google's "Sign in with Google" feature to access a third-party app or service
Watch a YouTube video
Read or send an email via Gmail

And if you have a subscription set up with that account, to something like Google One, the company will deem that account as active and it will remain that way.

Interestingly, the announcement doesn't confirm whether or not setting up an alias, something you can also do with Apple's Mail app, via Gmail and having it forward emails to a different account is reason enough to identify an account as active. AppleInsider has reached out for comment and clarification.

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6 Comments

mpantone

said about 11 months ago

This new policy prompts an interesting question for me: how much do I value my mostly dormant extra Google accounts? I probably have 10-15 of them. Do I try to consolidate all of them into one or two extra accounts? Do I try to keep them all alive?

Some of these accounts are very old and date back to the first or second year of Gmail. Some of these have parallel Yahoo and Hotmail accounts.

What is the value of an online identity? Clearly some were set up to be disposable throwaway accounts. Others were created to silo Internet activities under a different identity, mostly to keep browser ads and mail spam directed elsewhere.

I use Google far less today than the late 2000s. I can't cut the strings completely because I still rely on Google Voice. Sometimes YouTube is handy though I don't treat it as a leisure site. Waze is still a helpful service and Google Maps simply works better in some countries than Apple Maps.

I'm guessing that Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft/Outlook will soon adopt similar policies.

Something to noodle over the next few months.

brianjo

said about 11 months ago

I wonder if they will re-make the old accounts available for re-use. I've created, but rarely or never used accounts on many services as they launched to protect my brand and identity. I've also got accounts that I've used but essentially abandoned. However, those accounts would still potentially exist in contact lists of those I've communicated with. If suddenly someone else were able to revive those addresses, it could be a path to identity theft.

dewme

said about 11 months ago

brianjo said:

I wonder if they will re-make the old accounts available for re-use. I've created, but rarely or never used accounts on many services as they launched to protect my brand and identity. I've also got accounts that I've used but essentially abandoned. However, those accounts would still potentially exist in contact lists of those I've communicated with. If suddenly someone else were able to revive those addresses, it could be a path to identity theft.

Very good question. I’ve actually been able to reconnect with people whose email addresses I’ve lost or forgotten by being spammed by virtue of my email address being in their contact list. My scenario is slightly different but it does point out the fact that you are always leaving digital footprints out there that may come back to haunt you in ways you never imagined.

It should be very easy for Google to maintain a quarantined or dead email address list that can “never” be reused.

gatorguy

said about 11 months ago

dewme said:

brianjo said:

I wonder if they will re-make the old accounts available for re-use. I've created, but rarely or never used accounts on many services as they launched to protect my brand and identity. I've also got accounts that I've used but essentially abandoned. However, those accounts would still potentially exist in contact lists of those I've communicated with. If suddenly someone else were able to revive those addresses, it could be a path to identity theft.

Very good question. I’ve actually been able to reconnect with people whose email addresses I’ve lost or forgotten by being spammed by virtue of my email address being in their contact list. My scenario is slightly different but it does point out the fact that you are always leaving digital footprints out there that may come back to haunt you in ways you never imagined.
It should be very easy for Google to maintain a quarantined or dead email address list that can “never” be reused.

Or they may do like the phone companies, only retiring the numbers for some time but eventually allowing a reissue. Certainly not the 90 days policy the cell providers use though.

But they more likely will do the same as a bigger provider like Microsoft does, and those addresses and aliases are forever retired.