Earlier this year, Google warned users about deleting inactive accounts, asking them to review their accounts and associated apps, such as Google Photos, Messages, Calendars, Drive, Docs, etc. Well, the Alphabet-owned company will start removing accounts and related content starting next month, i.e., December 2023. Per the company, any account that has not been signed into or used for two years is inactive and, therefore, will be deleted.
Google’s Begins With Account Deletion Next Month
The first wave of account deletion should begin in December 2023 and continue into 2024 until Google removes all inactive accounts. However, before deleting the accounts, Google will send users multiple warnings and notifications about the upcoming deletion, not just to the account but to its recovery address as well. According to a report by 9To5Google, the company will first remove the accounts that were created but never used again.
Here’s How To Save Your Account
If users want to save their spare accounts, whether they use them for storage or provide access to certain apps, here’s what they can do. For instance, opening Gmail and reading/sending an email counts toward activity. Similarly, using other Google services like Drive, Docs, Sheets, and YouTube could also count toward action from an account. Additionally, downloading apps from the Google Play Store and using Google Search are other ways to keep your Google account intact.
Why Is Google Deleting Inactive Accounts?
Google has decided to delete accounts for several reasons. The company provides 15GB of free cloud storage to every free account, which occupies a large space on the servers when multiplied by the hundreds of millions of users of the platform. To provide such space, Google has to maintain a large number of servers, which involves a crazy deal of money.
Hence, by deleting the inactive accounts, the company wants to free up some space that could be used better. Another reason is security issues, where inactive accounts could be obtained by bad actors and used for unethical purposes.
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