Google Accounts That Sit Unused For Too Long Will Soon Be Deleted Entirely – SlashGear

We thought surviving the purge would look a lot different in 2023. Well, this specific purge is a cakewalk. You can preserve your account by simply signing in at least once every two years. For starters, ensure you’re using one of Google’s services in some fashion. This can include reading an email, watching a YouTube video, using Google Search, or even simply signing into a third-party app or service using your Google account. Google also considers active subscriptions as a form of activity, so your account should be safe if you’re paying for services like Google One or YouTube Premium.

Do you use Google Photos? If so, you’ll want to be especially diligent. Google Photos has a separate retention policy, so you’ll still need to log in to that service once every two years to ensure your photos aren’t deleted, even if you’re active across other services. To help maintain long-term access to your accounts, Google suggests enabling a recovery account and keeping it up-to-date. You can also engage tools in the Inactive Account Manager that automatically handles your data after 1.5 years of inactivity, such as sending files to trusted contents, enabling an autoresponder in Gmail, and opting for account deletion altogether. If you want more control, you can always download a buffet of your data for safekeeping using Google’s Takeout feature.