Google Will Start Deleting Inactive Accounts Next Month

Earlier this year, Google warned users to delete inactive accounts, asking them to review their accounts and related apps, such as Google Photos, Messages, Calendars, Drive, Docs, and more. Well, the Alphabet-owned company will start deleting accounts and related apps. content from next month i.e. December 2023. According to the company, any account that has not been logged in 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 deletions is expected to begin in December 2023 and continue through 2024 until Google removes all inactive accounts. However, before deleting the accounts, Google will send users several warnings and notifications about the upcoming deletion, not only to the account but also to its recovery address. According to a report from 9To5Google, the company will first delete accounts that are created but will never be used again.

• Here’s How To Save Your Account

If users want to back up their alternate accounts, whether they use them for storage or to provide access to certain apps, here’s what they can do. For example, opening Gmail and reading/sending an email counts as activity. Likewise, the use of other Google services such as Drive, Docs, Sheets and YouTube may also count towards an account’s action. 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 decided to delete accounts for several reasons. The company provides 15GB of free cloud storage to each free account, which takes up significant server space when multiplied by the platform’s hundreds of millions of users. To provide such space, Google must maintain a large number of servers, which involves crazy amounts of money.

So, by deleting inactive accounts, the company wants to free up space that could be better used. Another reason lies in security concerns, where inactive accounts could be obtained by bad actors and used for unethical purposes.