Google might delete your Gmail account if you haven’t logged in for two years

[malcontent]

The old policy would wipe data from unused personal accounts, but now, the entire Google account is at risk of deletion.

Google might delete your Gmail account if you haven’t logged in for two years

[Bamb0]

Why bother??

They say every acct has UNLIMITED STORAGE so who cares how long stuff sits??

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by Bamb0

Why bother??
They say every acct has UNLIMITED STORAGE so who cares how long stuff sits??

Where are you getting that information? If you read the link posted, Google limited their photo memory starting about 2 years ago. Here is their current policy - I don’t consider 15 GB for all Google services combined “unlimited”!
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/9312312?hl=en

[TenFour]

If you're not logging in at least once every two years it seems to me you're not really using the account, so I can understand the policy. I think a lot of people just signed up for multiple accounts because they were free and then they used them only briefly for something before forgetting about them. Unfortunately, the spammers use their accounts a lot!

[chrisretusn]

Not logging in to an email account for over two years and the provider deleting the account to me is more than reasonable. Why have an account if you don't use it.

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by chrisretusn

Not logging in to an email account for over two years and the provider deleting the account to me is more than reasonable. Why have an account if you don't use it.

Not logging in and/or paying and/or using other services related to te account.
Payment is a strong indication that the user still wants the account, even if the user seems not to use it, and I think that in most jurisdictions automatically closing a paid account would violate some consumer protection law.
A Google account has many uses that are not email, even if they are free accounts. many people have a Google account because they have an Android device, and some don't use the included Gmail service. We have a separate family Google account for our Google TV because we didn't want to use use the Google account of one family member. That account is not used for any other purpose (and used an email address in our family domain hosted by Fastmail, not a Gmail address).

[n5bb]

The Google policy update announced this week is straightforward:
Updating our inactive account policies
This will only affect accounts which haven't been used in some manner for two years.

The simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign-in at least once every 2 years. If you have signed into your Google Account or any of our services recently, your account is considered active and will not be deleted. Activity might include these types of actions you take when you sign in or while you’re signed in to your Google Account:

• Reading or sending an email
• Using Google Drive
• Watching a YouTube video
• Downloading an app on the Google Play Store
• Using Google Search
• Using Sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app or service

If you have an existing subscription set up through your Google Account, for example to Google One, a news publication or an app, we also consider this account activity and your account will not be impacted. Additionally, we do not have plans to delete accounts with YouTube videos at this time.

[hadaso]

Actually it's very difficult to lose a Google account that has an active backup address. They'll be endlessly nagging you about it starting many months before they intend to delete it.

[chrisretusn]

Originally Posted by hadaso

Not logging in and/or paying and/or using other services related to te account.
Payment is a strong indication that the user still wants the account, even if the user seems not to use it, and I think that in most jurisdictions automatically closing a paid account would violate some consumer protection law.
A Google account has many uses that are not email, even if they are free accounts. many people have a Google account because they have an Android device, and some don't use the included Gmail service. We have a separate family Google account for our Google TV because we didn't want to use use the Google account of one family member. That account is not used for any other purpose (and used an email address in our family domain hosted by Fastmail, not a Gmail address).

Well Google is free, not paid. Paid accounts are not the issue. I have an android device. To use the service provided by Google such as backups, Play Store require usage of your Google Account. I have 2FA turned on, when I log in to YouTube via my computer I get an alert from Google on my cell phone to verify it was me. I will only get that alert if I am logged in to Google on my cellphone. One has to access your account to use a lot of Google services. These all count as keeping your account active.

I stand by my statement above, two years seem very reasonable to me. Use it or loose it.

That title of that article in the first post is misleading anyway. The link to the change in Google's policy change is in the article. I guess the author of that article figured using Gmail account vice Google account would get more clicks.

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by chrisretusn

Well Google is free, not paid. …

I beg to differ on this one point. Google offers a wide range of services and products, some of which are free but many of which are paid. For example, I’m a YouTube TV (Google service) customer, and that’s definitely a paid service!

Examples:

• https://store.google.com/us/category...tions?hl=en-US
• https://workspace.google.com/pricing.html

Bill

[chrisretusn]

Originally Posted by n5bb

I beg to differ on this one point. Google offers a wide range of services and products, some of which are free but many of which are paid. For example, I’m a YouTube TV (Google service) customer, and that’s definitely a paid service!

If you have an existing subscription set up through your Google Account, for example to Google One, a news publication or an app, we also consider this account activity and your account will not be impacted. Additionally, we do not have plans to delete accounts with YouTube videos at this time.

https://blog.google/technology/safet...ount-policies/

This would include YouTube TV.