Inactive Gmail and Photos accounts will be deleted by Google after two years: How to maintain an active account

&NewLine;<p>Later this year&comma; the company will begin deleting Google Accounts that have not been used or entered into for at least two years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;google&period;co&period;in" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener" title&equals;"">Google<&sol;a> has declared that it will increase the two-year inactivity period for Google Accounts across all of our products&period; Beginning later this year&comma; Google may erase an account and all of its data&comma; including those found in Google Workspace &lpar;Gmail&comma; Docs&comma; Drive&comma; Meet&comma; Calendar&rpar;&comma; YouTube&comma; and Google Photos&comma; if it has not been used or signed into for at least two years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Only personal Google Accounts are subject to the regulation&semi; accounts used by businesses or institutions like schools are not affected&period; With this change&comma; Google will no longer keep your personal information longer than is necessary and will adhere to industry standards for account cancellation and retention&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;According to our internal study&comma; abandoned accounts are at least 10 times less likely to have 2-step verification enabled than active ones&period; In other words&comma; these accounts are frequently vulnerable&comma; and once a compromised account has been utilised&comma; it may be used for anything from identity theft to spreading spam or other undesired or harmful content&comma; according to a statement from the firm&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Google will roll out this cautiously and gradually&comma; giving plenty of notice&colon;<br>Although the policy is already in force&comma; users with dormant accounts won&&num;8217&semi;t be affected right away&semi; rather&comma; Google won&&num;8217&semi;t start removing accounts until December 2023&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Google would implement its plan in stages&comma; beginning with newly established accounts that were never used again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;softwaremania&period;in&sol;category&sol;digital-marketing&sol;" title&equals;"">search engine <&sol;a>giant will send many reminders to the account email address and the recovery email &lpar;if one has been provided&rpar; in the months before cancelling an account&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>How to keep your account active&colon; Signing in at least once every two years is the easiest way to keep a Google Account active&period; Your account is deemed active and won&&num;8217&semi;t be erased if you recently signed into your Google Account or any of our services&period; The following actions you take when you sign in or when logged into your Google Account may be considered activity&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Emailing someone or reading one<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Google Drive use<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>watching a video on YouTube<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>installing a programme from the Google Play Store<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Google Searching<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Using To log into a service or app from a third party&comma; sign in using Google&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;