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

Later this year, the company will begin deleting Google Accounts that have not been used or entered into for at least two years.

Google has declared that it will increase the two-year inactivity period for Google Accounts across all of our products. Beginning later this year, Google may erase an account and all of its data, including those found in Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube, and Google Photos, if it has not been used or signed into for at least two years.

Only personal Google Accounts are subject to the regulation; accounts used by businesses or institutions like schools are not affected. With this change, Google will no longer keep your personal information longer than is necessary and will adhere to industry standards for account cancellation and retention.

“According to our internal study, abandoned accounts are at least 10 times less likely to have 2-step verification enabled than active ones. In other words, these accounts are frequently vulnerable, and once a compromised account has been utilised, it may be used for anything from identity theft to spreading spam or other undesired or harmful content, according to a statement from the firm.

Google will roll out this cautiously and gradually, giving plenty of notice:
Although the policy is already in force, users with dormant accounts won’t be affected right away; rather, Google won’t start removing accounts until December 2023.

Google would implement its plan in stages, beginning with newly established accounts that were never used again.

The search engine giant will send many reminders to the account email address and the recovery email (if one has been provided) in the months before cancelling an account.

How to keep your account active: Signing in at least once every two years is the easiest way to keep a Google Account active. Your account is deemed active and won’t be erased if you recently signed into your Google Account or any of our services. The following actions you take when you sign in or when logged into your Google Account may be considered activity:

Emailing someone or reading one

Google Drive use

watching a video on YouTube

installing a programme from the Google Play Store

Google Searching

Using To log into a service or app from a third party, sign in using Google.