Google will delete accounts that remain inactive for 2 years from Dec 1

This change starts rolling out now, and will apply to any Google Account that's been inactive, meaning it has not been signed into or used within a two-year period

New Delhi: Google on Saturday sent emails to its billions of users, saying the company updating the inactivity period for a Google Account to two years across all its products and services.

This change starts rolling out now, and will apply to any Google Account that’s been inactive, meaning it has not been signed into or used within a two-year period.

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An inactive account and any content in it will be eligible for deletion from December 1, 2023, the tech giant said.

These changes do not impact you unless you have been inactive in your Google Account for two years or have not used your account to sign in to any Google service for over two years.

While the changes go into effect today, the earliest we would enforce any account deletion would be December 2023, said Google.

If the account is considered inactive, Google will send several reminder emails to both users and their recovery emails (if any have been provided) before the company takes any action or delete any account content.

These reminder emails will go out at least 8 months before any action is taken on your account. After a Google Account is deleted, the Gmail address for the deleted account cannot be used again when creating a new Google Account, said the company.

The simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign in to the account at least once every two years. If you have signed in to your Google Account recently in the past two years, your account is considered active and will not be deleted, said the company.