SAN FRANCISCO — From December 1, 2023, Google will be able to suspend and delete the data from all inactive accounts. These are accounts that haven’t been used for at least two years. If this applies to you, and you’d like to keep your account, here’s how to save it.
Google says it will be deleting all content from the accounts in question, from emails to photos to the various documents created and stored on the platform.
So, if you’ve left an old account untouched, but don’t want to see its contents disappear for good, here’s how to proceed.
To “reactivate” an account, simply log in to it once, without taking any particular action, AFP reported.
Simply logging in and performing a Google search, reading an email, looking at YouTube or Drive, or downloading a mobile application using this account is enough to make it active again.
In all cases, Google will send several notifications before deleting an account, including to a recovery address, if one has been provided.
Note that this measure only applies to personal accounts, not those linked to an employer, school or other organisation. Nor does it apply to anyone with a paid-for Google One account.
To avoid any unpleasant surprises in the weeks to come, we strongly advise you to log in to your old, sometimes forgotten, accounts.
And if you find any important documents there, you can transfer them to your main account by going to Google Takeout.
Select all the data you want to download, then copy it service by service to your other account. Then you won’t have to worry about keeping your old account active.
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