Google plans to delete your inactive accounts but there’s a simple solution

According to the changes, Google will be deleting users’ data from its popular services on accounts that have been inactive for more than two years.

Google. (Unsplash)

Google recently announced that it will be adding all your photos and videos on Google Photos, starting in July, 2021, in the connected Google Drive account. This means once your free 15GB storage space is full, you will have to anyway start paying for extra space. However, it looks like the firm is planning to save some more storage on its servers. Hence, it is making some policy changes around the use of its Gmail, Docs and Google Photos services. 

According to the changes, Google will be deleting users' data from its popular services on accounts that have been inactive for more than two years.

This new policy will take place from June 1, 2021 and by June 1, 2023 (which means after two years) Google will be deleting data from Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Jamboard, Gmail, Photos, Drawings, Forms and Sites if the accounts have been inactive.

The firm has added that if you don't want to get your data deleted, they can continue using the service with the associated account via the Google app or the browser to keep it active.

Interestingly, this change won't be affected to Google One users who will be paying the monthly fee. It also won't be applicable to Google Workspace (formerly Google G Suite for Business workers), G Suite for Education or G Suite for Nonprofits.

So how does one stop this?

It is possible that you might not be active on some of Google's services, not everyone needs it. But if you have ever used a service and might need the account active, it's good to keep it going.

The trick to avoid Google from deactivating your account is pretty simple. You just need to periodically use Gmail, Google Drive or Google Photos on web or mobile while you are signed into your account and connected to the internet.

You don't really need to use them extensively. You can perhaps just take a look at a few files, delete some mails etc.

Google has said that it is going to notify you multiple times before it removes any content so you just need to keep an eye out for that.