In May 2023, Google changed its inactive account policy, stating that accounts with no activity for two years would be deleted starting in December 2023. This policy change is to protect most users against security threats. However, it has raised the need to protect Google data from deletion to avoid losing any important information.
So, in this article, I’ll show you how to protect Google data from deletion in case Google deletes your dormant account. Pay attention to all the tips to prevent unnecessary data loss.
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How Can You Protect Google Data From Deletion?
With Google implementing a stricter stance against inactive accounts, it’s worth protecting your data to keep it secure. Here are some ways to protect Google data from deletion.
Check and Update All Connected Accounts
You should update all linked email accounts, regardless of whether you use your Google account for single Sign-On or simply as a username for your other accounts. This is because accounts from other services that use your Google account as your primary email cannot be recovered if Google deletes your inactive account.
To locate all accounts connected to your inactive Google account’s email address and protect Google data from deletion, log in to your Google account. By doing this, you can make sure that your active Google account is linked to all of your accounts. After all, you don’t want to discover all of a sudden that your access to services like Spotify or Netflix has been lost because Google deactivated the associated account.
Download Your Videos and Photos From Google Photos
Another thing you’ll have to consider when trying to protect Google data from deletion are your photo and video memories. Google automatically backs up the photographs and videos you take via Google Photos if you have an Android phone. If you have an old Pixel phone with unlimited backups, this is especially true.
However, if you have a new phone and a new Google account, your old Google account may still have your pictures and videos. Therefore, you should export your photos and videos from Google Photos to make sure you don’t lose them if Google deletes your inactive account.
Transfer Your Google Drive Content to Your Active Account
Google Drive is an excellent online service for sharing huge files. However, if your old Google account is deleted, the contents of your Google Drive are lost permanently. As a result, even if you share your Google Drive files with non-Gmail accounts, they will no longer have access to them.
That is why you should transfer your Google Drive files from your inactive account to your active Google account to protect Google data from deletion. You can protect against file loss by doing this. Furthermore, you can reshare this moved data so that no one who depends on it loses access.
Download Your Gmail Inbox
Many people use their Google inbox as a lasting record of their lives. However, if Google deletes unused accounts, all this inbox data would be lost. So, if you save old receipts, tickets, and reminders in your inbox, export them for safety to protect Google data from deletion.
You can download your Gmail MBOX data and import it into another email client, such as Mozilla Thunderbird. By doing this, you can access old messages even if Google deletes the account that was linked to them. Just be sure to back up this MBOX file since it is now locally saved on your PC. Considering that your MBOX file will also fail if your storage fails,
Transfer Contacts to Your Other Google Account
Before the smartphone, people used to save their contacts in a notepad, on their SIM cards, or their phones. However, with the emergence of smartphone-enabled consumers, they save their contacts in their accounts.
This enabled users to sync their address book across devices. However, if you haven’t changed your device in a while and have set up a new Google account, you may have forgotten to sync your contacts.
Therefore, if Google deletes your previous account, you could be shocked to discover that all of your contact information is gone. You should move your contacts between Google accounts to prevent such problems and protect Google data from deletion.
Back-Up Your Google Calendar
For the most part, Google Calendar is a forward-looking tool that allows you to manage your time in the future. However, some people also use Google Calendar as a personal notebook. So, if you kept a diary on a previous Google account, you should export its Google Calendar material to make sure you don’t lose it.
You could synchronize its contents with your existing calendar notebook app.
To conclude, if Google deletes an old account you hardly use, you can make sure you don’t lose anything by following the aforementioned steps to protect Google data from deletion.
However, if you are concerned that you will be unable to access your account for two years or more, you should create an inactive account manager to prevent Google from deleting it.