Google Is Deleting Gmail Accounts—3 Steps Needed To Keep Yours

Update, Sept. 10, 2024: This story, originally published Sept. 09, now includes a guide to managing and switching between multiple Gmail accounts on a single device.

Google dominates the free email market with an estimated 1.8 billion Gmail users. It should come as no surprise, then, that warnings about Gmail accounts being deleted can cause concern. So, let’s set the record straight and confirm what’s actually happening. Yes, Google is deleting Gmail accounts. No, not everyone will be at risk because only inactive accounts are being targeted. For peace of mind, there are steps you can take to ensure your Gmail, along with Photos and Docs content, remain unaffected. Here’s what you need to know and do.

Google’s Inactive Account Policy Means Gmail, Photos And Docs Content Could Be Deleted

Towards the end of January this year, I received an email from Google informing me that a Google account I had not used for eight months would be deleted on September 20, along with any Gmail, Photos and Docs content. Despite the deadline drawing very near, I am not panicking about this and, to be honest, am more than happy for Google to do this for reasons I will explain momentarily.

I wasn’t altogether surprised as I had already read about the changes being made to Google’s inactive account policy much earlier the previous year. In a safety and security blog posting, Ruth Kricheli, a vice president of product management at Google, provided an update to explain precisely what would be happening and when.

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The changes mean that an inactive Google account is now defined as one that has not been used within a two-year period if the user is inactive across Google for at least that period. “Google reserves the right to delete an inactive Google Account,” the policy makes clear, “we may delete the account and its contents – including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar) and Google Photos.”

The Security Reasoning Behind The Gmail Account Deletions

Google has invested a lot of time and money into making Gmail as safe and secure as possible for its users, whether in terms of anti-spam measures, phishing scam protection or account hijacking defense. “Even with these protections,” Kricheli said, “if an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised.”

One of the drivers of such compromise of older and unused accounts is weak login credentials and a lack of two-factor authentication. Passwords are often shared between accounts, something I have a headache from repeatedly warning against, which can lead to a breach from one service impacting the security of another. “Our internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step-verification set up,” Kricheli warned. The end result is that inactive accounts are much more likely to be vulnerable than active ones.

All that said, I can’t help but feel the cost of data storage might have been factored into the revised inactive account policy, if only a teensy-weeny bit.

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Three Steps To Take Now To Prevent Your Gmail Account Being Deleted

If you only have one Google account, then your Gmail is perfectly safe from deletion, assuming you have used it within the last two years. The problem is purely with those users who have multiple accounts or maybe ones set up purely to store photos or data that have not been accessed in a long while or forgotten about altogether. Although a forgotten account might seem pointless to save, it could contain content that you may wish to access further down the road. That said, here’s what Google considers activity.

1. Read or send an email.
2. Share a photo or watch a YouTube video while signed into the relevant Google account.
3. Use Google Drive or Search.

And that’s it. Doing any of these things at least once every year or so should ensure your account is safe from deletion. Those actions can be taken on any device, as this is an account-specific policy. If it has been a while since you accessed an account, I would heartily recommend that you take a Google Account Security Check-Up to ensure that you have the necessary security measures in place to protect it.

How To Manage Multiple Gmail Accounts On A Single Device

A number of readers have been in touch with me asking how they can best manage multiple Gmail accounts on one device. Although it’s easy to get all your email for different accounts to land in the one Gmail inbox, you just have to add a filtering rule so that everything received at one address is forwarded to another, physically switching from one Gmail account to another, with separate inboxes and settings, is altogether a different process. Not, I should add, that it’s an especially tough one, but it does take a few more steps to get set up correctly.

It doesn’t matter what device you use to access your Gmail inbox; the process for managing multiple Google accounts is the same, with slight differences in user interface appearance. Essentially, there are four steps you will need to follow.

1. Click on your avatar in the top right of any Google service you are signed into.
2. Select the add account option.
3. Select an existing account you wish to add and sign-in. Complete any two-factor authentication requirement and add a passkey for quicker access if you want to.
4. Go back to your avatar and you will have more than one account to select from and can now switch on demand.

Just rinse and repeat the steps above for every account you want to be able to use on your device. It takes a little while if you have a lot of these personal accounts to go through, but it’s worth a little effort now for the ease of use in the future. With switching made so easy, it’s unlikely you will ever get caught up in the inactive account policy shenanigans.

It’s worth noting that all of your added accounts are now signed into and so active, this is what makes switching between them so straightforward. It also means that anyone with access to your device could also access all of them. So, ensure that your device is properly secured at all times. You can sign all of your accounts out simultaneously with a single click for additional security, meaning anyone, including you, would need your credentials including 2FA or passkey to access any of them. I’d recommend this approach, but that’s mainly because I’m quite paranoid about all things security related. Seriously though, while it does take additional time, if you use passkeys access is just a fingerprint or facial scan away. The most user friendly option, of course, is only to keep your primary account signed-in until you want to access one of the others.