That’s right!

If you have a Google account that’s been dormant for a while, Google will delete your account on or after December 1st.

That’s tomorrow.

What Is an Inactive Account?

Beginning December 1st, Google will start deleting accounts that HAVE NOT been used in two years. A Google account is any account used for any of its services. That includes Gmail, YouTube, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Calendar, Voice, and Drive.

If you’re not using ALL of the services, you don’t have to worry. Any usage across Google’s accounts counts in your favor. For instance, if you’re a YouTube user, but don’t use Gmail or Docs, you account will still remain active even if you don’t use those services.

However, if you’ve accumulated photos and documents across any of those accounts; but, haven’t used them, you run the risk of losing any data stored there. Google says it can’t delete your data because you accepted this clause in the terms and conditions, “Google reserves the right to delete data in a product if you are inactive in that product for at least two years. This is determined based on each product’s inactivity policies.”

There is one caveat, however. Videos in old and soon to be retired accounts will remain live on the site. You can never have too much content.

How Do I Save My Data

If you want to keep your data, Google’s Takeout service will help you download all of your content. You can granularly select specific Google services and the type of data you want to retrieve.

Why Is El Google Deleting Accounts?

Inactive accounts pose a security risk.

If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised. This is because forgotten or unattended accounts often rely on old or re-used passwords that may have been compromised, haven’t had two factor authentication set up, and receive fewer security checks by the user.

– Google Terms of Service

Everyone already receives a ton of spam. Old accounts are more likely to get hijacked and used as attack vectors by the bad guys.

If you haven’t fired up your Google account in a while, you should do that now. All it takes is signing in and navigating to preserve the data you’ve stored.