Google is sending out emails warning some users their accounts will be deleted soon—here’s what you need to do to save yours.
Google is sending out emails warning some users their accounts will be deleted soon—here’s what you need to do to save yours. Read More Technology
Update, Mar. 2, 2025: This story, originally published Feb. 28, now includes details of more deletions coming from Google as well as an additional clarification of which Google accounts are being impacted by the content deletion purge along with an easy way to manage multiple accounts on one device and switch between them to ensure activity is maintained across all.
Google has warned that cybercrime should be considered a national security concern and confirmed that it is to ditch the use of SMS two-factor authentication codes for Gmail users in the coming months. I mention these two things specifically because Google has also just sent me an email that encompasses a warning with confirmation that something is going to be removed: my Google account with all Gmail messages and Google Photos content included. Here’s what you need to know and what to do to ensure your account doesn’t end up in the same situation.
My Google Account Will Be Deleted April 3
Talk to any security expert about social engineering attacks, more commonly referred to as phishing, and they will likely tell you that hackers employ methods of sending emails which combine a sense of urgency with a requirement to do something lest bad stuff will happen. So, when an email purporting to have been sent by Google dropped into my inbox with subject line of “Urgent: Sign in to your Google Account if you want to keep it,” well, you might excuse me for being a teeny bit suspicious. Actually, this was a legitimate email, but nonetheless concerning. So, what’s the urgency here, and why is my Google account in peril?
For the answer, you need to look back to an article I published way back on Nov. 13, 2023, that alerted readers to a change in the Google inactive accounts policy. “If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised,” Google’s Ruth Kricheli said at the time; “Our internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step verification set up,” and therefore are more vulnerable to takeover attacks.
The email I received was to inform me that one of my many Google accounts, used primarily for different Gmail accounts as well as accompanied storage purposes, had been selected for deletion.
“Your Google Account has not been used within a 2-year period. If you want to keep your Google Account, sign in to your Google Account before April 3, 2025. To protect user privacy and account data, Google will delete Google Accounts that are not used.”
And if my Google account gets deleted that means any Gmail messages, photos, docs and so on associated with the account will be deleted along with it. So, how can you stop this from happening to you?
How To Save Your Google Account From Deletion
The answer is as simple as it is obvious: use it. Yes, that’s really all there is to it. The inactive account policy is for those accounts that have laid dormant, not signed into or used for a two-year period. Some users may have created such accounts for a single, one-off purpose and never needed them again. Others, like the one in my case, were used for a particular project that has now expired. As it happens, I do have content in that account that I wish to keep, so will be taking the same steps as I advise you to do to ensure it isn’t deleted on April 3.
There are many things that Google considers to be account activity, but these can be summed up as signing into the account, reading or sending an email from the account, sharing a photo, watching a video or using Google Drive or search. Really, though, you can consolidate all of that advice into the first option: sign into your account.
Clarification Of What Google Defines As Inactivity And Which Accounts Are Impacted
Although this is a very important issue, given the aforementioned security implications of accounts being left inactive, it’s important for me to clarify precisely what Google defines as both inactivity and which accounts are impacted by the content purge for those who are concerned if theirs could be on the list, as it were.
So, let’s start with which accounts are impacted by the inactive account policy changes. Google has made it very clear that this only applies to personal accounts and as such will not impact those accounts for organizations such as schools or businesses. “This update aligns our policy with industry standards around retention and account deletion,” Google said, “and also limits the amount of time Google retains your unused personal information.” And when it comes to precisely what data or content within an affected Google account can be deleted, Google has said that this will be “determined based on each product’s inactivity policies.” What is also very clear is, as Google has also stated, “Google reserves the right to delete an inactive Google Account and its activity and data if you are inactive across Google for at least two years.”
Inactivity is defined as not reading or sending an email, using Google Drive, watching a YouTube video, sharing a photo, downloading an app, using Google Search or using Sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app or service, all using the Google account in question.
How To Manage Multiple Google Accounts On One Device The Easy Way
I have way too many Google accounts, or at least it can feel that way sometimes. Truth be told, all the accounts I have are used, or have been, on specific projects. Managing them can be a nightmare though, or at least it would be were it not for the fact that google makes this easy with an account switching function. Everyone should have at least two Gmail accounts, for example, to provide a safety cushion in the event of one being compromised. To ensure you have a copy of all your important emails, you can set up a forwarding rule so that all incoming email to that primary account is also sent to the secondary one. If you want to be uber-organized, you could have different and dedicated Gmail accounts for images, documents, family correspondence, and so on.
You can create a new account by signing out of the Google Account you are currently using, then heading to the Google Account sign-in page, where you click on the create account link, and follow the instructions. It’s really very easy indeed. From the security point of view, use a passkey and, if at all possible, make this one that is associated with a different device than your primary account. You should also make sure that you enable two-factor authentication.
Managing as many accounts as you want is very easy: click on your avatar in the top right of any Google service you are signed into, select add account and add the account concerned, sign in, and you are done. Now you will have two accounts available for hot-switching when you click on your avatar, just keep adding accounts until you are done. I would also advise that you run the Google account security checkup for each one.
Here’s One Google Deletion Update We Can All Get Behind
I tend not to Google myself these days. Not least as I’ve been online and in the public eye as a journalist for more than three decades, which means there’s plenty of stuff I’d rather not burden my “id” with in a negative way. You don’t have to be a well-Googled personality to hate what you see in search results though, especially when that information is incorrect or damaging to your reputation. Truth be told, there has been a relatively easy way to deal with this available since Google released the Results About You tool in 2022. This tool, Google said, allows internet users to “find out if your personal contact info, like your home address, phone number, or email address shows up in search results,” and, importantly, take action to remove them. “If you see a result that you’d rather keep private, you can request to remove it from search results,” Google said; “To request removal of a single result, select the result to expand and then Request to remove.” Now, a newly updated version of the Results About You tool makes removing results even easier.
Google has now confirmed that its newly-redesigned tool can now scan for results containing information like your phone number or address and help you quickly remove them. “Our new hub makes signing up easier than ever, and with proactive monitoring, we’ll do the hard work for you,” Google said, “alerting you if new results are found.” But it gets even better as Google has also now made it easier to request such removals directly from search itself. “When you click on the three dots next to a result,” Google explained, “you’ll see an updated menu that helps you understand what content is eligible for removal, and lets you submit a removal request in fewer clicks.”
Then there’s the matter of old content, when an outdated search needs to be updated, when information has changed or been deleted from a website, for example. If search is lagging behind the actual facts, you can use the same three dot menu to request a search refresh which triggers Google’s robots to go and recrawl the page in question to get all the latest information.
Google Is Also Deleting SMS 2FA Codes For Gmail Users
I’m not usually one to celebrate the removal of security protections, but there are always exceptions to that rule. Take, for example, the case of using SMS to send 2FA codes for authentication purposes. While better than no 2FA at all, SMS is the least secure method of providing such codes and deprecating use of the same can only be a good thing. And that’s exactly what Google has confirmed during an exclusive conversation I had with Gmail spokesperson Ross Richendrfer. “Just like we want to move past passwords with the use of things like passkeys,” Gmail spokesperson Ross Richendrfer told me, “we want to move away from sending SMS messages for authentication.”
Although there is no specific timeline for this change to take place, I understand it is likely to commence sooner rather than later. I would expect to see the changes rolling out in the coming months. So, if Google is no longer going to be using SMS codes for 2FA on Gmail accounts, what will be replacing them? Is Google following in the footsteps of PayPal, which has also recently announced an end to 2FA codes entirely for users with a passkey, for example? Nope, although Google does encourage all users to switch from passwords and traditional 2FA to the use of passkeys, of course. Instead, Richendrfer told me that SMS codes are to be ditched when it comes to authentication and replaced with QR codes to “reduce the impact of rampant, global SMS abuse.”
I’m not a huge fan of QR codes, which bring their own security issues to the table, but Richendrfer confirmed that “over the next few months, we will be reimagining how we verify phone numbers. Specifically, instead of entering your number and receiving a 6-digit code, you’ll see a QR code being displayed, which you need to scan with the camera app on your phone.” Google sees the benefit here as reducing the phishing risk to Gmail users, which has to be a good thing.
