Google to purge some email accounts starting Dec. 1. Could you be at risk?

The clock is ticking down toward Google’s purge of inactive accounts that the global tech giant will launch on Friday.

If you have an old Google account that you want to keep, even though you haven’t used it recent years, you need to take steps now to keep it intact. The good news is that the steps required are pretty simple, as long as you remember your password, of course.

Here’s what you need to know:

What is the Google purge?

Google announced plans in May to delete accounts that have been inactive for two years, as well as accounts that were created and never used, or used only briefly.

If you haven't signed in within the past two years, your account and everything it contains could be deleted during the purge that starts on Friday, Dec. 1.

Why is Google purging inactive accounts?

When it announced the new policy in May, Google attributed the decision to security issues, noting that old and unused accounts are more likely to be compromised.

“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,” the company stated in a blog post.

What services will be affected by the Google purge?

The change impacts Google Calendar, Drive, Docs, Gmail, Meet, and Photos.

Accounts with YouTube videos are a noteworthy exception from the new deletion policy, as are any accounts with active subscriptions, which means paying your bill counts as “activity.”

Also, this change applies only to personal Google accounts, not profiles tied to companies, classrooms or other businesses or institutions.

How do I keep my Google account from being purged?

This should be the simple part.

In most cases, just signing in should be enough to keep a Google Account active for another two years.

According to Google, reading or sending an email, using Google Drive, watching a YouTube video, downloading an app from the Google Play Store, using Google Search, or using Sign in with Google to log in to a third-party service also count as activity under its inactive accounts policy.

Once logged in, it’s a good idea to make sure you’ve got an accessible recovery email address associated with your account. That’s because Google says it will send multiple notifications to both impacted Google accounts as well as their recovery email addresses to warn of impending deletion.

While logging in to your account is enough to prevent its overall deletion for two years, you’ll need to sign in to Google Photos specifically if you want to prevent the deletion of that content.

Google states that it “reserves the right to delete data in a product if you are inactive in that product for at least two years,” under a policy that dates back to 2020. As mentioned above, accounts with YouTube videos will not be deleted, nor will accounts with active subscriptions associated with them.

What if I can’t remember my password?

If you can remember the username or phone number for the account, you can go here to begin the account recovery process for most Google accounts and here for Gmail.

If you’re still having issues, check out this wired.com story for advice from Google’s account safety team about what might be happening with your account and a few potential resolutions.

If you’re the caretaker of someone’s account who can’t access it, or who has died, and you’d like it memorialized, Google suggests using Google Takeout to download the data for safekeeping.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Google to purge some email accounts starting Dec. 1. How to avoid it