Recently Google Starts Removing Inactive Accounts – Here’s How Do I Permanently Save Gmail Emails?

Rashmi Parkash | Google Updates How to's Outlook Software Technology Windows | 4 minutes read | Modified on: 15-03-2024
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In conclusion, Google plans to eliminate accounts that haven’t been used in the last two years. This implies that everything associated with the account—pictures, messages, contacts, etc.—will be lost. We discuss how to stop your Google account from being deleted in this post. We will also go over how to store files and other data from your Google account.

Google revised its policy on dormant Google Accounts last year. The revised policy states that accounts will be canceled if they are not utilized or signed in for a minimum of two years. This implies that Google will remove all information associated with dormant accounts, including those related to Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Drive, and Photos. The internet behemoth won’t, however, remove accounts that have posted YouTube videos or that have current subscriptions to other services or programs.

According to the policy statement, Google has taken this action to safeguard users from security risks such as phishing, spamming, and account hijacking since dormant or inactive accounts are more susceptible to these kinds of attacks and are more likely to be hacked because of outdated or frequently used passwords.

Before deleting an account, the users will receive many notifications from the company. It was also stated in the policy that only personal accounts will be removed. This indicates that the new policy does not apply to accounts controlled by businesses or schools.

How Can I Stop My Account From Getting Deleted?

You must maintain the activity of your Google account in order to prevent it from being deleted. Simply log into your account once every two years to accomplish this. To maintain the activity of your account, you can do the following:

  • Open an email on your Gmail account and send it.
  • Make use of Google Drive.
  • Watch videos on YouTube.
  • Get an application from the Google Play store.
  • Log in and search Google.
  • To utilize the app or services, log in using your Google account.

Learn more about Opening Emails from Google Takeout.

How Can I Backup or Save the Data from My Google Account?

If you are not using your Google account frequently, it is advised that you make a backup of the data to safeguard it from any unfortunate events. You can accomplish this by downloading your crucial data from Gmail or other Google products using the Google Takeout feature. The steps to download Gmail emails using the Google Takeout tool are listed below:

  • Open your Gmail account and log in. From the far right corner, select “Manage your Google Account.” Next, select the Data and Privacy option, and finally select “Download your data.”
  • If you want to download Gmail emails solely, choose the Mail option and leave the other choices selected. Additionally, you can choose to include all emails or just specific labels by clicking on the All Mail data included option. Click Next step after that.
  • Click the Transfer to dropdown menu under Destination, then choose Send Download Link by Email. The other delivery alternatives, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and so on, are also available for selection.
  • Choose the Export Once option and the.zip file type under the Frequency section. Moreover, you can reduce the file size and divide it into smaller, more manageable portions.
  • Click “Create export” after that. The amount of data may determine how long the process takes.
  • Following the completion of the procedure, Google will email users with a link to retrieve the data. After opening the email, select “Download archive.” To download the Gmail data to your PC, follow the instructions.
  • The.zip format will be used to store the downloaded data. After that, you can extract the.zip file. Your data is available to you in MBOX file format.

In summary

As per the most recent amendment to Google’s account policy, accounts that remain dormant for a minimum of two years will be removed. This implies that your account may be wiped if you haven’t used Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, or any other account for the previous two years. Nevertheless, before Google takes this move, you will receive several notifications.

If you are not using your Google account or to avoid losing your data due to someone else’s app loss, you can download your account data using this feature. You can also transfer the downloaded data from Gmail to any other email platform. When you download data using Google takeout, it gets saved in MBOX file. So, if you want to import your Gmail mailbox data (downloaded using Takeout) into an email client like this one, you can use a customizing tool like CubexSoft MBOX to PST Converter. The toolbox extracts data from the file and saves it in Outlook importable PST format. Then you can use the import and export wizard to import the MBOX item. This tool can easily save your modified MBOX file data in different file formats.