Google has announced a new storage policy whereby it will start deleting all your account data if it has been inactive for more than 2 years. We heard it first after an update to Google Photos, but now it seems that the policy is being applied to all Google apps and accounts.
The new policy comes as an effort to purge unused storage and was announced today on Google’s Help website. Starting from June 2021, Google will apply its new policy to several services. As early as June 2023, Google will start deleting account data from Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Jamboard, Gmail, Photos, Drawings, Forms, and Sites if they have been inactive for 2 years.
Google also advises on its Help site that users who do not want their data deleted should use services associated with their account through apps or browsers to keep them active.
Keep in mind that this policy will not apply to Google One users who pay a monthly subscription fee. It will not apply to Google Workspace, GSuite for Education, GSuite for Non-Profits, and GSuite for business either.
If you have your data backed up into a Google account, we would strongly recommend keeping those accounts active to prevent accidental data deletion.
