Google erasing dormant Gmail accounts and all data - three things you must do

Google is deleting inactive Gmail accounts, meaning documents or images stored on the account could also be lost.

The tech giant announced the drive to purge the service of inactive accounts in May to give users plenty of time to prepare.

December 1 is the earliest the firm will begin taking down dormant accounts, Google said, so not all will be wiped at once.

The company decided on the move due to these accounts being more likely to be targeted by hackers and identity thieves.

Its internal analysis shows that abandoned accounts are at least 10 times less likely than active accounts to have 2-step-verification set up, and may be compromised.

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But those with old accounts that remain active can hold on to their email and data using the following steps.

The simplest way to show that the account is still active is to sign into your Google account and do one of the following:

• Read or send an email.
• Watch a YouTube video while logged into the account
• Do a Google search while signed in

If you no longer use the account but don't want to lose any of the content you have stored within it, you can save the files to your computer using Google Takeout.

The tool allows you to download a copy of all the data you have saved on Google products.

NBC business and data reporter Brian Cheung said on TODAY: "These are all serious things if you have personal information on there and you forgot about it.

"That’s the reason why they’re saying 'We’re going to go through, we’re going to delete these accounts that aren’t active.'"

Cheung stressed that it also applies to Google Photos, Google Docs, Google Drive and the Google Meet Calendar, which will also be deleted if they are flagged as inactive.

However, Google will message you before any removals occur.

Google confirmed: "Before deleting an account, we will send multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion, to both the account email address and the recovery email."

Alex Tofts, broadband expert at Broadband Genie said: "It may sound alarming, but you still have time to rescue your files before Google hits the terminate button.

He added: "If you have a lightbulb moment and realize that you may have precious data on an old Google account, now is the time to take action and back it up somewhere else.

"You can do this by using another cloud storage solution, such as iCloud or Dropbox, or by doing it the old-fashioned way and saving files and photos on an external hard drive.

"Logging into an old account before Friday should also prevent it from being part of the purge.

"Make sure you do any archiving over your home Wi-Fi to ensure a consistent connection and - if you’re on your mobile - to avoid any unexpected data costs."