If you do use your account, even if you don’t use it heavily, this probably won’t ever become an issue for you – the accounts currently being targeted for closure are accounts that haven’t been used at all in over a year. If you have to stop and think about whether it’s been that long since you’ve used your free account, it’s probably time to make a decision about whether to keep that account! Whether you decide to keep it or to let it go, just make certain that you’re planning for the situation, and not letting it take you by surprise!
Back in the day, Google offered an amazingly free service called “Google Apps for your Domain“. The service bundled together GMAIL, Google Drive/Docs/etc, and many other Google services, into an account branded with the domain name of your choice.
G Suite (formally Google Apps), it’s not only a robust email solution but includes a suite of Google services that can help your team communicate and collaborate more easily. As of December 6, 2012, Google stopped offering the free edition. Paying for Google Apps, in our opinion, is still well worth the price, but at $50 per user per year, a free account using all of its available user accounts could save you $500 annually. Yes, the paid version of Google Apps offers more features and support, but the free version is no slouch.
At here, I’m not trying to sell you on Google Apps right now (of course you can get on at my site http://googleappslegacy.com) – I’m trying to let you know that if you’re one of the lucky businesses to have a Google Apps legacy account, you should make sure not to lose that resource!
Recently, Google began closing inactive free edition accounts. The reason Google gives for this is to make it easier for current domain owners to sign up for G Suite, Google is closing G Suite accounts that have been inactive for over a year. At that point, account owners will receive notifications that their account will be closed unless they sign in to it within the following 60 days.
If you do receive an inactivity notice from Google, all you need to do is log in to that account in order to reset the inactivity counter. Better to go ahead and take just a minute to refresh your account than to wish you had later on! If you’ve forgotten your username or password, we can help you recover your account. Once you log in, you should receive an email within the next 48 hours letting you know that your account is no longer targeted for deletion. That means your Google Apps account has been successfully reactivated.
What happens if you don’t log in to your account?
Your account will be permanently terminated (on or after) 60 days after your first notification. After that:
- You can no longer access any G Suite services with this account.
- Your and your users’ account data, such as your Gmail messages and contacts, will be permanently deleted to protect your privacy.
- No one will be able to access your old data by creating a new G Suite account with this domain name.