As of June 1, 2021, in addition to eliminating the possibility of uploading free content to Google Photos without taking up Drive space, Google has also announced new storage policies for Gmail, Google Photos and Google Drive, affecting the latter as well. to Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboards.
If you are inactive for 2 years in Gmail, Drive or Photos, Google will erase everything
This first change implies that, if we are inactive for 2 years (24 months) in Gmail, Drive or Photos, Google will be able to delete all the content of the products in which we do not carry out any activity. This implies, for example, that if we stop uploading content to Google Photos as of June 1, 2021, and we do not enter to review past content, upload new photos, or delete old ones, Google will delete everything. The only possibility for this content not to be deleted is that we buy Google One storage and the account is “in good condition” (with current payments).
To this, we must also add that, if we exceed the storage limit for 2 years, Google also says that “it is possible” that they delete your content from Gmail, Drive and Photos. Of course, the Google account will not be deleted as such, since we can continue logging in.
The change, being available from June 1, 2021, implies that we will not be affected by it until June 1, 2023. In addition, Google states that, if we are inactive or exceed the storage limit, it will send us notifications and email reminders in advance before deleting any content.
Google will notify us before deleting content from accounts
Google will consider an account as inactive if we do not access it manually through the apps for iOS and Android, or through the corresponding websites of the services. If we have several accounts on the same device, we will have to access them one by one, since the activity is recorded by account, not by device.
In the case of Gmail, it will count as account use to access to read emails or to have accounts redirected to the main email account, a common activity if you have secondary accounts to register on suspicious websites. For Google Photos, just view a photo in the gallery, share a photo or video, create an album, or upload new content. For Drive, creating, editing, viewing, sharing, or commenting on a file, as well as downloading files from Drive on mobile, will also count.
As we can see, Google seems willing to recover all possible storage from its servers, at a cost that they claim is very high, but that we calculate at about 60 cents per year per user, despite the fact that with our data they earn dozens and even hundreds of dollars in that time through advertising.