Last May, Google announced it was planning to delete any accounts that hadn’t been used in two years (with a few exceptions, such as accounts that have YouTube videos). And sure enough, about two months after that, I got an email from Google warning me that accounts that have not been accessed for two years will indeed be eligible for deletion starting on December 1st, 2023.
I’ve been wandering around Google’s apps for some time now, and it occurred to me that I could have Google accounts I haven’t used for years — and which, if I didn’t check them, might have content I’d want to save. I knew I had three active Google accounts, and suspected I had at least one other I hadn’t visited in a while, but I wasn’t quite sure if there were any others.
If you’re in the same fix I was in, don’t despair. Apparently, there’s at least one way to try to find out whether you have any forgotten accounts floating around: by using Google’s “find your email” page. This looks for any Google accounts that are associated with an email address or phone number that you may have entered as a “recovery” account — one that can be used to prove your identity should you lose the password to another Google account.
Here’s how you do it.
- Go to http://accounts.google.com/signin/usernamerecovery and enter any email accounts or phone numbers that you’ve had for a while and that may have been used as recovery info.
This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.