It is more than likely that you will be happy with your Google Account until Jeeves returns from the dead to regain dominance in the search market (in other words, forever). However, I met a few strange instances Recently, Google was deleting users’ accounts for no rhyme or reason so that they could no longer access what they had stored on Google services (a lot) and had no real resources to get it back.
The solution? Well, there is nothing I can do to help you get back into a Google disabled account. I’m missing a magic wand that has no effect in Mountain View. However, if you regularly back up all the data that you store on Google services, the pain won’t be so bad if or when Google cancels you.
How to backup Gmail
It’s easy: just upload yours Favorite email client and connect it to your Gmail (with IMAP, not POP3). Once you’ve downloaded your email, your desktop client can, without exception, back up or export anything in your various folders. If you do, you are doubly sure. You have all of your emails on your desktop or laptop and a backup archive that you can re-import into any email client you want in case something ever goes wrong.
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The only thing to remember is to load up your desktop app from time to time and sync your Gmail account. Both Windows and Mac have very useful tools for scheduling apps to run, so you can set up a routine that lets your email app start at noon every day, for example. It should sync your emails automatically and you are good to go. At the very least, running your email client manually (inconsistently) means you’ve always backed up a good chunk of your old to very old emails.
How to backup your Google Drive
For this I just turn to the aptly named Back up and sync App from Google. When you install it, it will put a folder on your desktop or laptop and copy everything in your Google Drive straight down. Any changes you make to the desktop folder are synced to the cloud and vice versa.
The only downside to this plan is that Google Docs that are created in your synced folder – your documents, sheets, slides, forms, and so on – are actually saved as hyperlinks on your system, rather than local documents. To actually back them up, you have to go to your Google Drive on the web, select them (which you can do en masse), right click and select “Download”.
How to backup your Google Photos
This is difficult. Google Backup and Sync only works with files in your Google Drive, not Google Photos. There’s no handy app that lets you sync everything you’ve uploaded there. Instead, your best bet is to use it Google Takeout You can back up all of your photos and movies – also a handy way to back up all of your data stored on Google if you don’t want to take the step-by-step approach.
The catch? Google Takeout backs up all data every time it runs. So, every time you run the backup, you’ll get a large download that mostly consists of the same things. On the plus side, you can have Google automatically create a link to this gigantic archive every two months and have it emailed to you (for a year until you have to set it up again).
Knowing that all you always do is upload new photos and movies to Google Photos, you can run Google Takeout once to get a full backup of all the data you have, and then just search for the current year, “2021,” then choose Google Photos in periodically everything it finds and download it manually. It’s more work and you need to think about it, but you save a few gigabytes worth of data transfer.
How to Back Up Your Google Play Apps, Games, Movies, etc.
You can not. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any way to access items that you have purchased on Google Play if your account is deleted (or removed) by Google. While it is possible that you can still use these apps and games on your Android device, they will remain with the version that was there before you removed your account. You can’t update them to access the Google Play Store without an account. Likewise, you will not be able to access your purchased movies, music or TV shows because your account no longer exists. (You can try Download them for offline viewing, but this is going to be a pretty space-saving process if you do this for everything you’ve bought; Even if it works after removing the account, you will only be able to view the content on that device.)
Basically, if you’ve bought a lot of things on Google Play and don’t want to lose access to them, don’t upset Google. Don’t do anything with your Google Accounts that could otherwise cause Google to use “hmm” as it will run its mighty hand over the delete button for your account.
How to back up your Chrome bookmarks
I’m honestly not sure what would happen to your Chrome bookmarks if you synced them through Google and the company destroyed your account. I would assume they are still there in your browser – the source of the sync – but just in case it never hurts to visit your bookmarks manager (chrome: // bookmarks / in your address bar). Click on the three-dot icon in the upper right corner and select “Export Bookmarks”.
How to backup your google contacts
If you use Google to manage your contacts, be sure to save them to a different location from time to time. I suspect they will disappear from your linked devices in case you ever lose access to your account. Even if I’m wrong, a little backup didn’t hurt anyone. visit Google contacts and click on “Export contacts” In the left sidebar you can download all your contacts as a handy CSV file or vCard.
How to secure your Google Authenticator 2FA codes
If you are worried about losing access to your Google Account, diversifying your services can be another. Switch from Google Authenticator to another appand anything that happens to your google account will not affect your precious 2FA codes. They know exactly the things that you use to log into every other account.
The same applies to your saved Google passwords. When using Google’s password manager to save all of your website logins, this is something to keep in mind Switch to another (free) service. Export your passwords is easy – just as easy as importing it elsewhere. Nothing against the Google tools, but if you put all your eggs in one basket and lose access to that basket, you’re kind of confused.