Doug Wilson
1 min readOct 5, 2023

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All *excellent* advice. Just one caveat here.

Some online services have thresholds that detect prolonged inactivity. I've seen some as short as 90 days. After that, the whole account, which could include email history, documents, spreadsheets, etc could become inaccessible or even be deleted.

Google recently updated their default inactivity period to two years, which should give ample time to take action, but it's not something that can be safely put off forever.

Read more about their Inactive Account Manager at https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546

Here you can set up a plan or "profile" to decide when Google should consider your Google Account inactive, who to notify and what to share, etc.

I also recommend the excellent Medium article "How to Help Your Loved Ones in the Event of Your Death" by Terrie Schweitzer (https://betterhumans.pub/how-to-help-your-loved-ones-in-the-event-of-your-death-58dc27d98972). Definitely worth a read.

Hope this is helpful.

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Doug Wilson
Doug Wilson

Written by Doug Wilson

Doug Wilson is an experienced software application architect, music lover, problem solver, former film/video editor, philologist, and father of four.

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