Google closing free Google Apps accounts due to inactivity
If you have a free Google Apps account you better check your emails as Google is currently sending out emails stating that accounts will be automatically closed for inactivity.
While those messages have been sent in the past, it appears that they have been sent out in bulk in the past 24 hour period.
The emails state that users have 30 days to sign in to the Google Apps account to prevent termination of it. According to that message, all you have to do to make the account active again is to sign in to the Google Apps account.
Google is furthermore sending out 15 day notices and termination messages, and what makes this kinda puzzling to some users is that they may have received all those messages in a short period of time instead of the 30 day period referenced in the first email.
Others have received the emails in the 30 day period listed in the first email message.
Here is a termination message:
Hello,
There hasn’t been any activity on your Google Apps account for the domain domainname.ext since we sent your termination notice 30 days ago.
Your domainname.ext Google Apps account has been closed.
You can still check or save your data. Just sign in to admin.google.com as xxx in the next 30 days and export your data. If you forgot your username or password, click the “Need help?†link, and we’ll help you access your account.Your account will be automatically terminated on May 18th 2014. Once your account is terminated, you can no longer access any Google Apps services with this domain name. All of your 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 Google Apps account with this domain name.
Visit the Google Apps Help Center to learn more about closing inactive accounts.
We hope you’ve enjoyed using Google Apps. If you would like to continue using these services, we invite you to create a new Google Apps for Business account.
Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team
If you check the Google Apps support forum, you notice that many users are affected by this. Most have stated that they have signed in to their account to avoid termination, but that accounts have been terminated anyway by the company.
We know that only free Google Apps account owners are affected by the issue. According to some reports, Google seems to have sent out these messages in error.
Some users have contacted the company and Google seems to have responded to them stating that the termination messages were sent out in error.
Hello,
Earlier today you may have received an email informing you that your Google Apps account for the domain domainname.ext has been Closed due to inactivity and will be Terminated on 5-19-2014. This email was incorrectly sent to you because of an inconsistency in our records. The problem was strictly on our end, and none of the data in your account were lost or affected by the error.We have confirmed that you have logged into your account. Your account has not been Closed and will remain active. No further action is required on your part. You may continue to use your Google Apps account normally.
We sincerely apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team
Since free Google Apps users do not get phone or email support, it is difficult to contact Google about the issue. Users who can still sign in to their account can use the "send feedback" option to contact Google about it.
To do so, click on the question mark icon on Google Apps near the top right corner of the screen and select the Send feedback option there.
Here you can then state your concern. Note that this is not a guarantee that you will receive a response from Google, or that terminated accounts will be restored again by the company.
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Really strange.
I never new that google-apps has anything to do with domains.
Or is this only a special case to prevent free parking of domains?
I got that once for my google voice account about 6 months ago. To my knowledge they have been doing this for a while.
I received a message from GApps two montha or so back for a domain that I did not renew almost three years ago. I let it expire since I no longer own the domain. I still have three other domains that have free GApps, and I’ll make sure they are all active.
I have quite a few GApps domains setup for clients that i registered when they were free, and came with 100 users (or maybe its 50 – i haven’t had any hit the limit yet).
I received five of the erroneous cancelled emails, then five retractions a little later.