Email address expired?
Posted on September 24, 2009 under Email | Leave a comment
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I used to have an email address but it seems it has expired. Can this happen? is there an expiration date of an email?
Noemi Blaza
Let me start with a cliche – ‘Nothing lasts forever’ – sorry, couldn’t help it. But it is a fact – everything will die or “expire” one day. And the same holds true for an email address. Technically, it would be more correct to refer to an email account as “closed” or “deleted” instead of saying the email address has expired.
The email address becomes non-existent once the account is closed
All email addresses have the format: someone@somewhere. The “someone” part is the ID (sometimes also called the username or account name) while the “somewhere” is the domain / server name. When an email account is closed, i.e., the user is removed, the email address becomes non-existent. Any correspondence sent to such an account would be returned to the sender.
Do email addresses from Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail expire?
Email addresses from the three most popular services – Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail – will not expire as long as you continue to use the account regularly. (This is obviously assuming that the service itself will keep on running). However, each service has specified a period of inactivity. If you don’t log in once during this time period, the account will be closed and the email address will, thus, expire.
| Service | Time after which email will expire because of account inactivity |
|---|---|
| Gmail | 9 months |
| Hotmail | 270 days |
| Yahoo! Mail | 4 months |
Why do these services have this period of inactivity?
Well, it’s quite logical isn’t it? If an email account hasn’t been checked in many months, the account holder no longer cares about it and the service will delete it to free up resources. Thus, to prevent your Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo email address from expiring, all you need to do it log in at your account at least once before the inactivity period ends.
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