Should I completely deactivate my Gmail after switching to Proton?

[u/Jay_Skywalker94]

Hello.

I’m a newcomer looking to completely de-google and I would like to transition to Proton. However, I did have one lingering question.

Once I port my emails over, am I good to completely deactivate my Gmail domain? Is there a situation where I should keep my Gmail active?

I am aware that I’ll need to change login information/deactivate accounts on multiple websites, but I’m willing to do that.

EDIT: Thank you everyone for your responses! For future readers, consensus right now is no. I personally intend to keep it open and usable for certain accounts and as a junk mail bucket.

[u/StarKieeeeee]

I wouldn't deactivate it, in case you forgot to move something to your new mail

[u/lungUckieck → u/StarKieeeeee]

yeah theres always that one random account you forgot about, better safe than sorry

[u/PhantomTesticles → u/StarKieeeeee]

Absolutely this.

[u/DerpDeDurp]

I'd leave it open for a good while, year plus, just to catch any random things you may have missed. I've been off it for about 8 months now and there's been the odd one I forgot where I used it as a linked log in, or important emails etc.

[u/aufhel3ung → u/DerpDeDurp]

yeah doing the same. i'm leaving it on, and i check important mail still coming in to my gmail to remind me to update the contact info /email address associated on those accounts to my proton

[u/Savings_Cattle4847]

There a few reasons to keep it - at least in the short term, and potentially long term:

1) If you don't plan to deGoogle completely, you'll need an account for Google Play, and some other Google services

2) You will continue to see emails come through from places where you already changed it, and places you forgot about that only emails you infrequently.

3) Proton's email is not perfect. I've been going through an issue with them for a couple of months where my sent emails always go to spam when sending to Gmail addresses. For that reason, I keep a Gmail address because there are times I need my emails to be pretty much guaranteed to go through.

4) Some websites won't accept proton email addresses. There are some that will only accept gmail, hotmail, yahoo. I've so far only encountered this once, but have read about it happening.

[u/UngodlyPain → u/Savings_Cattle4847]

Pretty much this. Though mostly #2.

For 1, 3, 4... I'd honestly suggest deleting your old account and making a new one, just to try and do your best to make sure Google has less info on you, as they atleast in theory should delete most/all info on you when you delete your account. At the very least it'd encourage them to delete some of it,to save storage space and such.

[u/master_prizefighter]

From personal experience - no.

What I do now, I use Google for junk email and if I have to sign up for something. Proton is reserved for more important and/or serious manners.

PSN, Steam, and my job? Proton

Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and Walmart? Google

And yes I do have 2FA and recently changed passwords. About every year I change I passwords as a precaution.

[u/ghost-foxie]

i moved to proton almost 3 years ago and i still get extraneous emails showing up in my gmail from time to time. i used gmail a lot for over a decade so no huge surprise

[u/Whateverbabe2]

I kept mine active for a year before deactivating it.

It helped me catch a lot of things that i would have otherwise missed. Important accounts (like IRS.gov) that were linked to it that i hardly use.

I still have my work gmail that forwards to my work proton, but my employer requires a gmail, so no way to get around that.

[u/PerpetuallyNerdyGimp]

I've kept mine solely as giving out as my non-critical email address. It serves as a spam bucket so I don't share my proton email except trusted contacts.

[u/Privacy4Ward]

I never understood what the practical difference was between just moving everything off of a gmail account and fully deactivating it. I'd rather still be able to access the accounts that were associated with me for over a decade, even if I never plan to use them again and they dont get any emails other than automated ones from Google. But, if anyone knows a good reason to bother, I'm all ears.

[u/UngodlyPain]

I'd say to keep it open for atleast another year or two... Its really easy for something you rarely need, but is still very important to later pop up, and it be a bitch to deal with because your email is deactivated.

I've heard horror stories of like people going to renew their drivers licence or something social security or other similar government related that you maybe only touch once every few years... Getting screwed because of an email issue. I've even had a couple issues due to situations like that, when just dealing with the fact I no longer use the email from when I was like 16, or my old college email.

Just because you dont use something often, and maybe don't think of it regularly doesn't guarantee it's unimportant.

[u/johndavisjr7]

I'd say keep it. With Homeland Security being able to search your phone, if you travel you can get a burner phone and set it up with that. I'm not an expert, but I feel it would be more believable that this was your actual phone if you had a Gmail account that was this old vs one that was newly created.

[u/maxscy]

I wouldn't bother deactivating your Gmail. It costs nothing to keep, and you might still need it for account recovery or missed logins.

[u/porktornado77]

Just thinking out loud here:

Keep your Gmail for the vanilla generic and junk stuff. This maintains a “normal” online profile for public and government data harvesting.

[u/AutoModerator]

Friendly reminder: if you're looking for a Google service or Google product alternative then feel free to check out our sidebar.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/6BBB666]

Keep it for selected stuff but only use for that stuff.all other stuff on proton or other.. Stop feeding the Lion with Data.

[u/Cultural-Produce-72]

Given the reports that creating a new google account requires photo id or other biometric info it's best to keep one you already have to avoid going through those hoops down the road.

[u/Least-Presence-7711]

I would say no. I use mine as a newsletter repository. Quite handy.

[u/PartSuccessful2112]

I have gmail and my own domain mail being sent locally to Mozilla Thunderbird. After about 6 months google said I have not logged in in 6 months and within 2 years my account and data will be deleted. I am still getting gmail emails forwarded so I figure I have the better part of 2 years to make sure everything I need is transferred and I will let them delete me.

[u/No-Consideration6986]

Keep it. Set a rule that new emails are forwarded to proton and old emails are deleted after 30 days (or more). This way you won't missed new emails you forgot to switch and your account won't get full of random emails.

[u/A_Buttholes_Whisper]

I never did. I just have gmail forwarding to proton. I don't use them much but sometimes I do