Samsung users have just eight weeks—until July 31, 2025—to breathe life back into any accounts that have been gathering digital dust. Under a newly announced policy, Samsung will consider any account that hasn’t seen activity for 24 months to be “inactive” and will permanently delete it, along with all associated data, once that deadline hits. If you haven’t signed into your Samsung account for a couple of years, now’s the time to log in or risk losing everything.

In an effort to protect user data and streamline its account ecosystem, Samsung is taking a hard line on accounts that haven’t been accessed in two years. Company representatives say that accounts sitting idle for lengthy periods could become targets for unauthorized access or simply clutter internal systems, making it harder to keep genuine user data safe. By removing these neglected accounts, Samsung hopes to reduce potential security risks and free up resources that could otherwise be devoted to active customers.

This move echoes similar initiatives by other tech giants that periodically purge inactive accounts to tighten security and comply with evolving data-protection regulations. Still, for long-time Samsung customers who have bought a new phone, switched to another brand, or created multiple secondary accounts over the years, the notice has come as a surprise. Many users rely on their Samsung account to sync device settings, back up photos, track fitness data, or manage subscriptions—services they may not even realize are linked until it’s too late.

A Samsung account isn’t just a username and password—it’s the key to a suite of interconnected services. From the Galaxy Store (where you might have paid for apps) to Samsung Health (where your step counts, sleep patterns, and workout logs reside) and Galaxy Wearables (which stores configuration data for your smartwatch), many features hinge on a live Samsung ID. Lose your account, and you lose access to all of that.

Even if you link your Samsung account to a Google or Microsoft ID for login convenience, the underlying Samsung account remains distinct—and its deletion won’t transfer any data to those third-party platforms. That means your backed-up contacts, device preferences, and cloud-stored photos could vanish forever with no chance of recovery. According to Samsung, “if an account is deleted, access to the account will be restricted and all data linked to the account will be deleted. Accounts and data that are deleted cannot be restored.”

Beyond individual app data, there’s also potential for lost purchase history. Any paid apps or in-app purchases made through the Galaxy Store will be inaccessible once the account is gone. Even if you later create a new Samsung account, those purchases won’t transfer over, meaning you’d have to re-buy anything you once paid for.

Not every dormant Samsung account is up for deletion. Samsung’s policy explicitly spares three categories of accounts:

1. Registered family accounts: If your account is part of a Samsung Family Group and someone in that group uses Samsung services regularly, your account will remain active.
2. Accounts with reward-point activity: Any account that has accumulated or redeemed Samsung Rewards points within the last two years will be considered active, irrespective of login frequency.
3. Accounts tied to purchases on Samsung’s website: If you’ve bought anything directly from Samsung—phones, TVs, or appliances—through your Samsung account in that 24-month window, you’re safe.

That said, if you signed up for a Samsung account to try an app a few years ago and then abandoned it, your account likely doesn’t meet any of these exceptions. You’ll need to take direct action—logging in at least once before July 31—to keep it from being marked inactive.

How to keep your account alive?

Thankfully, evading deletion is as simple as logging in or using any Samsung service while signed in. Samsung’s own FAQ clarifies that “at least one usage or activity detected for the account every two years” will suffice to maintain active status. This “activity” can be as minimal as:

• Signing into your Samsung account via the web (at account.samsung.com).
• Opening any Samsung app (like Samsung Health or Galaxy Wearables) on a device while logged in.
• Making a purchase through the Galaxy Store or Samsung’s online shop.

Once Samsung detects that one qualifying action, the 24-month “inactivity clock” resets. You don’t need to spend hours browsing or downloading content—just a single authenticated session will do.

If you’re not sure which of your email addresses or usernames is linked to a Samsung account—or if you suspect you may have two or three old accounts—you can visit Samsung’s account recovery page and request a reminder email. However, be aware that if the email account itself is dormant or you’ve forgotten the password, you might not get that message in time. It’s best to proactively attempt sign-in now with any email/username combinations you once owned.

What to do if you don’t care to save it?

If you’ve long since abandoned Samsung’s ecosystem and have no intention of ever returning, you might welcome this cleanup. Allowing Samsung to delete your account is essentially the same as manually deleting it yourself—just with less effort. But pause for a moment before letting it happen: you’ll be locked out of any connected services that still rely on that account. Even if you don’t use Samsung–branded phones, you might have one-off purchases in the Galaxy Store or saved workout data in Health that you didn’t realize was still on there.

If you’re absolutely sure you don’t need the account, you could also delete it yourself ahead of time: go to your Samsung account settings and choose “Delete account” to handle it on your own schedule. That way, you know exactly which data will be erased and can back up anything of value first—like contacts synced through Samsung Cloud, or notes saved in Samsung Notes. But if you let Samsung handle it automatically, you forego the chance to extract any remaining data.