Google has started sending out a new round of emails warning users that they need to back up their Google+ data before April 2, 2019, or it will be deleted.
In October 2018, Google announced that they were shutting down their consumer Google+ social platform in August 2019 due to lack of use and API bug that was discovered that leaked user information. After another bug was disclosed in December 2018, Google decided to move up the retirement date for the consumer platform to April 2019.
Today, Google has started emailing Google+ users who have data saved on the platform telling them to download their data before it becomes deleted as part of this closure.
"You’ve received this email because you have content in Google+ for your personal (consumer) account or a Google+ page you manage.
This is a reminder that on April 2, 2019 we’re shutting down consumer Google+ and will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts. Photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and your Google+ pages will also be deleted."
Google+ Email - click to enlargeFor those who wish to
back up their Google+ data, you can follow these steps:
1. Go to the
Google+ Data Download page.
2. Select all the data categories you wish to save. I suggest you put a checkmark in all of them.
3. Click on
Next Step.
4. At the next page, specify how you would like to retrieve your archive, whether that be through an emailed link or saved to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box. You can also configure the type of archive it is and how large each file should be.
5. When done, click on the
Create Archive button and Google will begin to prepare the archive for you. If you do not have a lot of data, it should be done very quickly while you wait.
When done, you will be presented with an archive that contains all of your textual content saved in HTML files and your photos saved as individual images.
Archived Data - click to enlargeThe email further states that you should download your data before March 31st, 2019 as it could take some time to prepare your data and make it available.
