If I Don't Use My E-mail, Will I Lose It? (2024)

Users who don't use their e-mail can lose their e-mail address or can encounter issues with being able to receive new e-mails. Below is few of the more common reasons why a user may lose their e-mail address.

E-mail expires or disables with inactivity

Many free online e-mail services disable or delete an e-mail account that is not in use for so many days. For example, users who do not log into their e-mail account at least once every thirty-days can have their accounts deactivated.

However, most users who pay for e-mail or have e-mail provided by their ISP (Internet service provider) will not have their e-mail disabled or discontinued. However, you may encounter quota issues as explained below.

If your e-mail address is disabled or discontinued, you permanently lose all e-mail received, and any e-mail addresses or contacts kept by the service.

E-mail exceeds allocated quota or allocated message count

Although exceeding the allocated quota (your account's available storage space) does not disable your e-mail account, it prevents you from receiving any new e-mail messages. To help save disk space, many e-mail providers give each user only so much space to store their e-mail online. If you do not maintain your e-mail or download e-mail to your computer often enough, you can run out of space and be unable to accept new e-mail messages.