Old accounts can vanish faster than you think. Gmail, Shutterfly, Dropbox, Yahoo, and more may delete your photos, emails, and memories if you haven’t signed in. Here’s how long you really have to log in before it’s all gone.
⚠️ Keep your email private: Big email providers like Gmail and Yahoo track what you do. I use StartMail because it keeps my inbox secure, stops spam and keeps my personal info private. Try it free for 7 days, and when you sign up, you’ll get my 60% off deal for the first year! It’s a terrific service.
📧 Share Gmail without your password: Need to give someone access to your inbox? Go to Settings > See all settings > Accounts and Import > Grant access to your account > Add another account. Enter their email, and they’ll get an invite. Easy.
📅 Invite from hell: One poisoned Google Calendar invite can trick ChatGPT into leaking Gmail if connectors are on. Apple folks recently got hit, too, with fake iCloud invites pushing PayPal scams. Different tech, same headache. Fix your calendar settings so only invites from people you actually know land on your schedule. In Google Calendar, go to Settings > Event settings > Add invitations to my calendar, and switch it to Only if the sender is known.
💥 The 1-star shakedown: Scammers are flooding small businesses with fake one-star nasty Google reviews, then demanding big money (paywall link) to take them down. Contractors, movers, roofers, you name it. Victims report losing thousands in jobs while paying bribes. Because in 2025, your biggest threat isn’t a guy named Vinnie, it’s a burner Gmail account.
📦 Gmail’s getting a Purchases tab: Instead of making you dig through your inbox, all your order-related emails (like Amazon confirmations and shipping estimates) will now show up in one spot. On mobile and web, you’ll find it in the left panel. And yes, the package tracker for deliveries arriving within 24 hours still appears at the top of your inbox.
⚠️ Keep your email private: Big email providers like Gmail and Yahoo track what you do. I use StartMail because it keeps my inbox secure, stops spam with unlimited aliases, and it keeps my personal info private. You can try it free for 7 days, and when you sign up, you’ll get my 60% off deal for the first year! It’s a terrific service.
📧 Let Gmail give you nudges: Go to Settings > See all settings > General > Nudges. Toggle on Suggest emails to reply to, so unanswered questions resurface at the top of your inbox. Then toggle on Suggest emails to follow up on to remind you when someone hasn’t replied to your message.
♣️ Google laid its AI cards on the table: Google quietly dropped limits for Gemini. Free users get five prompts per day, 100 images per month and five long-form deep dives. The Gemini Advanced (Ultra 1.5) plan runs $19.99/month and bumps you up to 500 prompts per day, 1,000 images per month and daily high-powered file analysis using Gemini in Gmail, Docs and more.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: In Gmail on desktop, you can change how closely emails are spaced in your inbox. Go to Settings > Density and choose Default, Comfortable or Compact.
✍️ Add a signature in Gmail: Go to Settings > See all settings > General > Signature. Click Create new, give it a name and type in details like your contact info and job title. You can also insert an image of your real signature. Then choose whether it appears on new emails, replies or both. Scroll down and hit Save Changes.
📞 Nice try, scam daddy: Heads up, if your phone rings and it says “Google Support” (+1-650-253-0000), don’t pick up. Hackers are spoofing Google’s real number, pretending to be tech support, and tricking people into resetting their Gmail password. Do that, and you’re locked out of your own inbox. Google swears they’ll never call you, so just hang up and check your account yourself.
I cut the cord, and you should, too: If you’ve linked ChatGPT to Gmail, Google Drive or anything personal, listen up. Researchers found that one poisoned document can trick the AI into spilling sensitive info. No clicks, no alerts. We’re talking leaked emails, stolen files, even access to your accounts. I cut all GPT connections in my settings. You should, too.
📧 Take back that Gmail oops: Sent the wrong message? Click the Gear icon in the top-right > See all settings > under General, find Undo Send and set the Send cancellation period to 30 seconds. Next time you slip up, just hit Undo in the bottom-left.
Set up Gmail vacation auto-replies: Go to Settings > See all settings > General and scroll down to Vacation responder. Turn it on, pick your First day and Last day from the calendars, add a Subject line, and write your Message (include your return date). Now click Save Changes at the bottom.
📧 Big Tech is reading your emails: Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, so annoying. They all snoop on what you open, click and even say. I use StartMail because it puts privacy first: no ads, no tracking, and encrypted email with unlimited disposable addresses. Try it free for 7 days right now, and get 60% off. It’s what I use, and I trust it.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: In Gmail, type “older_than:6m” in the search bar to find emails over 6 months old. Want to go deeper? Try “older_than:1y” to get stuff from a year ago. Wicked smart.
Customize your Gmail inbox: By default, Gmail shows 1–50 conversations per page. The alternative? Go to Settings (top right) > See all settings > General > Maximum page size. Now pick between 10 and 100, scroll down and hit Save Changes.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Switch between Gmail accounts fast. Tap your profile icon (top right), select Add another account and sign in. Now tap the profile icon again to swap between inboxes.
Find big files in Gmail: You can clear up space by searching for bulky emails. In the Gmail search bar, type filename:mp4 or filename:png to find large attachments. You can also search by size with larger:10mb. Select what you don’t need, and hit Delete to clean up your inbox.