I've heard that Apple may delete an iCloud account if it hasn't been used for one year. Is that actually enforced, or is it only a provision in the iCloud terms? I'm especially interested in hearing from anyone whose account stayed active—or was deleted—after a long period without logging in.
2 Answers
I have an old iCloud account dating back to the MobileMe era that I stopped actively using years ago. I moved my purchases and most of my data to another Apple account, and I haven’t logged into the old one in roughly seven years. The email address was forwarded elsewhere, but the account still appears to be active. That suggests the policy may not be applied consistently, even though Apple reserves the right to close inactive accounts.
The iCloud terms do allow Apple to terminate an account after one year of inactivity, but the wording says Apple “may” do so rather than promising that every inactive account will be deleted. The terms also say Apple should provide 30 days’ notice by email to the address linked to the account.
So it sounds like the one-year period is a possible trigger, not an automatic deletion deadline. I was mainly wondering whether anyone had actually seen it happen.
That’s useful firsthand evidence, although receiving or forwarding mail might count as some account activity—or Apple may simply not enforce the clause uniformly.