Ever wondered when your Google account came into existence? It’s surprisingly tricky to pinpoint that date, but there’s a round-about official way to find your Google account’s birthday.
Google Takeout is the key. This tool lets you download a copy of your Google data, and hidden within it is your account’s creation date and time. It sounds like overkill, but the process is pretty straightforward.
1
Head to Google Takeout and Select Your Data
First, navigate to Google Takeout. You’ll be greeted with a long list of Google services. Click “Deselect All” to avoid downloading a bunch of unnecessary data.
Next, scroll down until you find “Google Account” (it’s described as “Data about registration and Account Activity”). Select the checkbox next to it, then scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Next Step.”
2
You’ll now be presented with options for your export. Unless you have specific preferences, you can generally stick with the defaults. However, if you’re on Windows, make sure the “File Type” is set to “.zip.” macOS and Linux users can choose either “.zip” or “.tgz.” Click “Create Export.”
3
Download Your Archive
Google will now prepare your archive. You can either stay on the page and refresh it or wait for the email notification. In my experience, it’s pretty quick.
Once the download is ready, you’ll see a download button at the top of the page. Click it, enter your password if prompted, and download the file. The file size should be pretty small.
4
Find Your Account’s Birthday
The downloaded file will be a compressed archive (.zip or .tgz). Open it up. Inside, you’ll find a folder named “Takeout,” within that, “Google Account,” and finally, a file named “username.SubscriberInfo.html” (where “username” is your Google username). Open this HTML file in your web browser or text editor.
Near the top of the page, you’ll see “Created On.” This is the exact date and time your Google account was created, down to the second. The date format is YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss and the time zone is Z (UTC+0).
5
Bonus: Find When You Started Using Google Services
You may have noticed there are two files in the “Google Account” folder. The “username.ChangeHistory.html” file is essentially a timeline of when you started using Google services, such as YouTube, Google Photos, Gmail, and much, much more. It also shows which service you originally created your Google account for.
In my case, I created a Google account so I could use the 3D Warehouse with Sketchup.
A couple of years later, I got much more involved with Google, signing up for YouTube, Google Calendar, Google Drive, and Gmail. Fascinating!
For those of us who have been using the internet for a long time, it’s fun to look back at how we started. I was very surprised to find out I had a Google account a couple of years before I started using Gmail. 2008 was apparently a big year for Google services because that’s when I began using many of them. The more you know!
