If you turn off Keep Activity in Gemini and Drive, Docs, Gmail, and even other connected apps disappear, it's mostly not a sudden expiration of authorization, but Google now binds "Keep Activity off" and "most connected apps are unavailable".
Gemini's official help is clear: when Keep Activity is turned off, many connected apps and integrated services will be unavailable. For many users, the most obvious manifestation is that the Workspace app suddenly becomes unusable. You may mistakenly think that there is a problem with the account permissions, but in fact it is a product rule.
Therefore, when encountering this situation, do not reconnect your account first, and first confirm whether you have just changed the Activity settings. The order of investigation is recommended as follows:
1. Open Gemini's Activity settings first and see if Keep Activity is turned off.
2. If you just turned it off, check back to see if the one you want to use belongs to Workspace or another connected app.
3. Understand that this is not a single application hanging, but the entire class of capabilities will be affected.
4. If you have to continue using Drive, Docs, Gmail, etc., you usually have to reopen Keep Activity.
Why is the platform designed this way? Because many cross-application capabilities inherently require a continuous context and activity processing link, this link is tightened together when the Keep Activity is closed. For users, the result is greater privacy, but also reduced functionality.
The range available on different devices will also vary. For example, in some Android scenarios, Utilities, Phone, Messages, WhatsApp and other functions will still be retained after closing, but this does not mean that the Workspace series will continue to be available. If you rely primarily on Gemini to read your email, pull your calendar, and find documents, don't think of this setting as "just don't keep history".
The easiest pitfall is that users want Gemini to keep no activity logs at all, while also wanting it to continue to call all Google services seamlessly. This combination is not supported by current products. So when you find that Docs and Gmail suddenly can't be used, think about whether the privacy settings have tightened the scope of functions.
In a word, Keep Activity is not just a "do you want to save history" button in Gemini, it also affects the ability to connect to the app. When the Workspace app disappears after it is turned off, it's usually a rule, not a glitch.
