How to delete or deactivate Google account

Do you want to get rid of your Google account? Well, you are in the right place. In this article, I’ll be telling you simple steps to delete or deactivate Google account! Notably, you can wholly eliminate or disable your Google account in just one tap. That said, you can also opt for deletion of specific services from your account including Gmail, Youtube amongst others.

How to delete or deactivate Google account?

There might come a rare occasion when you don’t need your Google account anymore. Now that you won’t be using it anymore, it’s better to bid goodbye by deleting it altogether. Such situations sporadically arise where you want to abandon a Google account for specific reasons completely. That being said, I’ll show you steps to delete or deactivate Google account! But, do remember that deletion will be permanent. Fortunate enough, you can download your important data before doing the same.

Before you delete Google Account- BackUp your Google Data

If you’re going to delete your Google account or even Gmail account solely, it’s always recommended to download and save your data beforehand. To back up your data:

• Open your web browser and go to https://myaccount.google.com/ and navigate to “Data & Personalisation” on the left sidebar.
• Scroll down and tap on “Download your Data” option under the “Download, delete, or make a plan for your data” heading.
• Select the Google products you want to include in your archive. After that, configure the settings for each product and click “Next.“
• Now, customize archive format, delivery method, and archive size.
  • Choose the file type amongst .zip, .tgz, and .tbz
  • Select the archive size between 1 GB to 50 GB (It will be split into a smaller size if the size is too big)
  • Opt for a direct download link or save the backup on Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive as its delivery method
• Lastly, tap on “Create Archive” and the data will be sent to you using as per the chosen delivery method.

What happens when you delete your Google Account?

Now that you’ve backed up your data, it’s important to know what happens when you delete your Google account. Once you delete your Google account:

• You’ll lose access to all the data and content in that account including emails, files, photos, and calendars.
• You won’t be able to use Google services to sign in on services like Gmail, Drive, Calendar, or Google Pay.
• You’ll be losing subscriptions and content you bought with that account be it on YouTube or Google Play. It includes content like apps, movies, games, music, and TV shows.
• Your Google Chrome history, Saved passwords, bookmarks won’t be accessible anymore.
• Your Gmail address will be deleted. Emails sent to the respective Gmail address won’t reach you. Nonetheless, your address can’t be used again by you or anyone else.
• You’ll lose all your Contacts synced with the account.
• You’ll miss your account on the apps, games, and services where you have used the above Google account to sign up. Hence, better connect another authentication service before deleting your Google account.

Permanently Delete your Google Account in 2 minutes

Once you are entirely sure about losing the stuff mentioned above then carefully proceed with the steps below to delete your Google account:

1. Go to your Google Account settings and navigate to “Data and Personalisation.”
2. Scroll below, look for “Download, delete, or make a plan for your data” heading and tap “Delete a service or your account” option.
3. Next, click “Delete your account,” re-enter your account password and proceed with the on-screen instructions.

Once the above steps are complete, Google will completely erase your information from its ecosystem. If in case you change your mind then you can revert the deletion process by logging into your account within a time frame of 2-3 weeks.

Individually Delete Gmail, Youtube and other Google Services from Account

What if you want to delete a particular service from your account? Well, no need to completely remove your account in this case! To delete Gmail, Youtube, Google Plus or any other Google service, follow the instructions below:

• Follow Step 1 and Step 2 from the above procedure of removing the account.
• Once you are under “Delete a service or your account” tab, tap on “Delete a service” option.
• Re-enter your password.
• On the next page, you can pick the service you would like to delete.

To delete your Gmail account, click the trashcan icon next to Gmail. You can do the same for Youtube, Play Games, Google Play, Google Plus, etc. This way, you can remove a particular Google service without affecting your Google Account.

So these were some methods on how to remove Google account! Let us know your queries (if any) in the comments section below. We’d also love to see the reason you planned of deleting your Google Account. Stay tuned for more such articles.