How To Delete Your Google Account

I mentioned last month that one of my old Google accounts had been compromised, and I explained how I secured it.  I decided to delete that account, given I wasn't using it.

First, I made sure I was signed into the appropriate Google account.  I can't imagine how upsetting it would be to delete my primary account with all of my e-mail, my calendar, and my blog attached to it!

If you have a brand account, you can delete it (or transfer the account) from here.  Click on brand accounts.

I don't even know what the top "brand account" was for.  I knew I didn't want it, though.  So I clicked on "Delete Account."

I had to enter the account password again.  (Again, make sure you are within the correct Google account if you're doing following these steps!)  Then I had to enter a code from a text since I have two-factor authentication set up.

You'll have to read a page with some important language and check some boxes.  But then you can delete your brand account.

Then it's on to deleting data.  I deleted all my contacts.

I made sure all of my photos were downloaded and deleted.

I made sure all of my books had been transferred.

And I made sure I transferred all the data from my old calendar to my current one.

Wondering how to download all of that information?  In your Google Dashboard, you'll see panes like this.  Click on those dots.  Then click on "Download data."

When you're finished deleting everything, you can (FINALLY!) delete your account.  AGAIN, make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN you are logged in on the correct account before you take this step!

I'll be honest.  I found this endeavor more than a little stressful because Google frequently insists on returning to my default account, which I definitely do NOT want deleted.  I decided to log out of all of my other accounts next time I delete another account to prevent such a mistake.

My personal goal is to delete one account a week until I have all of them deleted.  Sadly, I have about ten from the last decade-plus--and various blogs and other ventures.  I'll likely update this post as I delete additional accounts, particularly given this old account had very little data within it compared to my other accounts.  I will note that even this outdated account with little data required about an hour to delete.  I can't imagine the time required to delete my current personal account.

I'm hopeful you found this post helpful.  If so, I'd love it if you'd share it.  Click on the image that looks like this at the top or bottom of this post to do that.

If you have any suggestions for this post, please leave me a comment.  I'll respond in a week or so.

Blessings,

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