In this article

Introduction
How to delete a Google account?
How to delete a Gmail account?
Checklist for deleting a Google account

How to Delete a Google and Gmail Account

28 Dec 2021

10 min read

Preethi

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Article at a glance

Deleting a Google account involves multiple steps to ensure data is not lost. • Back up important data from Google services like Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos before deleting the account. • Transfer ownership of files and documents to another account to avoid losing access. • Consider using the SysCloud backup solution to securely back up all Google account data and ensure easy restoration.

Introduction

Wondering if it is possible to delete your Google account?

The answer is yes! If you do not want to continue your Google account, Google makes it possible that you can delete your account.

But before deleting your account, remember that your Google account, both personal and Workspace, might have data that you need to retain. Deleting a Google account will permanently delete all your emails in Gmail, files in the Drive, and any content that requires a Google login to access.

Once the account is deleted, the files cannot be recovered unless you have a third-party backup solution like SysCloud to backup and protect your data.

This article explores how to delete your Google Workspace or personal account. You'll also find a detailed explanation and step-by-step guide for deleting your Gmail account only instead of your Google account entirely.

How to delete a Google account?

1. For a Google account user

Follow these steps to permanently delete your Google account:

Step 1: Log in to Gmail with your account credentials.
Step 2: Click on the waffle icon at the top right-hand corner of the screen and select “Account.”

Step 3: On the left-side panel, select “Data & Privacy.”

Step 4: Under “Delete your Google Account” section, select “Delete your account.”

Step 5: Google will prompt you to sign in again for verification purposes.
Step 6: Check both the checkbox options and click “Delete Account.”

2. For a Google Workspace admin

1. Deleting a Google Workspace user

An admin can delete a Google Workspace user from the Admin Console and can also migrate all his data in the process. To learn more about it from our in-depth article, click here.

2. Deleting a Google Workspace admin

Deleting an administrator’s Google Apps account is similar to deleting any other user on your domain.

Although, admins have different privileges based on the role assigned to them.

So, before you delete an admin’s Google Workspace account, you have to log in to Google Workspace Admin Console and check the roles and privileges held by their user account.

Note:

1. To delete an admin account, you need to log in from another admin’s account.

2. If the person is the only admin, then assign the admin role to another user and login from that user’s admin account before you proceed.

How to check a Google Workspace user's roles and privileges on the Google Workspace admin console?

Follow these steps to check a Google Workspace user’s assigned roles and privileges:

Step 1: Log in to Google Workspace with your admin credentials and open the Google Admin console.
Step 2: Click “Users.”

Step 3: Click on the user’s name.

Step 4: Click “Admin roles and privileges.”

How to remove a Google Workspace user’s roles and privileges on the Google Workspace admin console?

After checking the roles and privileges, you can revoke the user’s administrative access with these steps:

Step 1: Follow the same steps for checking a Google Workspace user’s assigned roles and privileges.
Step 2: Toggle the assigned buttons to “Not assigned” and click “Save.”

Step 3: Follow the same procedure used for deleting a Google Workspace account user.

Note: If the user was terminated on short notice due to misconduct, then it is advisable to suspend the user’s account and implement all the required measures before removing administrative privileges.

3. Deleting an entire domain

How to remove a secondary domain (or domain alias) from the Google Workspace admin console?

Follow these steps to remove a secondary domain from Google Workspace Admin Console:

Step 1: Log in to Google Workspace with your admin credentials and open the Google Admin console.
Step 2: Click “Domains.”
Step 3: Click “Manage domains.”
Step 4: Click “Remove.”
Step 5: Click “REMOVE” to confirm your action.

How to delete a Google Workspace domain?

Follow these steps to delete a Google Workspace Domain:

Step 1: Log in to Google Workspace with your admin credentials and open the Google Admin console.
Step 2: Delete all user accounts, email aliases, and groups from your domain.
Step 3: Click “Domains.”
Step 4: Click “Add/remove domains.”
Step 5: Click “Manage domains.”
Step 6: Remove all the domain aliases and/or test domain aliases associated with your domain.
Step 7: Click “Remove” next to your domain name.
Step 8: Click “Remove” to confirm the deletion.

Note: If there are any users, groups or domain aliases remaining undeleted in your domain, you will get an error message and the domain deletion process will not be completed.

What happens after you delete your Google apps domain?

1. You will be automatically signed out of the Google Workspace Admin console.

2. You can no longer sign in to the Admin Console.

3. You will no longer be able to sign into any of the Google services or restore the deleted accounts.

4. Your company’s Google Account and all the user accounts in your domain will be deleted.

3. For a Google Workspace user

A Google Workspace user cannot delete their own user account. An admin can delete or suspend a Google Workspace user account.

How to delete a Gmail account?

Deleting a Google account can be simple. But if you do not have a backup for your Google data, it is not possible to recover it after you have deleted your account and will result in losing your data permanently.

If you're trying to delete your Google account because of an embarrassing username or mails that spam your inbox, you can delete your Gmail account separately without losing data from any other Google services.

When you delete a Gmail account. all your emails and account setting will be deleted, and the email address will not be available for anyone else to use in the future.

However, deleting a Gmail account does not delete the entire Google account and you will still be able to use other Google services like Drive and Photos.

Things to remember before you delete your Gmail account:

Deleting a Gmail account does not delete your Google account or remove your data from other Google services. However, along with not being able to send or receive emails, you will also not be able to access other accounts that are registered with your email nor reset their passwords.
You can download all your emails using Google Takeout before you delete the Gmail account as a backup for your emails.
Google Workspace administrators can use data migration feature from Google Admin Console to migrate a user’s email data to another user.

1. For a Google account user

Follow these steps to delete your Gmail application:

Step 1: Log in to Gmail with your account credentials.
Step 2: Click on the waffle icon at the top right-hand corner of the screen and select “Account.”

Step 3: On the left-side panel, select “Data &Privacy.”

Step 4: Under “Download or delete your data” section, select “Delete a Google service.”

Step 5: Google will prompt you to sign in again for verification purposes.
Step 6: Click on the delete icon next to “Gmail.”

Step 7: Enter an alternate email address and click “Send verification email.”

Note: This email address should be from another email service like Yahoo or Outlook; it cannot be another Gmail id.

Step 8: Log in to the alternate email address and open the email sent by Google.

Step 9: Click the deletion link and log in to your Gmail account again.
Step 10: Select “Yes, I want to delete(username)@gmail.com" and click “Delete Gmail” and then click “Done.”

Step 11: You will receive a notification that your Gmail account was successfully deleted from your Google account.

2. For a Google Workspace admin

You cannot delete any of the default Google Workspace Apps, but you can turn a specific application off for the users in your domain:

Step 1: Log in to Google Workspace with your admin credentials and open the Google Admin console.
Step 2: Click “Apps.”

Step 3: Click “Google Workspace.”

Step 4: Select “Gmail.”

Step 5: Select “OFF for everyone” and click on “Save.”

3. For a Google Workspace user

Note: You can also turn the applications on or off for a specific group or organizational unit in your domain.

Google Workspace users cannot delete or turn off default Google Workspace applications. Only an admin can disable Google Workspace applications for their domain users.

Checklist for deleting a Google account

What you need to do before deleting a Google account depends on whether you are a Google account user or a Google Workspace admin. If you are a Google Workspace admin, click here.

What are the important measures to be taken before you delete a Google account?

1. Migrate services associated with Gmail to alternate email address: If you have used your email ID to sign up for subscription services, social media accounts or linked it to your bank account, contact all the services and change your email address registered with them.

2. Take a backup of your account data: Before you delete your Google account, use Google Takeout to select the data in your applications, create an archive and download the data.

How to back up Google apps data?

There are various methods to back up a Google Apps account data, based on the type of data and the features of the application used for backing up the Google Workspace account data.

1. Gmail: There are three ways to backup Gmail data. To learn the step-by-step Gmail backup procedure, click here.

2. Google Drive: There are six ways to back up Google Drive. To learn the step-by-step Google Drive backup procedure, click here.

What are the tools used for backing up Google data?

1. Google Takeout: Google Takeout can be used to download data from Google applications. If you want to know how to use Google Takeout, click here.

2. Third-party backup tool: SysCloud is a third-party online cloud backup solution that uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer a fully automated cloud to backup and restore Google Workspace and Office 365 data.

In this article

Introduction
How to delete a Google account?
How to delete a Gmail account?
Checklist for deleting a Google account