There are many reasons why you may no longer use an email account, from switching providers to simply outgrowing your original address – let’s be honest, PapaRoachMegaFan1994@AOL.com doesn’t exactly scream professional.
It can be easy to sign up for a new account and let the old one drift slowly into obscurity, but this leaves a significant hole in your online security. So instead, what you should be doing is deleting any account you don’t use! Of course, this is the case for all dormant accounts, but email is often connected to multiple services, making it much more vulnerable and thus a more significant security threat.
If you’ve left accounts dormant for a while, it can be a little daunting to have to go in and delete them – especially when wanting to maintain data – but it’s a relatively simple process with most providers. We’ve created step-by-step guides on how to delete old email addresses from all the major providers, so you’ll have nothing to worry about.
Google accounts go way beyond simple email. They are used to connect to Youtube, Google Meet, Chat, Drive, Play, and more. You may think that you are forever stuck with that embarrassing address you set up all those years ago, but thankfully, that’s not the case: you can delete a Gmail account while keeping your Google account. You just need to provide an alternative email to sign in with.
Discover:
With that in mind, deleting your Gmail account can be done in a few simple steps:
If you wish to continue using other Google services that are associated with the email address you are deleting, enter an alternate email address as prompted. This will result in a verification email which once received will allow you to delete the Gmail account.
Yahoo! email was one of the very early account providers, and with such a legacy, there is a good chance that many people will have outdated accounts hanging about. What’s more, in 2013, they fell victim to the most significant data breach in history, with all of Yahoo’s 3 billion users affected. In short, there are a few good reasons you may be looking to delete your account. Let’s find out how.
The final step is to not sign into the account for thirty days. Otherwise, it will be reactivated. Users in some countries will have to wait even longer, such as 90 days in Australia and 180 days in Brazil.
Never one to keep things clear, Microsoft Outlook refers to the email client (that is on your desktop) as well as their email provider (which you may access from Outlook.com). Removing an account from Outlook (client) does not deactivate the account. However, knowing how to do both can be very useful, so let’s start with removing an account and move on to deactivating it.
It is worth noting that an email account in Outlook can be from any provider. These steps are for Outlook, Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, and 2010.
Closing your Outlook.com account will close your Microsoft account. This will result in losing access to any Microsoft services that you have connected to it, such as Xbox, Skype, and OneDrive.
AOL was the first foray into the world of email for many people, but everything came to an end eventually. If you still have an AOL login and are wondering how to delete your mail account, follow these simple steps:
Your AOL account has now been marked for deletion, which takes around 30 days in most countries.
If you wish to keep a copy of the data associated with your AOL account before deleting it then you can make a request:
It can take up to 30 days for the data request to process and the download to be ready, so if you’re just looking for how you remove an email account, check if you need this old data.
If your Zoho Mail account is part of a company service, you will need to ask that company to delete your account. If it is a personal mail account that you have set up, you can delete the account yourself:
Remember that closing your Zoho Account removes access to all of the Zoho tools.
You can’t delete an iCloud Mail account without deleting your entire Apple ID, so there are a few steps you should consider taking before committing to your email’s closure.
First, download all the files that are associated with the account. This could be a serious amount depending on the number of Apple products you use.
All files from iPhones, iPads, Apple computers, and the iCloud
Photos and videos
iTunes songs, podcasts, etc.
iBook purchases
Emails, calendar events, and contacts