Hey there! If you‘re looking to permanently delete your Gmail account, you‘ve come to the right place. I‘m going to walk you through the entire process from start to finish.
Why You Might Want to Delete Gmail
Before we get started, let‘s review some of the top reasons you may want to delete your Gmail account:
- You have an old account with a lot of spam mail
- You created a test account by mistake
- You want to consolidate multiple accounts
- You‘re concerned about privacy and data tracking
Gmail is the most popular email globally, with over 1.5 billion active monthly users. However, even loyal users sometimes want to delete their accounts.
Gmail has seen steady growth, now crossing 1.5 billion active monthly users. (Source: Statista)
My goal here is to ensure you fully understand what happens when you delete your Gmail and can make an informed decision. With that said, let‘s get into the step-by-step guide!
Before Deleting: Back Up Your Emails
I always recommend downloading a backup of your Gmail emails before deleting your account. This allows you to save all mail data, contacts, attachments – everything.
Here are two ways to back up your Gmail emails:
- Use Google Takeout – This exports your full Gmail account data to your hard drive.
- Forward all emails to another email account. This forwards copies rather than exports.
Either option works. I suggest Google Takeout as it‘s more thorough. To access it:
- Go to Google Takeout
- Deselect all except Gmail
- Choose export format (ZIP preferred)
- Click Export and wait for the file
You‘ll get an email when your export is ready to download to your computer. Easy!
Step 1: Sign in to Your Gmail Account
First things first – time to sign in.
- Open any browser and go to gmail.com
- Enter your full Gmail address and password
- Click Next and enter your 2-step verification code if enabled
Once signed in, you‘ll see your Gmail inbox. Now we can move onto the account deletion steps.
Enter your Gmail address and password at gmail.com to sign in.
Okay, you‘re signed in. Let‘s delete this sucker!
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