Are you searching for the tutorial on how to delete a Gmail account permanently?
Do you want to know what precautions you must take before deleting the Gmail account permanently?
If the answer is yes, read this article till the end before you head over to delete your Gmail account permanently.
Your Gmail account is really important as there are lots of things linked to it such as your Google Plus Profile, E-mail address that has been circulated in your professional network, banks, Paypal, etc.
You must consider thinking twice before deciding to delete your Gmail account and if you have really decided to delete it, make sure you take backup and do other important things that I’ve discussed in this article.
Because once deleted, all the services and G+ social media profiles associated with Gmail will be gone! Moreover, you wouldn’t be able to get contacted through e-mail address as well
Reasons for Deleting a Gmail account permanently
We decide to abandon something that we don’t like or something that becomes troublesome. Why anyone would want to learn how to delete a Gmail account or actually want to delete a Gmail account is solely their choice however below are some major reasons for permanently deleting a Gmail.com account.
SPAM E-mails
You tend to receive emails from the companies you are registered with. It’s a fair marketing practice that they send promotional emails to their customers when there is any offer.
Sometimes they simply like to stay in touch with the customers through email by wishing them on special occasions such as birthdays.
But if you have registered somewhere where they sell emails to the marketing companies or if you have publicly posted your email, you will start to receive spam emails.
Spam is the email you don’t want to receive. In most cases, they are irrelevant to you and sent by an unknown person. Although it is not legal to send unsolicited emails but still we receive hundreds of emails per day.
So one fair reason why anyone would want to delete a Gmail.com account is that he/she wants to get rid of those spam emails that they receive in their Gmail.com email account.
Also see: How to Register account with www.gmail.com or sign in
Spam emails are sometimes sent by hackers who want you to open the attachment that they have sent through the email.
When a user opens a malicious attachment a program is automatically run in the background your personal information may be sent to the hacker.
Some SPAM emails have PDF attachments or they want you to click a LINK that takes you to the website and through that the hackers get your personal information.
Although Gmail’s email account is very advanced and automatically filter spam email and send them to JUNK E-mails, many spam emails land right in the Inbox!
The E-mail account is no more in Use
You may decide to delete a Gmail.com account since it has been inactive for a very long time and you don’t want to use it. That’s a fair idea to delete a Gmail account permanently in case you don’t see its use now or in the future.
You’ve got another E-mail account
One may delete their Gmail account since he/she has got a new one. That’s again a valid reason and it makes sense to delete a particular e-mail account if you have got a new one
Security Concerns
Google’s Gmail.com is one of the most reliable and secured E-mail services. It sends out a notification if anyone tries to log in to your Gmail.com account.
The report it sends contains the IP address of the computer an attempt to log in to your Gmail account has made. It also has the location mentioned in the report.
You may consider deleting a Gmail account permanently if you notice such kind of activity too often.
Gmail.com also sends a notification even if it is you who logged on to the Gmail account but from a different location than the usual one.
For example, if you always use a Gmail account from your home and once you have checked from your friend’s house, it will notice the change in IP address and immediately send you a notification about the same.
Gmail also sends a report if the Gmail account is accessed through a different web browser than the normal one.
So the reasons to delete a gmail.com account permanently can be different for different people, let’s not dive more into it and move straight to the procedure of deleting it.
Consequences of deleting a Gmail Account Permanently
We hope everything goes well with your Gmail.com account but in case it doesn’t and you really want to delete a gmail.com account, below are the consequences:
- You wouldn’t be able to log in to your Gmail account ever!
- All the e-mails along with attachments of this Gmail account will be lost forever.
- The companies you are registered with wouldn’t be able to contact you
- Financial institutions such as Banks, and Paypal wouldn’t be able to contact you through this email.
- You will lose the products you’ve purchased through this account.
- You will lose all the services associated with this account.
- You will lose all the data you might have stored in GDrive/cloud
- You will lose your G+ social media profile.
- You wouldn’t be able to use this email as an option for retrieving the lost password of another e-mail if it was given at the time of registration of other accounts.
- All the Gmail.com account’s contacts will be lost and everything else which is directly or indirectly associated with this Gmail account.
Prepare to Delete a Gmail account permanently
So if you still want to earn how to delete a Gmail account permanently considering its consequences and drawback, follow the procedure that we’ve discussed below.
Before you go ahead and delete the Gmail account permanently, you need to prepare yourself for doing so.
Although we can go ahead and delete the Gmail account straight away but we at TenTaken would advise the users to take a backup of important things to be on the safer side.
Just like It is a good practice to take data backup before formatting a device (for example smartphone /laptop/desktop/tablet etc), it is a good thing to take a backup of the Gmail account before deleting it permanently.
In case anything goes wrong or you need to check the e-mail you had received from someone, you may restore back up and get the emails back.
Here is what we suggest you do before deleting your Gmail account.
Take Backup of all Gmail.com Products and Services
Google has made taking backup super-duper simple. There is a few-step backup wizard that will create an archive of all the products and services associated with the Gmail account, and sends it to our preferred location- Email, Save it in Gdrive, DropBox, OneDrive, etc. It sends a notification once the backup is ready to download. Take a look at the process:
Step:1- To demonstrate, I’ll use our Gmail account. To start a backup wizard, Click Here. It will take you to the login form below.
Step:2- Enter your email and password and hit “Next”
Step:3- On the next page, you will have the data backup wizard opened. It will list all the products and services associated with this Gmail.com account.
We have 27 services and products associated with our account as shown below. Each product has the GREEN CHECK box next to it. Select the items you want to include in the backup wizard. Once selected, click the “Next” button at the bottom.
Step:4- On the next page, it shows how many items you have selected for a backup wizard. In our case, it is 27. Select file type, we selected .zip. You can define a file size limit, in case the backup file size goes over this limit, it splits files into multiple files. Select how you want to get back up delivered.
Email, OneDrive, or Dropbox. once done, hit the “Create archive” button.
Step:5- It will take some time to create a backup and deliver it through the preferred method. You will receive a notification through email once the backup is ready to download. The process may take hours.
Step:6- Once you receive an e-mail, click “Download Archive” to download the backup.
Step:7- On the next page, you can download the backup in your hard drive and move to the next step – Change e-mail.
Change your e-mail address wherever given
So you have created a backup and downloaded on your computer or stored it online. Now all your emails and contacts will remain with you and can be restored if needed. The next thing we suggest to our readers is to change this e-mail to a new one.
For example, if this email was used for creating your Facebook profile, change it to the new one. Inform banks, friends, professional contacts, and wherever else you think the email was circulated.
Once done, you can go to the next and FINAL steps to delete the Gmail account permanently. Be informed, that once the account is deleted, you wouldn’t be able to access emails, contacts, and every other service and product associated with this Gmail account.
FINAL STEP- How to delete a Gmail account permanently {Step-wise}
The process is very simple and straightforward. Just follow the steps given below and you’ll learn how to delete a Gmail account permanently.
Step:1- Login to your Gmail.com account. Click here to log in
Step:2- Click on the big round solid circle on the top right corner and click “My Account”
Step:3- On the next page, you will see the user control panel that is used to change passwords, set security questions, and do other things. Click “Delete your account or services” from “Account preferences“
Step:4- You will be taken to account-preference that allows you to delete the Gmail.com account only or associated data as well.
Step:5- Select “Delete Account and Data” and then you have all the services associated with this account.
Step:6- Under “Delete your Google Account” you will be given the option to download data. You may choose to download and store it on your computer.
Step:7- After cross-checking everything, accept the terms and conditions.
Step:8- The next step is to Click “DELETE ACCOUNT” You are just one step away from deleting a Gmail.com account. Think twice before hitting the DELETE ACCOUNT button. (CAUTION: you will lose all the data and associated services once you delete the Gmail.com account).
Step:9- Once you make up your mind about the deletion of the Gmail account. Go ahead and hit the “DELETE ACCOUNT” button and you are done!
You will not be able to log in to your Gmail.com again.
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