How to delete your YouTube account

YouTube represents a bountiful platform for funny, insightful, helpful, and controversial content. That said, if you start adding to it with your own videos, try to make ad revenue and lose your way, there may come a time when calling it quits is the path of least resistance. Foul comments may also dissuade you from continuing on the YouTube path. If you believe it’s time to kiss YouTube goodbye, here’s how to delete your YouTube account and channel.

Can you delete your YouTube account?

It’s possible to delete your YouTube account, but not in a precise or satisfactory way. As Google owns YouTube, you can only do it by deleting your entire Google account. It’s very much throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but that’s the only way to do it.

To make matters worse, following this method is a permanent step. Your YouTube account, along with the rest of your Google account, will be gone forever. If you’ve been using Google services for a long time, this could mean losing an incredible amount of data like emails, passwords, messages, history, and more. You will have a short, 20-day window in which to change your mind and recover the account, but after that, it’s gone.

If you’re happy with taking this step, the following section will walk you through the process. Skip to the section after that for a less drastic solution.

How to delete your YouTube account via your Google account

Before you take this sledgehammer approach to cracking a walnut, it’s worth considering the effect that deleting your Google account will have. You’ll lose access to data across several sites and platforms. These include:

• All Google services, such as Gmail, Drive, Calendar, plus any associated data.
• Any subscriptions or content purchased from YouTube or Google Play Movies, Books, or Music.
• Chrome data, including Chrome apps and extensions.
• Any Android phone contacts linked to this account, as well as any data backed up using Android Backup services.
• Your username.

That said, you can mitigate these losses by backing up your stored data. This is a way to keep hold of things like important emails and photos you might have tucked away among the Google services. If you don’t want to download each file individually, here’s how you can do that all at once:

1. Open your Google account settings by going to accounts.google.com.
2. Go to Data & privacy using the menu on the left.
3. Scroll down to Download or delete your data.
4. Select Download your data.
5. You’ll find a complete list of Google services associated with your account. You can individually select the information to download. Everything is automatically selected by default.
6. You can opt to get a download link via email or save it to cloud services like Drive, OneDrive, Box, or Dropbox. You can also select the export frequency, the file type, and the maximum size of the compressed archive.
7. Depending on how much information is being archived, the entire process could take a while.

Also, remember that your Gmail address might be associated with other services, such as bank accounts and other websites. So, make sure you keep track of these accounts and update the information accordingly before deleting the Gmail account information.

How to delete your Google account

Once you’re finally ready to pull the plug on your Google account, the steps are very simple, but you have to do it from a computer as it’s not possible on mobile. Here’s what you do:

1. Go to Data & privacy and scroll down to More Options.
2. Tap on Delete your Google account. You’ll be asked to sign in.
3. At the end of the page, there are two acknowledgments you’ll have to accept before you can tap on the Delete Account button to delete your account permanently.

Can you delete your YouTube channel?

Deleting your entire YouTube channel is a different story. This is typically what someone refers to when they say they want to delete their YouTube account, and there’s much less chance that you’ll regret it than using the method above because you don’t lose all your Google data.

Deleting your YouTube channel entails permanently deleting all of your channel’s content. This includes past comments, messages, playlists, history, and, of course, videos. This can all be done without having to close your Google account.

How to delete your YouTube channel (desktop)

Go to the YouTube home page and click the Menu (≡) icon in the top left.

Scroll down and click the cog-shaped Settings button.

Within Settings, click the Advanced settings tab at the bottom of the menu on the left.

Click Delete channel.

You will be asked to sign in to confirm your channel deletion. This is a safeguarded process and one that cannot be reversed. Once you delete your account, there’s no going back.

Enter your password, then click Next.

If you’re sure you want to delete your channel, click the tab marked I want to permanently delete my content. If you simply want to hide your channel, you can click the top tab.

Click the two empty checkboxes to confirm your understanding.

Click Delete my content to erase your YouTube channel from existence. This cannot be undone.

How to delete your YouTube channel (Android and iOS)

Google has removed the feature to delete your YouTube channel on the mobile app for Android and iOS. This is the current state of the app, and we will update this article if they decide to bring that feature back.

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