How to Delete a YouTube Account

Looking to delete your YouTube account but have no idea how it's done? There isn't an account deletion option in plain sight on the settings page, so figuring out how exactly to go about doing it can be frustrating.

Whether you've got several videos on your channel you want to delete all at once or comments you left on other users' videos that you don't want to be associated with anymore, deleting your YouTube account's content (and thus making it appear as if you have no YouTube account—while still retaining your Google account) is actually quite fast and simple to do when you know the exact steps to take.

The instructions below will show you how to permanently delete your YouTube account (including all your videos and other data) from YouTube.com on the web or from the official YouTube mobile app.

01

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Access Your YouTube Settings

Screenshot of YouTube.com

On the Web:

1. Sign in to your YouTube account at YouTube.com and click your user account icon in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Click Settings from the dropdown menu.

On the App:

1. Open the app and tap your user account icon in the top right of the screen.
2. Tap the downward arrow on the next tab that appears beside your user photo and name to see a list of all your YouTube accounts. (Note: Do not tap Settings. It will only take you to your app/viewing settings and not your account settings.)
3. Tap the gear icon in the top right of the screen.

02

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Access Your Google Account Settings from YouTube

Screenshot of YouTube.com

YouTube is a Google product, so managing your YouTube account settings is done through your Google account page. When you delete your YouTube account, your main Google account that it's managed by will remain intact.

On the Web:

1. Click View or change your account settings. A note appears beneath this link explaining that you'll be redirected to your Google account page.

On the App:

1. After tapping the gear icon in the previous step, tap the account that you want to delete. You'll be taken to your Google account page.

03

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Access Your Account Preferences

Screenshot of Google.com

On the Web:

1. Under Account preferences, click Delete your account or services.

On the App:

1. Tap Account preferences. 
2. 
   
3. 04

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Click to Delete Your Google Products/Services

Screenshot of Google.com

On the Web:

1. Click Delete products. You'll be asked to sign in to your account to verify that it's you.

On the App:

1. On the following tab after tapping Account preferences in the last step, click Delete Google services. You'll be asked to sign in to your account to verify that it's you.

05

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Click the Trashcan Icon Beside YouTube

Screenshot of Google.com

On the Web and on the App:

1. Optionally click or tap Download Data if you'd like to save your YouTube data before you permanently delete your account. You'll be able to check or uncheck the list of Google services you currently have for downloading data. You'll also be able to select the file type and delivery method.
2. Click or tap the trashcan icon that appears beside the YouTube service. Again, you may be asked to sign in to your account for verification.

06

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Confirm That You Permanently Want to Delete Your Content

Screenshot of Google.com

 On the Web and on the App:

1. Click or tap I want to permanently delete my content if you're sure you want to delete your YouTube account and all of its content. If not, you have another option to click or tap I want to hide my channel so that your YouTube activity and content is set to private.
2. If you want to go ahead with deletion, check the boxes to confirm to Google that you understand what is being deleted and then click/tap Delete My Content. Remember that once you click/tap this, it cannot be undone.

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Optionally Delete the Associated Google Account

Screenshot of Google.com

Your YouTube account is not separate from your Google account. They are, in essence, basically the same—because you use YouTube from your Google account.

What you accomplished above was deletions of all your YouTube channel content and data (such as comments left on other videos). But as long as you keep your Google account, you still technically have a YouTube account too—just with no YouTube content or trail of previous YouTube activity.

Deleting all YouTube content is often enough, but if you want to take it a step further and delete your entire Google account, including all data from other Google products you use, then you can do this as well. This is not recommended if you still want to keep your Google account to use Gmail, Drive, Docs, and other Google products.

On the Web:

1. Click on your user account icon and click Settings from the dropdown menu.
2. Click View or change your account settings. 
3. Under Account preferences, click Delete your account or services.
4. Click Delete Google Account and data. Sign into your account for verification.
5. Read and browse through your content so you understand what will be deleted, check off the required checkboxes to confirm and click the blue Delete Account button.

Reminder: This will not only delete your Google account, but all data you use on other Google products too. This cannot be undone.

08

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Optionally Delete the Associated Brand Account

Screenshot of Google.com

In cases where your YouTube content was associated with a Brand account rather than your main Google account, you'll be left with the Brand account still listed under your channels (even though there's no content there).

If your Brand account exists for other reasons, such as to use other Google products like Gmail, Drive and others, then you'll most likely not want to delete the Brand account. If, however, you only used it for YouTube and deleted your content by following the previous steps, you may wish to also delete the Brand account too.

On the Web:

1. Click on your user account icon, click Settings and click See all my channels or create a new one. You'll see a grid of all your accounts—including your main one associated with your Google account and any other ones listed as brand account.
2. Click on the account corresponding with the data you deleted in the previous steps. Now go back to Settings.
3. Click Add or remove managers to be redirected to the account. At the bottom of the next page, you should see a Delete Account link in red letters. Click it and sign into your account again for verification.
4. You'll be asked to read through some important information and then check off a couple of boxes to confirm that you understand what's involved with brand account deletion. Once checked, click the blue Delete Accountbutton.

Reminder: If you used other Google products with your Brand account, all their data will also be deleted too. This cannot be undone.

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