How to Delete & Deactivate Twitter Accounts (2020)

While some have used it to garner support for great causes, it has sometimes fueled rumor mongering and hatred. People from all over the world, today, is hooked to this microblogging site and share their opinion on world matters through this platform.

Some users may find it slightly overpowering, while others are concerned about their online privacy. At a time when everyone was taking the social media route, a lot of users may have jumped into the chaos but have now decided to call off this affair.

If you are one amongst them and is bored with the constant tweets nagging you throughout the day or just don’t like to keep up with what’s going on at Twitter, may be its time to say goodbye to the microblogging site.

You may have enjoyed tweeting at some point of time, shared photos, passed jokes or communicated with plenty of friends and celebrities at one breath. But, if you no longer enjoy your presence on Twitter, it’s probably better to let go.

No matter what your reason for leaving, here’s a general guide that will help you to how to deactivate Twitter Account.

How to Deactivate Twitter Account?

You cannot leave Twitter simply by logging out of it. Even if you haven’t logged in for a while, the account remains active and you can come back anytime you want to. Moreover, the regular tweets do not stop and your notification bar may be flooded with umpteen messages.

So, the easiest way to how to delete twitter account permanently. If you are trying to get rid of Twitter permanently, you have to follow some simple steps to shut your account.

But, the deactivation takes time and Twitter gives a 30 day grace period, in case you have a change of heart and decide to come back. If you do not show up in 30 days, the account is permanently deactivated by Twitter.

Deleting & Deactivating Twitter Accounts

Just follow the step by step guide and you are on your way out.

How to delete twitter account, If you are trying to twitter account delete from the desktop, you need to sign into your account from the desktop or laptop. Click on Settings and choose Privacy from the drop down menu, just under your profile. Go to the Account section and select ‘Deactivate your account’.

You will be prompted to enter your password. Once you do so and click on Deactivate, your account deactivation request will be sent successfully. Most users prefer to keep a version of their social media profiles on their smartphones also.

How to Delete Twitter Account Permanently

How to Delete Twitter Account From Mobile

If you are an Android user, you can easily delete Twitter from your phone. First of all, tap at the profile icon or the hamburger menu, whichever is visible to you depending on the version you are using. Look for the icon at the top of the screen. Now go the Settings tab and enter Privacy.

Click on Account and you will find the Deactivate button there. If you have made up your mind to leave Twitter, click on it and you will be asked to insert the password. After you enter the correct password, you can click on Deactivate to move out of Twitter.

Similarly, if you are an iOS user, tap on the profile icon visible on top of your screen. Enter Settings and tap on the Privacy tab. Choose the Account tab and click on Deactivate.

You will be asked to enter a valid password and once you have successfully given the password, you can hit Deactivate.

After your deactivation request is sent, Twitter will retain all personal information and account data for 30 days. If the user does not log in, the micro blogging site slowly starts removing data associated with inactive accounts from their database.

Once the process is completed, all your stuff will be gone forever. But, if a user logs into the account during the grace period, Twitter will automatically reactivate the account and you can no longer twitter account delete.

Other Ways to retain your Twitter account

Due to some reasons, if you are uncomfortable using your existing email id or username, you can easily change it without deleting your account. It can be managed from the account settings section and the best advantage of this is that it doesn’t affect your existing followers.

Even direct messages to your account can be easily received even after changing your email id or username.

But, it is always advisable to inform your close friends about such a change so that they can continue to remain in touch with you. In order to change the username or email id of your Twitter account, go to twitter.com and click on your profile.

Go to the Settings tab on menu and visit the Account section. You will have the option to change your username and select a new email. After you finish, click on Save changes to finish the process. You will be prompted to enter the password to confirm all changes.

A mail will be sent to your new email address and you need to click on the link to confirm your new email ID.

However, Twitter does not control content shared on any third party website such as Google or Bing. Often, these websites cache content for quicker loading and you cannot remove such data by deactivating your Twitter account.

Although, deleting your Twitter account takes down all the private content from their database, it does not guarantee complete removal of all data from the internet.

Archiving your Twitter account

Bidding adieu to Twitter would also mean losing out on some of your memories as well. There may be a few tweets that you’d like to keep for yourself before logging out of Twitter forever. You can easily keep them with Twitter’s archiving feature.

It allows you to download a complete index of all the conversations that you’ve ever shared on your Twitter handle. It will include your tweets, retweets, photos, videos and everything in your profile, right from the day you joined.

If you really wish to do this, visit the Twitter.com page and go to Settings. Visit Accounts and scroll down to ‘Your Twitter Archive’ section. Click on the ‘Request your archive’ button. Once your download is ready, a push notification will be sent on your Android and iOS device.

Click on it to reach the download archive button where you’ll find all your tweets ready for downloading. Twitter will also send a mail to the registered email id and you have to click on the Download button while still being logged into your Twitter account.

The whole process typically takes a few minutes but, can take a little longer depending on the size of your archive. If you have been a frequent user with plenty of data stored in your account, the download will be a sizable one. Wait for 15 minutes or so to find the download link in your email.

If you do not see it there, don’t forget to check the junk folder. Open the mail, click on the link and follow instructions to download your archive. You’ll be redirected to the Twitter website and you need to click on the Download button to save the file in your computer.

Once downloaded, unzip the file and double click on the index.html file to retrieve all the content. The latest tweets will be first to pop up on your archive. All the tweets from the same month will be available in a reverse-chronological order.

If you check the right hand side of the screen, you will see a month-by-month breakdown of your tweets, indexed chronologically. You can check the number of tweets shared in a particular month by moving your mouse over the colored columns.

But, any usage after the download will not be reflected in your archive file. If you wish to get another download, wait for the ‘Request your archive’ button to reappear in your Accounts section.

A zip file will be downloaded to your system soon. But, make sure that you confirm your email id before requesting a download. Besides, you have to be logged into your Twitter account on the same browser from where you are requesting the download.

The whole process typically takes a few minutes but, can take a little longer depending on the size of your archive. If you have been a frequent user with plenty of data stored in your account, the download will be a sizable one. Wait for 15 minutes or so to find the download link in your email.

If you do not see it there, don’t forget to check the junk folder. Open the mail, click on the link and follow instructions to download your archive. You’ll be redirected to the Twitter website and you need to click on the Download button to save the file in your computer.

Once downloaded, unzip the file and double click on the index.html file to retrieve all the content. The latest tweets will be first to pop up on your archive. All the tweets from the same month will be available in a reverse-chronological order.

If you check the right hand side of the screen, you will see a month-by-month breakdown of your tweets, indexed chronologically. You can check the number of tweets shared in a particular month by moving your mouse over the colored columns.

But, any usage after the download will not be reflected in your archive file. If you wish to get another download, wait for the ‘Request your archive’ button to reappear in your Accounts section.