Complete Guide to Deleting Your OneDrive Account

Deleting your OneDrive account is a straightforward process that can be completed in a few steps. You can do this by signing in to your Microsoft account, clicking on the "Account" button, and selecting "Security & privacy".

To confirm your decision, you'll be asked to provide your password and answer a security question. This is a necessary step to ensure that your account is being deleted by the actual account holder.

You can delete your OneDrive account at any time, and it's free to do so. This is a great option if you're no longer using the service or if you're switching to a different cloud storage provider.

Before deleting your account, make sure to download any files or data you want to keep, as they will be permanently deleted once your account is gone.

You should save your old OneDrive files to another account, as they will be lost once your account is deleted.

Microsoft will not delete your account immediately, but rather deactivate it for 60 days before erasing it completely.

To prepare for deleting a OneDrive account, it's essential to save your old files to another account to avoid losing them.

You'll need to cancel any Microsoft subscriptions associated with your account.

If you're using a OneDrive/Microsoft account on your devices, make sure to change the account to avoid losing access to features.

It's also a good idea to let other people know that you're closing your old OneDrive account, especially if you've shared files with them.

Here are the steps to take before deleting your OneDrive account:

You'll have 30 days to cancel the deletion request if you change your mind or need to save any data.

Saving your OneDrive files before deleting your account is a must. You have 60 days to re-activate your account in case you change your mind.

To avoid losing access to your files, consider moving them to another OneDrive or Google Drive account. This way, you can still access your files online from any device.

There are two ways to move your files: using VaultMe to move them automatically or copying them manually.

Removing OneDrive from File Explorer is easy. You can do this by uninstalling the OneDrive desktop app from your Windows PC Settings.

To delete your OneDrive account on mobile devices, follow these steps: on Android, open OneDrive, click the Me icon, and select Settings. On iPhone, scroll through the list, find the OneDrive application, and toggle the switch to turn on Clear Account Settings.

Here are the three ways to remove OneDrive from File Explorer, depending on your Windows system version:

You can delete OneDrive accounts on Android or iPhone.

The process is similar on both devices, but let's start with Android. To remove OneDrive account from your Android phone, open OneDrive on your phone and click the Me icon in the lower-right corner.

Select Settings from the list.

On Android, you can find the OneDrive application by scrolling through the list, and then click it.

To delete the account, toggle the switch to turn on Clear Account Settings.

If you're not a free OneDrive user, you'll need to cancel your subscription plan to avoid being charged for storage you're not using.

To cancel your OneDrive subscription, log in to the Manage Storage webpage with the OneDrive account you want to cancel.

Select Manage > Services & subscriptions to proceed with the cancellation.

This will help you avoid any unwanted charges on your account.

Make sure to cancel your subscription before it automatically renews to avoid any confusion.

If you're a small organization, you might rely on the account deletion wizard in the Microsoft 365 admin center to handle the essentials.

The account deletion wizard takes care of converting the deleted user's mailbox into a shared mailbox and giving another user access to their OneDrive for Business account.

However, it's essential to consider the possibility of exposing PII data inadvertently through access to mailboxes converted to shared mailboxes.

If you're using the OneDrive desktop app on your laptop, you can remove the OneDrive account permanently by following a few simple steps.

After logging in to the OneDrive desktop app, click on the OneDrive icon on the taskbar.

Under the Account section, press Unlink this PC and then Unlink account, and you've removed the OneDrive account from the program.

If you're using OneDrive for Business and Devices, you can't delete your account directly from the OneDrive website.

OneDrive for Business and Devices is a separate service from personal OneDrive accounts, and it's often used by organizations for file sharing and collaboration.

To delete your OneDrive for Business and Devices account, you'll need to contact your IT administrator or the person who set up the account for you.

Cloud Backup is a crucial feature for OneDrive users, especially for business purposes. It allows you to backup your files to another cloud storage service, ensuring your data is safe in case you need to remove the OneDrive folder from File Explorer.

You can use a third-party cloud-to-cloud migration service like MultCloud to transfer files from OneDrive to another cloud easily. This method is faster and safer than the traditional method of downloading and uploading files.

MultCloud supports more than 30 personal clouds, business clouds, and on-premise services. It offers a range of features, including cloud backup, which allows you to backup and directly restore backups across clouds.

Here are some key features of MultCloud's cloud backup service:

By using MultCloud's cloud backup service, you can rest assured that your OneDrive files are safe and easily accessible, even if you need to remove the OneDrive folder from File Explorer.

OneDrive for Business can be a designated repository for personal information, making it likely to contain PII data.

This can be a concern because files containing personal information are now more likely to be in the cloud than on a local hard drive.

Organizations can configure automatic access delegation to help with this issue, making the user's manager a site administrator of the user's OneDrive for Business account when a user is deleted.

However, nominating the Global tenant administrator account as a secondary owner is not a great idea, it's better to use a designated account with no administrative roles to act as the backstop for access to the OneDrive for Business accounts owned by deleted users.

To make access delegation work, it's essential to keep manager information updated and accurate, which might require some form of automated processing on a periodic basis.

Thirty days is the default time frame to review and extract relevant information from the OneDrive for Business account, but this might not be enough time in many cases.

You can set a tenant-wide retention period of up to 10 years through the settings section of the SharePoint admin center, which can be useful for large organizations with many deleted users.

OneDrive for Business can be accessed on various devices, including Windows, macOS, and mobile devices.

You can access OneDrive for Business on your Windows device by signing in with your work or school account.

OneDrive for Business also supports mobile devices, allowing you to access your files on-the-go.

The OneDrive for Business app is available for download on both iOS and Android devices.

You can access your OneDrive for Business files from your mobile device's browser as well, without needing to download the app.

OneDrive for Business integrates with other Microsoft services, such as Office Online, allowing you to edit and share files across devices.