How to Delete Your Google Account Without Deleting Gmail

Google has managed to round up a whole bunch of services under the umbrella of your Google Account. It has become one of the most ubiquitous, and most useful all-encompassing services on the planet. But there may come a time when you no longer need its services.

Gmail, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. Deleting Gmail is an equivalent of technological suicide, which not many people are keen on doing.

For that reason, let’s see what you can do about deleting that Google Account, but keeping your Gmail.

Can It Be Done?

We hate to be the ones to disappoint you, but the simple answer is – no. Your Google Account and your Gmail are connected like any other Google-based tool under the Google Account umbrella.

The moment you delete a Google Account, the corresponding Gmail account will be deleted as well. That’s not too much of a surprise when you think about it. You use your Gmail as your Google Account login, right?

Alternatives

We don’t recommend doing any of what follows. We know that your Google apps can be annoying at times, but there are ways to keep them at bay. First of all, you can set the notification settings. Secondly, you can delete the Google apps that you don’t use from your device. Every single alternative is a better option than deleting your Google Account.

Still want to do it? Really? Okay, here are some things that you could do. Be warned, though, there isn’t a universal replacement solution.

Moving the Mail from Gmail

Okay, let’s say that you want to delete the Google Account. So, it’s fine, you no longer wish to use any Google services. Except for Gmail. Which also gets deleted with your Google Account. But what about all your emails? Well, you could transfer them to a different email account.

A Google Chrome extension called CloudHQ allows you to migrate all your emails to a completely different, non-Google account. Unfortunately, the way the emails are transferred might end up being awkwardly sorted, and without Google categories such as Updates, Promotions, etc.

Various Non-Google Accounts

So, will a tool for email migration also automatically change the subscription and account emails on the plethora of websites that you’ve signed up to over the years? Of course not. But you can.

If you haven’t used your Gmail account for too many subscriptions and account signups, you won’t have to do too much here. However, chances are that you have. To make things worse, you might not remember all the accounts you’ve signed up for.

On the one hand, this will clear up a lot of clutter. Just go ahead and visit the relevant subscriptions/online accounts that you’ve made (pay special attention to banking and gaming accounts, as you don’t want to lose these). Then, change the mail to the new one that you’ve transferred all the mail to.

Receiving Mails

In this day and age, we tend to forget what email is primarily intended for – actual correspondence between people – and that the various instant messaging tools are a much more convenient choice.

But even if you successfully switch to a different email, people who don’t know won’t be able to contact you via email. If this presents a problem, you won’t find a simple solution. Your best bet would be letting everybody know on social media. If you want to, that is.

Google Account and Gmail

Unfortunately, deleting your Google Account and keeping your Gmail is impossible. The two go hand-in-hand. There are options that let you transfer the emails from Gmail to a completely different inbox. But you’ll still have to deal with a lot of technical issues. Instead of doing this, manage those notifications and delete the Google apps that you don’t use – your Google Account doesn’t have to bring you only grief.

Deleting your Gmail is hard. Do you have any other tips that could be of help here? Let us know in the comments section below.