How to Delete a Twitch Account: A Complete Instruction

If, for some reason, you need to delete your Twitch account, you may experience some technical difficulties. There may be reasons to delete an account: for example, it got compromised somehow, or you have moved to another one on a new level, or you just decided to quit. The reasons are yours; instructions are here.

In as many as three steps you can say goodbye to your Twitch account. It’s equally easy on a desktop or on a smartphone/tablet. 

Log In to Get Out

First of all, you need to be authorized. Be especially careful if your reason is moving to a brand-new account: you need now to log in with the account you want to delete!!! It will also destroy all your saved streams and broadcasts. So remember: enter the account you want to remove, and then destroy it from the inside.

The developers of Twitch cared enough to implement the unified interface for all versions. No matter if you’re on a PC or on a mobile device now, the steps are the following.

1. Click or tap the menu button in the upper right corner. When the menu drops down, go to Settings.
2. Scroll down until you see the “Disable the Twitch account” option.
3. Click or tap it to deactivate the account.

That’s all it required from you. Now you have to wait until your request is automatically approved. Usually, it’s done in seconds.

If You Change Your Mind

Is there a way back after you have pushed the red button? In fact, yes: if you change your mind right after you have deleted your Twitch account, you can get it back. The name remains locked after deletion, and the reasons are obvious. If a deleted name is later squatted, the new owner may benefit from links left for the previous user – on, on the contrary, suffer from the bad reputation the account had gained before being deleted.

So, even if you decided and then redecided, there are ways to restore your account and start twitching again. When you do, your subscriber base is also restored (except for those who unsubscribed after seeing you gone). The saved videos are also actually kept, so you do restore them too.

All you need is to log in again. You’ll get the message that the account has been deactivated, and then a “Reactivate” button. Click it, and soon it will be active again.

How to Prevent Restoring the Account

There may be reasons, though, to disable an account forever. For example, you have made up your mind to quit twitching – and, maybe, gaming at all. At the Gamers Anonymous meeting you have been told that something should get beyond all recovery – either your life or your account.

So, what do you do to prevent restoring your account? Luckily, you can change your email associated with your profile. Do the following: 

1. Enter the account you want to delete via a browser;
2. Click your profile icon in the upper right corner and select Settings in the drop-down menu;
3. On the Settings page, go to Security and Privacy;
4. Click an “Edit” button against your email to edit it.

Then you will need to replace it with a temporary email that expires in some time. Say, 10 Minute Mail is good for that. The mailbox remains active for 10 minutes – it’s enough to receive a confirmation letter and click the link in it. If you have activated two-step authentication, that should be enough. But to be sure, there is one more thing to do.

After your email is changed (and the associated mailbox just doesn’t exist), change your password. Invent something you won’t even see, just hitting the keys randomly. And don’t allow your browser to remember it! Okay, now you don’t have a password, and can’t access the associated email to restore it. Go get a life. Goodnight, sweet Twitch. 

Life After Twitch

If you have found these instructions useful, or found a mistake in it, leave a comment. We’d also like to discuss reasons why users quit Twitch. Let’s discuss!