How Can I Close Accounts for Old Services That I No Longer Use?
In ten years of using the Internet, you’ve probably created dozens, if not hundreds, of user accounts – for online stores, gaming sites, messaging services, social media apps, and more. If you no longer want or need access to these accounts, find and remove what is outdated.
However, sometimes determining which accounts you still have open can be a tricky part of the process. While there is no one easy way to see all the accounts you have opened over the years, there are several things you can do to find them. The effectiveness of these methods may vary, but we recommend starting with this.
Check your email
The best place to look for services associated with your email address is, in general, your email. Assuming you’re archiving most of your mail rather than deleting it, you probably still have a lot of welcome emails from the services you’ve been using over the years. Look for phrases like this:
- “Confirm your email address”
- “Your new account”
- “Welcome to”
- “Unsubscribe”
Be sure to look for all of your email addresses, not just the one you are currently using. This can help you find quite a few old services that you forgot about. You may also find yourself receiving emails from these old services from time to time to help weed out the few that you may not have a record of at hand.
Look for old passwords in browser and password managers
Then, if you ever save your passwords in a password manager or browser, searching for them can help you find other accounts you’ve forgotten about. Take a look at any current and old password managers you may have used, including those that come with your browser (often found in your browser settings, such as chrome: // settings / ).
Some password managers (like LastPass) even organize your logins by last used time, so if you start from the beginning, you’re bound to find old services that you forgot about. Plus, you’ll have your password handy so you can sign in and close your account right away!
Google your username
If you use the same username over and over again, or if your username is particularly unique, you can find old accounts simply by doing a Google search. Dive a few pages deeper. Services with social functions or public information may appear.
Clear permissions for other apps
Many services allow you to sign in with Google, Facebook, Twitter and other applications, and depending on their nature, they may request access to services such as Instagram or Dropbox. A good way to spot some of these old, unused services is to look at the permissions of the services you are actually using.
A great way to do it all at once is to connect to MyPermissions , which shows you everything you’ve connected to Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Instagram, which is a pretty good starting point.
You can also view and revoke permissions for each app individually. For example, to find out what is associated with your Google account, go to Account Settings > Security> Control Third Party Access . On Facebook, go to Settings> Apps & Sites .
What should you do in the future
Now that you’ve cleaned out as much as you can, do a little work to prevent similar problems in the future. If you’re going to sign up for new services that you’re unsure about (let’s be honest, we all do), be sure to archive your welcome emails rather than delete them. Better yet, create a filter or folder to create an account. This will help you find them later and clean up any services you are not using.
This article was originally published in November 2012 and was updated on 5/12/19 with the most recent information.