Ironically, one of the plus points of G Suite is that if you decide you don’t like it, or want to move to another provider, deleting your account is straightforward.
Deleting your G Suite account is simple, and will automatically result in your G Suite billing stopping. You also won’t pay for that month’s service. As when leaving any cloud based service, it’s important to determine the data you want to export and save beforehand, as well as any G Suite apps you will be deleting, as they may have different terms and conditions around data retrieval if they are provided by third parties (i.e. not Google)
The first step before you delete your account is to ensure that you export any G Suite data that you want saved to your own system.
The Data Export tool will allow you to export and download the data from any Google products you have used in one easy step. You can then transfer the data to your new provider.
- Before you begin…
Before you try and export your data it’s important to remember that to use the Data Export tool, you must:
Have held an account in your domain for a period of 30 days or longer, if your domain was created more than 30 days ago.
If you still want to delete your account but haven’t had an account in the domain for 30 days or more, this can still be done, only you won’t be able to export and keep any data you have created up to then. Unless it is an emergency, it’s best to wait until the 30 day mark has been reached and then export the data.
Be a super administrator of your Google domain.
A super administrator has access to all the features in the Admin console of your G Suite account – basically allowing them to fully manage and monitor every feature of your account, including all event details and user calendars. To set up a G Suite account you will have needed to appoint at least one user as a super administrator any way, but if you haven’t done so, it’s good practice to have at least two. This means that if one super administrator forgets the G Suite password the other administrator can request a password reset (assuming that they have also forgotten the password!) It’s possible to have three or more super administrators but this can make password recovery options more complicated. If you want to assign the super administrator role to another G Suite user you can do this through the Admin console, and takes up to 24 hours for the full administrator privileges to be available.
Have 2 step verification enforced on your account
2 step verification requires users to verify their identity through something they know (such as a password) any something they have (such as a physical key or an access code delivered to a device).
Have fewer than 1,000 users on your Google Account.
If you have more than 1,000 users, contact Google Cloud Support and they can arrange temporary access to the Data Export tool.
- Exporting your data
You can access the Data Export from the Google Admin console: simply click ‘Open’, then under ‘Tools’ click ‘Data Export’.
The export process might take up to 72 hours or more, depending on the size of your domain. Once the export is done you will receive an email notification.
- Viewing your exported data
The notification email will contain a link to ‘Access archive’ or alternatively you can do this via the Data Export tool. Once in the archive click the folder icon to see a list of individual user folders, which have zip file of that user’s data, including user’s data by Google product. Exported data can be accessed for 30 days, after which it is permanently deleted, so it’s a good idea to download and store the data.
- Delete any G Suite Marketplace apps you have downloaded.
When signed into your Google Admin console (you must be signed in under your administrator account), got to ‘Apps’ then Marketplace Apps. Now just click on the app you want to delete, then select Settings and Remove App. Any apps and their associated licences will be permanently removed from your domain. Depending on the terms and conditions of the App vendor your app data may be deleted, and if you want to reinstall the app you may have to repurchase it.
- Deleting your account
Now your data has been exported and downloaded you can delete your account. First open Google Domains and select the name of your domain, then go to the left navigation panel and click on ‘Email’. This will open up a sub menu giving an option to Get a Custom Email Address. Click on this option and then select Settings, then Manage My Account. You will then be able to select ‘Delete My Account’ and ‘Cancel My Subscription.’
Author Bio
CloudM provide industry leading cloud migration and cloud management software for companies needing to manage data in Google G Suite or Microsoft Office 365.
