When you have a Twitch account, there may come a time when you feel deletion is the best option.  But, is deleting better than disabling?  And how do you delete a Twitch account in the first place?

First, let’s look at the steps required to delete your Twitch account.  This is a final deletion and cannot be undone, so make certain that deletion is what you want to do.  There’s no turning back if you delete your account.  Do you still want to delete your Twitch account?  Let’s see just how easy this can be.

How To Delete Your Twitch Account

5 Steps to Delete Your Twitch Account?

1. Open an internet browser window
2. Login to your Twitch.tv account
3. Navigate to the “delete account” page
4. Click the “delete account” button
5. You will be directed to a page that reads “Your Account has Been Deleted”

Below I will go into each step in greater detail:

Step One – Open a browser window or new tab within a browser.  Any browser will work.  I tested this process on multiple browsers, desktop, tablet, and also a smartphone.  The process was the same every time and worked across multiple browsers.

Here you see a screenshot of a collection of common browsers.  Opening a ‘fresh’ browser is not necessary if you have one open already.  You can just open a new tab on a browser if you like.

Step Two – Navigate to Twitch.tv and sign in to your account.  It’s not entirely imperative to log in to your Twitch account first, but if you aren’t logged in already then the next step will ask you to log in.  So, for simplicity, it’s best to just go ahead and log in now.

Step Three – Next, you will need to go to the delete account page by navigating to “https://twitch.tv/user/delete-account”.  This page is easy to navigate to using the link I provided.      

Step Four – Now you should see a screen just like the following screen.  Because you have already signed in, it should have auto-populated your username into the username field.  You can also add a reason why you want to delete your account, although it is not needed in order to complete the account deletion process. 

I have circled the delete button in red.  Just hit this and your account is gone forever.  Remember, this cannot be undone (after 90 days that is) so if you aren’t sure, you might just want to disable the account instead.  I’ll get to that after.

Step Five – Your account has been permanently deleted (almost).  You will see the final screen proving the death of your account.  Now, I say almost deleted for a reason.  That is the fact that Twitch won’t actually delete your account straight away.  They have a safety feature in place for people who change their minds about account deletion.

Twitch will hold the account for a period of 90 days and then permanently delete it.  This is a nice feature in case you delete your account in the heat of the moment and realize after that it was a hasty decision.

Okay, so you’ve deleted your account.  Now what?  Well, if you decide that deleting the account wasn’t such a good idea, after all, don’t freak out, there’s hope yet.  

All you need to do is log back into Twitch within 90 days and reactivate your account.  If you don’t log back in and reactivate, then Twitch will permanently delete all account information after the 90-day ‘safety’ waiting period.

But maybe you just want to disable your account for now instead.  Don’t worry, I’ve got you on this one too.  Just read on to find out.

How to Disable Your Twitch Account?

As deletion is a final act of account defiance with no hope for return after 90 days, sometimes you may only want to disable your account for a while.

Disabling your Twitch account is actually rather easy. 

Just follow these steps to disable your Twitch account:

1. Login to Twitch.tv.
2. In the upper right, you will see your account symbol.  Click on it and a drop-down menu appears.
3. Move on down to the Settings menu item and click it.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and you will see where you can click to disable your Twitch account.

Or, you can just disable a twitch account here, if you’re already logged into the Twitch account that is.

Wasn’t that easy?  Twitch really makes it simple to control your account with these easy steps to disable your account.  But, what’s the difference?

Difference Between Deleting and Disabling Your Twitch Account

The major difference between disabling and deleting your Twitch account is that after 90 days, deleting your account is final.  When you delete a Twitch account, Twitch will keep your account in a hidden state for 90 days.  If you decide that deleting the account was a bad idea, you can log back into your account and reactivate it before the 90 days have expired.

When you disable an account, the account is hidden by Twitch but stored and not deleted.  This way the account lies dormant without being permanently deleted. 

But, why would you want to do this?  Let’s find out next.

Why You Would Disable Your Twitch Account?

Sometimes you just want to put things on hold, right?  I know that sometimes I just want a break from something.  Sometimes it is a video game, sometimes it is a social media channel.  And when this happens, you don’t always want to say goodbye forever, you just want to put things on hold.

That is the concept of the disable feature for Twitch accounts.  When you aren’t using your account much and want it on pause, you can disable it.  Maybe you just want a break, maybe something else in your life is preventing you from being able to stream for a while.  

Whatever the cause of your desire to disable the account is, it is a way of putting a hold on things without losing your account.

The reason you may want to keep an account is to keep features you may have earned, been rewarded, or even paid for.  And you may be an avid streamer so you want to keep your stream alive, just not right now.

Well, whatever the case, this is a great way to keep your account without having to keep it active.

Why You Would Delete Your Twitch Account?

The reasons for deleting an account on Twitch are many.  However, it should be understood that this is a final act.  That is, after a 90-day safety period.  Once you delete the account, Twitch holds it for 90 days in case you change your mind.  But after that, the account is gone for good.

So, why on Earth would you want to delete an account in the first place?  As I said, there can be all kinds of reasons why you might want to delete an account.  

Maybe you are just not that into Twitch and streaming.  Some people are interested in streaming for a while, and then they lose interest.  This is the biggest reason, I would think, why someone would likely delete their account. 

There could be all kinds of other reasons, of course.  Someone could have had a bad experience with other viewers/streamers on the platform.  When this sort of thing happens, people will often abandon the platform because it reminds them of how their feelings were negative due to other people on the site.

Whatever the reason, you’ve got 90-days to change your mind.  But, if you think you might go back, then make sure you just disable the account instead.

How Long Will Twitch Hold a Username?

As mentioned, when you delete an account, the information from the account is held for 90 days before permanently being deleted.  But, what about if you disable your account?

According to help.twitch.tv, usernames are ‘recycled’ (freed up for re-registration) if they are no longer active.  Twitch defines a username as being no longer active if there is no viewing or login activity for a period of at least 12 months.

So, be warned, if you decide to disable your account for more than a year without at least logging in and playing a stream or two, you are in danger of losing your username to someone else.

But you are probably wondering how someone else might get your username.  Well, Twitch is a rather impartial platform.  By that I mean that Twitch will sit on your username for a year and if you are inactive, the username will then be available for anyone who wants to use it.  

However, it’s not like Twitch is running ads showing people the expired names.  But, they do work on a first-come, first-served basis.  So, someone could register to use the name, not knowing it was used before, and get access to the name for their new registration.  Therefore, it is really more of a random chance of whether someone else will come up with the name themselves and try to register it.

As always, if you have any questions or just want to hang with me, stop by my Twitch channel here and say what’s up!

Deleting your account is easy, but just remember, this is a permanent thing so think twice before you delete your Twitch account.

Sources

1. Delfino, Devon, Business Insider, “How to delete your Twitch account or disable it temporarily”, https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-delete-twitch-account?op=1, Accessed June 17, 2020.
2. “How to disable, reactivate, or delete a Twitch account”, Computer Hope, https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001865.htm, Accessed June 17, 2020.
3. Twitch, Settings, https://www.twitch.tv/settings/profile
4. Antonelli, Darlene, MA, “How to Delete a Twitch Account”, WikiHow, https://www.wikihow.com/Delete-a-Twitch-Account, Accessed June 17, 2020.
5. “Twitch Account Settings”, Twitch, https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/twitch-account-settings?language=en_US, Accessed June 17, 2020.