Many users want to delete their Yahoo account after the latest hack which confirms that more than a billion accounts have been breached. We’ll show you how to delete Yahoo email accounts and why you shouldn’t take this important step without looking at the results.
Before deleting the account, you will need to decide whether you want to download your Yahoo email or just continue. It takes a little longer to download your Yahoo email to your computer. Yahoo also lists options to take back control and protect a hacked Yahoo email account, but there are plenty of reasons to look for a new email provider.
Things to know about deleting a Yahoo account. IB Photography / Shutterstock.com
How to Delete Yahoo Accounts
If you decide to delete the yahoo accounts you use, it’s a simple process that’s easiest to switch to Gmail, but works just as well when you download email to your computer.
- Download Your Yahoo Email
- Download Your Yahoo Contacts
- Download Your Yahoo Calendar Entries
- Change Your Yahoo Password
- Delete Yahoo Account
- Don’t Delete Your Yahoo Account
If you use Flickr, be sure to download Flickr photos before deleting your Yahoo account.
Before going through this process, it’s important to remember that deleting Yahoo accounts may not be the best idea. Here’s more information on why you should secure your account, switch to a different email account, but leave the Yahoo email account active.
How to Download Yahoo Email
The easiest step is to switch to Gmail and use the import option to download Yahoo Mail and Contacts to Gmail. To do this, click on it and then on it. Now and then. You will need to enter your Yahoo email address and the tool will import your old email, contacts and new mail for 30 days.
If you don’t switch to Gmail, you’ll have to use this guide To connect Yahoo email to a program on your computer and download messages to your computer in a mail program such as Outlook, Mail for macOS Sierra, Thunderbird and others.
This will download all your mail to your computer so you have a locally stored copy. You need to make sure to back this up with the rest of your data.
How to Download Your Yahoo Contacts
Yahoo makes a useful post guide Here’s how to export your Yahoo contacts so you can import them into your new email service. If you did the Gmail migration in step one, you don’t need to do this.
- In Yahoo Mail, click
.
- click
| choose .
- Choose a format to export (we recommend if you’re unsure).
- Click .
This downloads a file to your computer that you can import into almost any communication application or service.
How to Download Yahoo Calendar Events
Now you will want to download your calendar. This only takes a minute and will create a local copy for you to import into another program.
- go Yahoo Mail and click the tab.
- If you do not see your calendar(s) in the list, click the icon in the left panel menu to show your calendar list.
- Click
next to the calendar you want to export.
- Click .
- Click the down arrow and select from the menu.
– The export window opens. - Click .
- Save the ICS file to your computer.
After you download this file, you can import it into the calendar application on your computer, or upload and import it into most online calendar applications and services.
Change Your Yahoo Password
Now that you have all Yahoo data, you can change your Yahoo password. This is a good idea as the account is not deleted as soon as you click the button. It is kept in limbo for 90 days before Yahoo deletes it.
- Go to Yahoo Account Information page.
- Tap (Mobile web browser only).
.
- Click .
- Click .
- Enter and confirm your new password.
- Click .
– A confirmation appears. - Click to finish.
Make sure you choose a strong password that is not the same as the password you use on other accounts.
How to Delete Yahoo Accounts
Now that you’ve come this far, you’re ready to delete your Yahoo account. It only takes a minute and you can’t undo it.
- go to “Terminate your Yahoo account” page.
- Read the information under “Please consider the following information before continuing”.
- Confirm your password.
– recover with Yahoo Sign-in Assistant. - Click .
That’s all you need to do to close your Yahoo account. If you decide to reactivate, you have 90 days to do so. bring it back using this guide.
Why You Shouldn’t Delete Your Yahoo Account
Even if you hate the fact that you now have a Yahoo account now that a second attack has become public, there are reasons not to delete your Yahoo account.
Your Yahoo account can be recycled when no longer used. If this happens, the new owner may continue to receive your emails, which may include account access to online services, banks, and more.
This outlines what can happen when an email account is recycledincluding information that emerges in real-world examples. If you choose not to delete your Yahoo account, change the password to a strong one and sign in every six months to keep the account active, but move all your accounts to a new email service.