Deleting Your Data

Remove a document or your whole account, and understand how your data is scoped whether you are a guest or signed in.

You own your documents, and removing one is straightforward. It helps to know how your data is scoped first, because that determines what "your data" means whether you are working as a guest or signed in.

Deleting a document

You can delete a document from the Explorer or from the editor. Open the document's ⋯ menu (on its row or card, or in the Current Document section of the Explorer panel) and choose Delete. A short confirmation names the document (Delete "System overview"?) and, when it applies, adds that it is deleted for the whole team, that its share links stop working, or that tabs it shares with other documents stay there. Its Delete button is the ordinary blue one rather than red, because nothing is lost yet.

RenameDuplicateChange FolderDeleteDelete “System overview”?Its share links stop working.CancelDelete
The delete confirmation names the document and says when its share links will stop working.

Deleting a document moves it to the Trash, where it waits for 30 days before it is removed for good, along with the content that belongs only to it, such as its tabs and comments. While it waits, its share links stop working and it disappears from your lists, and you can restore it with everything it had. To remove it straight away, delete it permanently from the Trash.

A tab the document shares with another document is not deleted with it: it stays in the other document. Offline documents have their own Trash in this browser.

If you have organised documents into folders, you can also tidy up by moving documents between folders or removing folders, separately from deleting the documents themselves.

Deleting your account

When you are signed in, open Settings, go to Account, and choose Delete Account under Danger Zone. You are asked to type your email address to confirm, because this cannot be undone.

Deleting your account removes from the server, straight away:

  • every document you own, including anything already in the Trash, with its tabs, comments and share links;
  • your folders, images, saved themes, shape libraries and preferences;
  • your stars, your history and activity, and any community posts;
  • your API tokens, which stops any script or connected AI tool at once;
  • your Google Drive connection (livediagram's access is revoked at Google, and the files already in your Drive stay yours);
  • the account itself.

Documents in a team's shared library are not deleted with you: they pass to a remaining member, so the team keeps its work. A team you were the last member of is deleted, and its documents, which are all yours by then, are deleted with your account. If email is set up, you get a short confirmation once it is done.

After your data has been removed from the server, you may be asked to verify your sign-in again before the account itself is closed. Offline documents were never on the server, so they stay in this browser until you clear its storage.

How your data is scoped

Where your data lives depends on how you are identified:

  • As a guest, new documents start offline, saved only in this browser, and any you share or sync are owned on the server by your per-browser id, stored in that one browser. Your data is scoped to that browser, so clearing the browser's storage removes the app's link to your guest content, and using a different browser or device shows a fresh, empty workspace.
  • When signed in, your documents are owned by your account and synced across every device where you sign in. Deleting a document removes it everywhere, because the account is the single source of truth.

A guest has no account to delete. To remove what you created as a guest, delete the documents you no longer want and empty the Trash. Clearing the browser's storage deletes your offline documents, but only removes this browser's record of your guest identity: documents you shared or synced stay on the server, out of reach from a fresh browser, so delete them first if you want them gone.

If you plan to clear your browser, sign in first if you want to keep anything. Your guest documents on the server move into the account on sign-up. Offline ones move only if you accept the offer to move them after signing in, so do that before you clear the browser.

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