Reddit is an AMA (Ask Me Anything) website. It’s an incredible source of information, pictures, memes, and whatever you may want to find on the internet. Like with anything though, sometimes you need a break. Here’s how to delete Reddit account.
Some people join the Reddit community to promote their products or services while others want to share their thoughts with the rest of the world. Many users join to stay current with what’s going on in a specific niche—aptly called a subreddit.
Whatever the reason, there might be a time when you want to move on and leave the Reddit community behind. But you should be very mindful of how you do it, because if you don’t do it right, you can’t reverse the process.
Read on to learn how to delete Reddit account properly and the reasons why you may want to.
When deleting your Reddit account:
- It’s easier to do it on the website, but it is possible on the mobile app.
- Know that deactivating your account is irreversible.
- Make sure to delete your post and comment history first if it’s important to you, as deleting your account won’t remove your posts and comments.
Why Delete Your Reddit Account?
Like many other social platforms, Reddit has been the subject of controversy.
For one thing, this website has an automatic personalization algorithm that uses its subscriber data to display ads and other content. In other words, the platform uses data from your activity to show you ads that you’re more likely to be interested in.
Some users are worried that it might share their information with third parties.
What’s more, the content on various subreddits might cause controversy. In 2012, for example, in a subreddit called “Creepshots,” a male user shared intrusive photos of women without their consent.
After public protests, Yishan Wong, former CEO of Reddit, defended the content and said that the company wasn’t going to “ban distasteful content.” But the worst part was when Gawker revealed the identity of the man behind the story.
Deleting Reddit
After that incident, Reddit lost many subscribers, and its share value plummeted. It seemed that Reddit wasn’t really committed to the principles of anonymity. And its human moderators—as well as the Reddit system as a whole—didn’t seem to be doing a good job.
Besides, Reddit’s emphasis on “freedom of speech” and “separation of beliefs and behavior” made users think it’s open to all offensive views such as racism, sexism, and fat-shaming.
Scandals like these don’t happen all that frequently on Reddit. But it’s not uncommon to see incidents on a smaller scale.
Other than avoiding controversy, you may want to delete your Reddit account for a few other reasons, such as:
- You feel insulted in one way or another.
- Someone has hacked your account.
- You think someone is manipulating your content.
- You want a break from being online in general.
- If you’re tired of Reddit’s uncontrollable settings.
- You’re not interested in collecting karma points—rewards that you collect for being an active member of the community.
Still, Reddit is popular with 1.5 billion monthly visits and 430 million active users per month.
Deleting vs Deactivating a Reddit Account: Are They Different?
Other platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have different procedures for deleting or deactivating your account.
This means that their members can either delete their account information entirely or take a temporary break by deactivating their username. Then after some time, they can recover the same username along with all their posts, links, and information.
Reddit, on the other hand, just gives you one option—to say goodbye to your username and your account history altogether. And once you delete/deactivate your Reddit account, there’s no way back.
Unlike other platforms—such as Twitter—you can’t even create a new account with your previous username. Because once a subscriber leaves the Reddit system, their username goes along with them and never becomes available for new users, no matter if it belongs to you or someone else.
Now that you know Reddit’s deactivation is different from what you’ve experienced on other platforms, read on to learn how to delete Reddit account.
How to Delete Reddit Account
Follow the steps below to remove your Reddit account from your computer or phone.
How to Delete Reddit Account via Browser
- Open any web browser and go to the official Reddit website.
- Select the “Log in” option in the upper right of the home page.
- Enter your ID and password to sign in to the account. If you have more than one user account, make sure you’re entering the “correct” username and not the one you want to keep.
- Tap on the user icon, and once the top-down menu pops up, enter the “User Settings.”
- The Account Tab appears. Scroll the mouse to the bottom until you see the red button on the right side.
- Click on “Deactivate Account” and fill in the blank fields with your account information (ID and password).
- Reddit invites you to give feedback at this moment, so tell them why you’re leaving the platform. (They’ll use this information to improve their user experience for other users.) But since it’s optional, you can either write the reason or skip the step.
- Mark the checkbox to declare that you acknowledge that deactivated accounts are not recoverable and then press the “Deactivate” button.
- Once again, confirm your decision in the new window, and that’s it. Your Reddit account no longer exists.
How to Delete Reddit Account on the Mobile App
The Reddit application on Android or IOS doesn’t offer a direct button to cancel your account. Therefore, deleting the account with a browser is always a preferable option.
Still, if you don’t want to login on a mobile browser for one reason or another, you can take the following steps to delete your Reddit account from your smartphone.
- Launch the Reddit application on your smartphone. If you’ve not already signed in, enter the account credentials to log into the system.
- Tap on your Reddit avatar at the top—which may or may not be personalized by your own photo.
- Click the arrow on the “Settings” option. Scroll down and go to the “Help and FAQs” section.
- Type the word “deactivate account” through the search bar and press the search button.
- Related queries will show up on the screen. Among them, you can see, “How do I deactivate my account?”
- Tap on the words, and a new page appears. At the bottom, Reddit has provided a link through which you can delete your account.
- Enter your username and password. Then, check the confirmation box to approve you know there’s no way to get the account back.
- Explain why you’re leaving (optional) and click the “deactivate account” button.
What Happens When You Deactivate Your Reddit Account?
Deleting a Reddit account doesn’t remove all its associated content. This means Reddit will still display your posts and comments. Other Reddit users can still comment on your posts. However, those posts will be there with an anonymous name—and that’s the only difference.
Also, whatever karma points you’ve earned during your subscription will disappear. What’s more, you’ll no longer have a premium membership. And all your subreddits, comment karma, and post karma will disappear for good.
Interestingly, your private messages will still be visible to others, but they won’t be accessible to you.
So, if you don’t want others to see your previous posts and comments, you should erase them independently and before you deactivate the account. Otherwise, they’ll be there forever, and you won’t have any way of deleting them.
How to Erase Posts and Comments Before Deactivation
Deleting Individual Posts and Comments
If you want to delete one or multiple posts or comments, here’s what you need to do:
- Open Reddit on your browser or mobile app and log into your account.
- Go to the user menu and click on “My Profile.”
- Here, you’ll see a list of your Reddit activities.
- Scroll down to find the specific post/comment you want to remove. Click on the three-dots icon beneath the post and select “delete.”
- A new window will warn you that you can’t restore the content once you delete it. If you’re sure you’ve selected the right comment/post, confirm your choice.
- Repeat the process for any content you want to remove.
Note: Once you do this, your post or comment will no longer be available to the public. But it will remain on the Reddit servers. So, if you’re serious about hiding a comment and want to erase the entire footprint, you should overwrite it rather than delete it.
For example, you can replace a personal story with a meaningless sentence such as “I like apples” or a random string of characters. An online tool such as Random.org can help you generate strings of arbitrary lengths that include alphanumeric characters.
Deleting the Entire Post/Comment History
Unfortunately, Reddit doesn’t offer a direct way to delete all your posts/comments at once. However, the Nuke Reddit History extension will do the trick. Read on to learn more about it.
Using Nuke Reddit History to Delete All Reddit Posts/Comments
As the name suggests, Nuke Reddit History is a Chrome extension that scrubs all your Reddit history. Follow the instructions to reap the benefits:
- Make sure you have logged into your Reddit account.
- Open a new tap, and browse the “Nuke Reddit History” on Google. (You can also use this link to accelerate the process.)
- Select the “Add to Chrome” button, which is there in blue. Now the browser starts to download the extensions.
- Once finished, you will see a new icon in your Chrome toolbar. If you click on it, two options will open up in front of you—one for deleting the comments and another for the posts.
- Once you select the desired option, the extension warns that it will take effect on the account you’re already logged in to. So, if you have more than one Reddit account and are signed into the wrong one, log out and log in to the correct one.
- Confirm your choice and wait until the job gets done.
Note: The process usually takes a few minutes. But if you have an old account with a very rich history, you may have to wait up to an hour. Also, remember to leave the tab open while it’s doing the job.
Note 2: This extension is only applicable for Chrome and not other browsers. If you don’t have access to Chrome, download the Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES) extension instead.
Frequently Asked Questions on How to Delete Reddit Account
Can Anyone See My Reddit History?
People can’t see your Reddit search history or the links you’ve been visiting. However, they can see your posts and comment history if they click on your profile. If you go to the Reddit “preferences” option, you can restrict some of the things that people see on your profile. For example, you can hide your votes from public view.
Can You Delete Reddit Messages?
You cannot delete outgoing Reddit messages because when you send a message to a user, a copy of the message is automatically saved in their inbox. However, you can easily erase your incoming messages in your own inbox. Sign in to your account via a browser, go to your “Messages,” select your intended messages, and select “delete.”
Does Deleting Your Reddit Account Delete My Messages?
Deleting your Reddit account doesn’t automatically delete messages. In fact, everything that relates to your account will remain on the platform, but your username will become inaccessible. Therefore, if you don’t want people to see your messages and posts, remove or edit them before deleting your account.
Final thoughts about deleting Reddit
Reddit is a public news aggregation and discussion platform that lets its users share everything—from how-tos to political views—on the internet.
Although beneficial, some users may find the platform unfriendly—or even outright offensive. So, you may want to take a break from the site or leave without ever going back.
Unfortunately, Reddit doesn’t differentiate between the two situations. You only have the option to delete your entire account—and the process is irreversible.
And, before you leave the platform forever, you should make sure you’ve taken all the necessary actions. Delete all your comments/posts or replace them with random strings. Then, proceed to delete your profile and say goodbye to Reddit.
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