How to Delete an Email Account from the iPhone and iPad

No longer want an email account on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod? Entire email accounts are very easy to remove from iOS, so whether you changed jobs, email addresses, an email provider was shut down, or perhaps you just don’t want to get emails for a particular account on your iOS device any more, you can easily delete the entire account in one fell swoop.

It’s important to point out that deleting an email account removes all of its data from the iOS device, including any account specific mail settings, login details, drafts, mail messages, mailbox content, and of course, notifications and alerts for that account will no longer come through either. Be sure that is what you are looking to do before proceeding, otherwise you may unintentionally delete something you’d rather keep around on your iPhone/iPad.
How to Remove an eMail Account from iOS

The process is the same regardless of what iOS version you are running, though things may look slightly different depending on the system version in use. Here’s what you’ll want to do to remove a mail address and the associated account inbox:

    Open the Settings app and choose “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”
    Under the “Accounts” section tap on the account you wish to delete
    Confirm the email address / account is accurate, then tap the large red “Delete Account” button, and confirm when again when asked to delete the account

In modern versions of iOS, the account settings and removal panel looks like so:

Delete an e-Mail account in iOS

Here’s what this simple account removal process looks like in older versions of iOS:

The email account settings screen:
Remove an email account from the iPhone

And the email account removal process:
Delete a mail account from the iPhone

When you head back to Mail app and you’ll find the mailbox for that account is no longer visible, and you will no longer have the option of sending emails from that address in a new message composition or mail reply screen.

There isn’t much harm in removing a mail account from iOS because you can always add the account back again in the future should need be. Because most commonly used mail servers store the messages on a remote server and then download them to your device as requested, those email messages will come back to the iPhone or iPad if the account has been re-added, so long as those emails (or the account itself) have not be deleted from the server as well.

You can also delete and then re-add an entire account as a shortcut to removing every single locally stored mail message from iOS for that specific account, which with giant mailboxes may be faster than deleting a bunch of individual email messages in bulk the way you’re supposed to. Just be aware that removing an account to delete the messages locally from your device will not delete them from the mail server.

Delete Pictures from Photo Stream and iCloud Account

If you’re set up to use iCloud with an iOS 5 device, you may have noticed that Photo Stream hosts your pictures online on iCloud.com and also syncs the pictures to the Photo Stream of your other devices. Apple will remove these pictures automatically after 30 days or after 1000 photos are uploaded, but if you want to delete them manually you can do that too:
Remove pictures from Photo Stream and iCloud

•     Login to iCloud.com with your Apple ID
•     Click on your name in the upper right corner of iCloud, seen in the screenshot above
•     Click on “Advanced”
•     Click on “Reset Photo Stream”

The warning below the reset button says “Reset Photo Stream to remove all photos from iCloud. This will not remove any photos from your devices or computers”, what this means is that if a picture was taken on an iPhone, it will continue to be in your standard camera roll in the Photos app, but will be deleted from the “Photo Stream” folder, and from iCloud.

Reset Photo Stream & iCloud to Delete Pictures

If you’re concerned about the available space on iCloud, you may want to consider upgrading to one of the paid iCloud plans, which start at $20/year for 15GB of storage. Just remember that your photos (or apps and iTunes music) do not count against the free plans 5GB of iCloud storage capacity.

View and Delete iCloud Documents from the iPhone / iPad

Practically all apps that store documents in iCloud let you delete them from the app itself, which simultaneously removes them from iCloud and thus all other synced iOS & OS X devices. But if you’re looking to manage and remove specific iCloud documents and data, there is a better way to do it through a centralized control panel within iOS that will let you view all documents stored in iCloud, much like the same feature that is on the Mac which is accessible through OS X System Preferences. Let’s focus on the mobile side of things and learn how to do this in iOS.
View & Manage iCloud Documents from iOS

You can easily see what is stored within iCloud from any iPhone or iPad:

    Open Settings and go to “iCloud”
    Tap on “Storage & Backup” then tap “Manage Storage”
    Look under “Documents & Data” to see which apps have iCloud documents available – note that both iOS and OS X apps storing documents in iCloud will be seen here

    View which apps have documents stored in iCloud from iOS
    Tap any app to see specific documents stored in iCloud

Here is what tapping on “TextEdit” would look like:

View iCloud documents in iOS

TextEdit is actually a Mac app, but it’s still visible in the iCloud document manager of iOS. We’ll get to more on the intricacies of that in a moment.

Note that Documents and “App Data” are different, with the former being the files you’re used to creating and using, and the latter being preferences, settings, and save-states for things like games. If you were to remove app data for Civilization for example, you would lose all of your saved games as well as the recall ability that keeps the game consistently where you left off, even after closing the app.

Delete Documents from iCloud via iOS

Removing documents or app data from iCloud is very simple:

    Delete a document by tapping “Edit” and then tapping the red button alongside the document name
    Alternatively, delete all documents pertaining to that specific app by tapping the big red “Delete All” button

The example is again showing TextEdit documents being modified through iOS:

Delete iCloud Documents from iOS

TextEdit is a good demonstration that apps and documents from the Mac are visible in addition to apps and documents on any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, so long as they are using the same iCloud account configured on each device. Because of this, it is fairly likely you will see apps and documents that are not specifically for the device you’re using at the moment, and if you have ever used iCloud to sync documents between Macs, there will much more visible here than what is accessible through any iOS app. Nonetheless, if you delete documents from an app that isn’t on your device, it will also delete the documents from the device it was created on, meaning you can easily delete iCloud documents made on a Mac from the iPhone, and vice versa. Be aware of this when removing documents and iCloud data, since it’s possible to accidentally delete things you may not have intended to.

Overall, using the centralized iCloud Manager is significantly easier than removing iCloud data manually by launching each respective app and deleting from there, and repeating until you’re finished. Most documents are fairly small, typically in the kilobytes, and won’t be much of a burden on total iCloud storage capacity, thus if you’re just trying to free up space for a cloud backup there are better ways to do that that will have a much greater impact.

How to Delete Old iCloud Backups on iPhone & iPad

Backing up a device to iCloud is highly recommended, but sometimes users get a new iPhone or iPad and they have old backups laying around in their iCloud account, which may not do much and just end up taking space. Assuming you have no use for the old backups anymore, you can easily delete them from iCloud and free up some iCloud space this way.


Do not delete an iCloud backup that you’ll need to use unless you plan on making a new one right away for a given device. Once you delete an iOS device backup from iCloud, it’s gone for good, and there is no undoing that removal.

How to Access & Remove Old iCloud Backups from iOS 9

The iCloud management panel is accessible from all iOS devices:

•     Open the “Settings” app on any iPhone or iPad that is connected to the same Apple ID account containing the backups you wish to remove from iCloud
•     Go to “Usage” and then under ‘iCloud’ choose “Manage Storage” 

Access iCloud backups from iOS
    Under the “Backups” list, you’ll see all devices which have current backups stored in iCloud, including the size of each backup, tap on the backup you wish to remove from iCloud
    Confirm this is an iCloud backup that you wish to delete permanently, then tap on “Delete Backup”
    Repeat for other old iCloud backups and old devices as necessary, then exit out of Settings when finished

How to delete old iCloud backups

If you’re deleting a current backup for some reason, perhaps to free up iCloud space, be sure you immediately start a new manual backup to iCloud of the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch in question, otherwise you will not have a backup available for the device. If for some reason you don’t want to use iCloud, you can always backup an iOS device to iTunes and also manage iOS devices backed up to iTunes in a similar manner.

Removing old iCloud backups can be an easy way to free up space from iCloud and remove iCloud clutter, particularly for devices that are no longer in use, no longer needed, or no longer owned. Mac users can also manage and delete these same iOS iCloud backups directly from OS X with the iCloud System Preference panel.

Of course, another option is to maintain the old backups and simply upgrade the iCloud storage plan to a larger capacity, the 200GB plan is generally our recommendation for users who have multiple devices, as it allows for plenty of storage capacity for multiple complete iCloud backups, copied files, and whatever else you wish to store in iCloud.

Reset iPhone to Factory Settings

If you want an iPhone to appear as brand new from a software standpoint, you need to reset the device to it’s factory settings. This is ideal if you plan on selling an iPhone or are going to transfer ownership of the device to another individual, and it can also be a very helpful troubleshooting technique for some persistent iOS based software problems. After you have reset the iPhone, it will reboot as if it was brand new and go through the standard new setup procedure that all new iOS devices go through, and can then either be set up as new or restored from a backup.

It’s very important to note that the factory reset process will remove all data and settings on the device, meaning you will lose everything that is stored on there, from pictures, to music, to notes, and specific app data. If you are looking to avoid that data loss, you will want to backup the iPhone with iTunes or back up to iCloud beforehand, that way you can restore personal data after the reset if you want to.

This method is going to use the iPhone exclusively to perform the data removal and factory reset, meaning the entire process is going to be finished on the iPhone through iOS Settings without the need to connect to a computer or anything else.
How to Reset iPhone to Factory Settings with iPhone Only

Warning: This will removal all data, music, photos, settings, literally everything, and the entire process is done from the iPhone without the need of using a computer. Back up before beginning if you need any of your personal data again, this will basically format the iPhone:

•     Launch “Settings” and tap on “General”
•     Scroll to the bottom of General and tap on “Reset”
•     Tap on “Erase All Content and Settings”
•     Enter the iPhone passcode if one is set, and confirm the reset by tapping on “Erase iPhone”

This is what the proper setting looks like in modern iOS versions:

Reset iPhone to Factory Settings

The option looks slightly different in older versions of iOS, but the process is identical:

Reset iPhone

Resetting the iPhone on device can take a while depending on the model, the warning dialogue will give you a rough estimate but it can range from a few minutes to over an hour to restore the device completely. During this time the phone is otherwise inoperable, as everything is be cleared off.

To be clear, this completely obliterates any and all user data on the iOS device, it can not be undone (unless a backup was made and is then restored). How definitive and how secure is this iPhone erase option? Extremely secure in modern versions of iOS, as Apple details and explains in their iOS Security Whitepaper for versions beyond 9.0 and newer of iOS software:

    The “Erase all content and settings” option in Settings obliterates all the keys in Effaceable Storage, rendering all user data on the device cryptographically inaccessible. Therefore, it’s an ideal way to be sure all personal information is removed from a device before giving it to somebody else or returning it for service. Important: Do not use the “Erase all content and settings” option until the device has been backed up, as there is no way to recover the erased data.

Beginning the reset process is very fast, however, as demonstrated in the video below:

Once completed, the device will reboot and show the familiar new setup screen. You’ll either want to leave the iPhone in it’s factory new state for a new owner to configure, complete the setup as a brand new device yourself, or restore from a backup if you initiated the factory reset for troubleshooting purposes.

You can also restore iPhones as to factory default settings by resetting through iTunes and a computer connection, but that is not necessary and the method outlined above using only iOS Settings is by far the fastest way to reset an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Important note: if you do not have the iPhone passcode or you forgot it, you will need to initiate a factory reset by connecting the device to a computer with iTunes and put the device into Recovery Mode first. That is a different process than what is described here, but you can follow our guide to resetting forgotten passcodes if that is deemed necessary.

How to Delete iCloud Account from an iPhone 6s Plus / iPad Air

For those of us who juggle between multiple iCloud accounts (which is really not recommended), you may need to remove an iCloud account associated with an iPhone or iPad some times. This is typically for situations where you need to swap in a different account, create a new iCloud login for some reason, or just change to another existent iCloud account that is better suited for a device. While iOS makes this process easy, but be sure you know why you would want to do this, otherwise you may encounter unanticipated problems.

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Again, this is not recommended unless you know exactly why you’re deleting the iCloud account from your device. A single user with multiple iCloud and Apple ID’s is rarely a good idea. Doing this without reason can cause a variety of complications and errors, ranging from improper or missing iMessage delivery, loss of data syncing, inability to retrieve apps that are associated with an Apple ID and App Store account, the removal of expected iCloud backups, and even loss of files and iCloud data. In short, do not change your iCloud ID or remove your iCloud account from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, unless you know exactly why you’re doing it and you understand the potential complications.

It’s a good idea to back up your iPhone / iPad before doing this just in case you mess something up.
Removing the Existing iCloud Account from iOS

First you’ll need to remove the existing iCloud account that is in use on the iOS device:

•     Open the Settings app and go to “iCloud”
•     Scroll down under all the settings to find “Delete Account” (or “Sign Out”) and tap on that
•     Confirm the removal of the iCloud account from the device by tapping on “Delete” or “Sign Out”

Note that the newest version of iOS uses “Sign Out” in the iCloud settings panel, whereas the immediately prior versions use “Delete Account” – the effect is identical, it’s just a change of wording. Both will log out of the iCloud ID account on the iPhone or iPad.

Delete an iCloud Account from iOS

Note this removes all documents that are from iCloud from the phone or iPad, but not from iCloud itself. Whether or not you want to save contacts and calendar data is up to you.

Once the iCloud account has been removed from the device, you’re left with a blank iCloud login. Here you can either create a new Apple ID and accompanying iCloud account, or change to another iCloud account.

Switching to a Different iCloud Account in iOS

This effectively lets you change between iCloud accounts on any iOS device. Again, this is not a recommended procedure without knowing why you want to do this, since it can lead to a variety of problems. Note if you already changed an Apple Store ID to the proper ID, this is unnecessary as the setting will carry over.

•     Follow the above steps to remove the existing iCloud account from the iOS device
•     Enter the new / different iCloud Account credentials and log in as usual by tapping “Sign In”
•     Choose the iCloud settings to use with the new account ID

Change an iCloud account in iOS

That’s it, the iCloud account associated with the iOS device has been switched.

Both of these tricks is helpful for when you erroneously use a single iCloud account for situations where different ones would be better, for example, using a single iCloud ID on spouses or kids unique iPhones – those are best served with individual iCloud accounts for each device. For your own personal devices, always try to use a single iCloud account and Apple ID, this insures continuity of app and iTunes purchases, and proper syncing of your files and data.

While this can remove iCloud and all related services from a device, this is not a replacement for resetting an iPhone to factory settings, which completely clears out all data and basically performs a fresh iOS installation. Obviously reseting everything isn’t going to be necessary if you simply need to change the login though, so use which is appropriate for the given situation.

Remove iCloud from iPhone & from Find My iPhone

If you’re no longer using an iOS device or Mac, you can remove it from Find My iPhone. When you remove a device, it’s removed from your Find My iPhone Devices list, and if your device has iOS 9.3 or later, Activation Lock is also turned off.

Before giving away or selling your iOS device, be sure to erase your content and settings (in Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings). When you erase your content, Find My iPhone and Activation Lock are also turned off.

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For more information, see the Apple Support article What to do before selling or giving away your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Remove an iOS device or Mac by turning off Find My iPhone

On an iOS device: Go to Settings > iCloud, then tap to turn off Find My [device].

On a Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then deselect Find My Mac.
Note:   You can also remove your device by turning off iCloud completely on that device. Turning off iCloud turns off all iCloud features on the device.
Remove an iOS device or Mac on which you can’t turn off Find My iPhone

If you can’t turn off Find My iPhone on the device, turn off the device so it goes offline, then remove it from Find My iPhone on iCloud.com.
Note:   You can also remove your iOS device by first erasing it—just follow the instructions below for removing an iOS device you don’t have. You can later restore the device from an iCloud or iTunes backup.

    Turn off the device you want to remove.

    Go to Find My iPhone on iCloud.com.

    If you don’t see Find My iPhone on iCloud.com, your account just has access to iCloud web-only features. To gain access to other iCloud features, set up iCloud on your iOS device or Mac.

    Click All Devices, select the offline device, then click Remove from Account. If you don’t see Remove from Account, click All Devices again, then click the Delete button next to the device.

    If the device comes online again, it reappears in Find My iPhone. If your device reappears, turn off Find My iPhone on the device (follow the instructions above for removing a device by turning off Find My iPhone), or if it’s an iOS device and you no longer have it, follow the instructions below for removing an iOS device you no longer have.

Remove an iOS device you no longer have

If you no longer have the iOS device because you gave it away or sold it, you need to remotely erase it before you can remove it.

    Go to Find My iPhone on iCloud.com.

    If you don’t see Find My iPhone on iCloud.com, your account just has access to iCloud web-only features. To gain access to other iCloud features, set up iCloud on your iOS device or Mac.

    Click All Devices, then select the device.

    Click Erase [device], then enter your Apple ID password or your family member’s Apple ID password. Because the device isn’t lost, don’t enter a phone number or message.

    If the device is offline, the remote erase begins the next time it’s online. You receive an email when the device is erased.

    If you erase your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus and you have credit and debit cards in Wallet for Apple Pay, Find My iPhone attempts to remove your cards immediately, even if your iPhone is offline. For more information, see the Apple Support article Use Wallet on your iPhone or iPod touch.

    When the device is erased, click Remove from Account. All your content is erased, and someone else can now activate the device.