Microsoft Teams: Delete Account Or Leave Team - How It Works

2023 Author: Sheila Hailey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 15:18

If you are the first to register with Microsoft Teams, you are creating what you would call an “account”. Microsoft calls this “organization” or “org”. The individual people in it all have a kind of "account" - but only within the organization. Whoever created this account, that is, this organization, is also the “administrator” - and thus the only person who can delete the account.

All other people in this account are "only" team members. You cannot leave the team or the account yourself, but must be removed from it by the administrator. And even then, they still have the unspeakable Microsoft account on their cheeks.

It's also not much easier for the administrator: he has to remove each member individually before having to call Microsoft support to ask them to close the account.

Delete an account in Microsoft Teams

Deleting a Microsoft Teams account is about as logical and easy as brushing your teeth through your ears! A distinction is made between a simple Microsoft Teams member and a pure Microsoft Teams administrator.

Here's how a Microsoft Teams member can delete their account:

In step 1 you have to ask the administrator of the account to remove it from all teams.
Then you can log out and theoretically forget the whole thing. Nobody from the old team can still reach you and you won't be able to join the old team.
However, you can still log in to Microsoft Teams with your login data.
In order to delete this access and thus the Microsoft Teams account, you must delete your Microsoft account. You had to create that when you first registered with Microsoft Teams.
To do this, go to the Microsoft Account Close page. Log in there with your login details.
Then you will be told how bad it is if you close the account. Confirm your decision there by clicking the Next button. You may have to enter a security code now, which will be sent to your email address.
Next you have to tick 10 boxes and choose a reason before the account is marked for deletion. It is not deleted immediately, but only after 60 days.

But if you do not log in again within these 60 days, you have not only closed this account, but also deleted the Microsoft Teams account.

This is a bit more complicated for the founder of a Microsoft team - if he doesn't want to delete his Microsoft account entirely. After all, this may still be required for Office 365 access.

Here's how the admin deletes the Microsoft Teams account:

First you have to remove all members from the teams.
To do this, click on your profile picture at the top right and then on Manage Organization.
You will then see a list of members. Click the X to the right of the word "member".
When all members have been removed, you will need to call Microsoft Support to ask them to delete the Microsoft Teams account.

Alternatively, you can simply delete your entire Microsoft account as described above.