How to Cancel a MySpace Account
This will be my first post on MNteractive, but I’m a frequent reader. I recently tried to cancel my MySpace account, but I’m still not quite sure if I actually did. The experience was not only very challenging, but very confusing and highly irritating. How many “cancels” does it take to cancel a MySpace account? Let me tell you…
About a year and a half ago, I heard about this site called MySpace - a couple college friends invited me to join. The first couple weeks it was fun, like any other new project. Then I grew bored. Then I found out Rupert Murdoch recently purchased MySpace. I promptly tried to cancel my account, but I had no idea how to (they don’t make it easy).
I maybe visited MySpace once every 6 months (so…3 times?) and I finally had it. I tried to cancel my account. This time I think I succeeded. I think:
STEP 1. Try to locate the “Cancel” link:
It’s hidden way up above all the important information.
STEPS 2-5. Repeatedly click “Cancel My Account” to no avail - how many times do I have to do this? It seriously takes 4 click throughs to get to what seems like the end.
STEP 6. Then they send you an email. At this point, my account is still active.
STEPS 7-9. Again, I have to keep clicking “Cancel My Account” (same screens as before).
10. Then I get a screen that says it will take up to 48 hours to cancel my MySpace account. Huh?
Note that it still doesn’t say that my account is cancelled.
Come on! If the goal of their website is to have as many members as possible, they certainly do a good job of deterring users from cancelling their accounts.
What I don’t understand is all the news about parents telling their kids to cancel their MySpace accounts. Do these parents have any idea what their children will have to go through in order to cancel that account? No wonder they keep finding their kids on MySpace. It’s next to impossible to get away.
I still don’t know if I successfully cancelled my account. I’m afraid to try logging in for fear that I might *undo* my cancellation.
30 Comments
MySpace: The proof that good design doesn’t have to be part of the equation for commercial success. *sigh*
Courtney,
Excellent post - this isn’t an issue just with MySpace - all ’social network’ sites basing their value off their memberships are guilty. David over at 37Signals recently ranted about his problems leaving LinkedIn,
My process leaving YouTube was also similar.
There are 2 problems created when web services make it difficult to leave:
Since I still haven’t received *confirmation* (I will use that term very loosely) I think I have a plan to find out if my account is truly inactive.
I guess I’ll have to contact one of my MySpace friends to see if I’m still their friend. (Oh the irony)
i have a problem! the cancelling confirmation is not being sent to my mail therefore i cant follow the steps to completely cancel my account… what else can i do?!
If myspace wants to inflate it’s numbers by not processing cancel account requests then maybe you could do something that their terms of service prohibits like say spamming other myspace members so your account gets removed that way…
I can’t get the confirmation email for the cancellation. I put objection material on my profile page and reported myself and nothing.
But I put a link telling people how to block the malware popup spam that minimizes their browsers and opens a window saying their computer is infected with spyware/malware and I get banned from the forums.
Easy to see what MySpace is more interested in.
it’s a horrible experience going through myspace’s cancellation process. It took me more than a month to do this - it’s frustrating like a hell. I finally have my account canceled, which means I can no longer log in. But I see my profile is still there for public display. Myspace sucks!
yeah i have the same problem tried a number of times to cancel it.. wont send me an email to confirm it. yet i changed my address details.. and the e-mail for that was instantaneous FK MYSPACE
Yup, trying to cancel my myspace account and can’t. They make it impossible to do so. I’ve sent them at least 20 cancellation requests and cannot cancel my myspace account. I just want to cancel my myspace acount, and they will not let me do so, I don’t even get a cancellation e-mail.
Hmmm. I am having the same problem. I first tried to cancel my accounts on 7th December and have subsequently sent out several requests for this mysterious “Cancellation Confirmation” Email … but to no avail. I have now contacted Customer Service but as yet they have not responded.
Thanks for the info Steve ( 11:40 pm, 28 Nov 2007 ) … your experience means that if I ever do get the Confirmation Email I will ensure I delete as much as possible on the site using the edit facilities BEFORE following its “instructions” .
The lack of interest in their customers’ wishes by Myspace would be simply irritating if it were not that I can envisage parents attempting to cancel accounts when their children have been contacted innapropriately; people being stalked or cyber-bullied wanting to cancel; people with new jobs or new relationships wanting to cancel … ( I hope you get my drift ) … in which cases the delay ( or what seems in some cases … the outright refusal ) to enable deletion of accounts borders on the criminally negligent. Myspace would get some bad press if someone’s profile remained active and/or public and a nutter was using that fact to get at a customer DESPITE their having tried to close it down.
I really hope such a scenario never comes to pass … but what price Myspace’s number of “User Accounts” then?
Ho hum. I will continue to attempt to delete my accounts … wish me luck!
Hi I found this site through a google search after having the same problem, Myspace sent me this after repeated emails to their customer service department-
“If you are not receiving the confirmation email to finalize account deletion, please remove all content from the profile in question, and enter in the text ‘Remove Profile’ in the ‘About Me’. This lets us know that you have control of the account. Please alert us after you have completed the steps above, with the URL to the profile in question, we can then remove the profile for you.”
In reality, MySpace is just making it harder on their users to execute any type of exit strategy. I’m shocked that they would make you change your profile to “Remove Profile.”
If you’ve been emailing their customer service repeatedly, then they should just be able to delete it for you.
My assumption is that MySpace thinks that if they put more responsibility on the user then the user will just get fed up and stop trying to cancel their profile, thus keeping the member count high.
Is this the equivalent to the poor customer service provided by Ryan Air? Amazing what people will put up with.
A couple of clicks and it was deleted, just like that. I had to do nothing else and got no messages other than the one confirming that it would be deleted. Very, very simple. Don’t know why there seems to be so many problems for some people!
someone hacked into my account so I have tried to cancel my account for a while now! I sent numerous messages to their so called “customer service” and nothing happened. Myspace has people trapped in order to make money, using their page for advertisements! This has to stop!
for ages i have been trying to delete my profile on myspace… now i have come accross this i realise i may never be able to rid myself of myspcae, my solution was to delete all my friends and delete my email account and change it :/
I figured it out! If you’re having problems deleting the account because you aren’t receiving emails, then I have a solution. Log into your Myspace and at the very bottom of the page there are a series of links. One of the last links should say “international myspace.†Click on that, and then choose the United States (even if you aren’t in the U.S.) and then go home and to account settings and delete your account. You should get the email after that; I did. If that doesn’t work, then I’m all out of answers.
seriously, myspace are impossible… they do not allow u delete ur account and it makes me rather ropable and annoyed (that is putting it nicely) i changed country… i wrote terrible comments all over it… changed email… did whatever i could…. they are stalkers and i am rather angry at the moment… IT IS AN INVASION OF ONES PRIVACY… THEY SHOULD BE BANNED AND TAKEN OFF… i feel so much better now that i got that off my chest… thankyou for listening to me winge… have a nice day and good luck to those on myspace… your privacy is gone… nite nite
@Solution - this worked for me also! Thanks a lot for this, had been trying to delete my account for several months to no avail as the alleged confirmation email never sent… very strange workaround, but anyone else having problems TRY THIS METHOD!!!
Is it possible that if you share the login info with another, that person can cancel your account without having my email password (so they can’t confirm the cancellation?
@Solution, Thank-you!!!
HEY! CHANING MY ACCOUNT TO USA WORKED! Thank you so much for this tip!
Solution is completely right, when I switched to Usa, I got the e-mail in a couple of seconds!!
THANKS TO “SOLUTION”!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck MYSPACE! I saw that I was on for myspace canada for no reason but never thought anything of it. changing to USA I got my cancellation email right away. it still says to wait 48 hours for cancellation.
TOTALLY WORKS! Worked immediately!! So stupid, because I actaully AM in Canada and I never ever would have thought to do that.
What a shit site MySpace is. Bad software, awful layout, ridiculous HTML crap to do.
Thank god for Facebook.
The switching to USA solution works. I was really, really getting sick of not being able to cancel, even their help site wouldn’t load because zonealarm saw it as a spy site. Terrible. I hate MySpace.
I canceled my account, got the cancellation email as I should. HOWEVER, my profile still shows up when searching in my zip code. How do I get rid of that?
I wanted to cancel my MySpace profile and followed the usual cancellation process on their website. I however, like many others have experienced, did not receive the Cancellation Confirmation email, and I have NO email filtering on my email service. My belief is that to ensure a high number of profiles remain using their service, these Cancellation Confirmation emails are never actually sent. So after not receiving the Cancellation Confirmation email after about 2 days I contacted MySpace using their contact form and threatened them with legal action if they failed to delete my profile as requested. They then contacted me within 24 hours and instructed me to remove all information from my profile and enter “Remove Profile” in the About Me section. I did this and contacted them shortly after to inform them that I had done so, and my profile was deleted shortly after. It seems these f**kers need to be threatened in order to actually delete you from their service. Good luck.
WHAT IS @solution ??? i have tried everything possible to delete my account but I am still not receiving the cancellation confirmation to my email!! i am already fed up with myspace!! HELP!!! please!!
I have been trying to cancel my myspace for 6 months. I have spent all today and yesterday trying to get it fixed, but keep getting the same 3 emails sent to me by them. Their customer service is appalling. I can’t log in to change the country as my profile has been ‘deleted’ from their system (still appears when searched for) and it won’t accept my password.
WHAT CAN I DO???? Any advice anyone?
yea, i tried to cancel as well. i deleted an email address that i used when i opened my space account before i cancelled myspace. bad move on my part! they told me that in order to cancel myspace i would need to confirm it at that address. but i explained that i no longer had access to that account. they told me that in order to cancel it i would need to create a “salute” by taking a pic of myself holding a piece of paper that has my friend id on it. then they told me with the other hand (get ready for the crazy) to hold 3 fingers in the air. well i told them that was stupid and i wasn’t going to do it nor was i going to do it and have them deny cancellation again and then have them tell me this time to stand on one leg, with one eye closed and 3 centimeters to the left kind of bullshit. So, they told me to put “remove profile” in the about me section of my profile and put a picture of me on the profile so they could identify me. idiots. i did that and then they told me that they could not accept my “salute” So, yea someone above said it was so that they don’t lose their advertising with all the member pages and so they can keep t heir high number of profiles.
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