Question Google Chrome and Account Questions

May 19, 2019
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I plan to wipe my computer clean and start fresh. After I wipe my computer and reinstall my Microsoft Windows 10 Operating System, I plan to create a new Google account. I had three Google email accounts that I used for personal, shopping, and business purposes. I downloaded, read, and followed the instructions from Google for deleting these accounts. As far as I could tell, after I followed the directions, I tried logging in with the accounts to see if they were deleted and I got pages that displayed messages that the accounts were deleted and that I had the option to restore them. However, I noticed that the accounts were still listed on my Google Chrome browser with options to sign-in or remove them, and I believe the sync options were automatically turned off. I am not familiar with the Google account deletion process and I want to make sure that my accounts were properly deleted. My questions are as followed:

  1. Did I do the account deletion process correctly?
  2. When I download and install Chrome, Drive, and Music Manager after wiping the computer and reinstalling Windows 10, would I be correct in assuming that the settings for Chrome, Drive, and Music Manager would remain on their factory default settings both before and after I create my new Google account?
  3. When I create my new Google account after I wipe my computer, I want to start completely fresh with the account settings and the settings for Chrome, Drive, and Music Manager all on their factory default settings. I intend to re-enter my same profile information including name and phone number when I create the new Google account. When I create the new account under my name and phone number, will any of the settings for Chrome, Drive, or Music Manager from my old accounts, regardless if they were deleted or not be transferred to my new account automatically?
  4. I prefer to have my old accounts closed. If for some reason I did not close one of my old accounts, and I created a new Google account with the same information like the name and phone number, would the settings from the old account like Chrome, Drive, and Music Manager transfer to the new account or would the settings from the two accounts be separate?
  5. If for some reason I delete my new account in the future and remove it from the account list in Chrome, will Chrome automatically return to its factory default settings or will any changes that I made in its settings while using the account remain after the account is deleted? This question also applies to Google Drive and Music Manager.
  6. If I add a second Google account to the Chrome list or replace the first account with a new one in the future, will the changes in settings that I created with the first account remain in Chrome when I either switch between accounts or move over to the second account or will Chrome change its settings between accounts or return to factory default settings? This question also applies to Google Drive and Music Manager.

Thanks.
 

Sgt_Sykes

Honorable
Jul 17, 2013
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10,615
I'm not sure how is deletion of old accounts and creating a new one related to reinstalling Windows? You don't need to reinstall.

1) Well we don't know what you did exactly so hard to say. But if you got the deletion message and didn't follow through to recover them, then they should get deleted after a while. There's probably some grace period during which you can recover the accounts and after that they get deleted permanently. Maybe that's why they were still listed in Chrome, although personally I'd find that behavior strange.

2) Yes. But again you don't need to reinstall Windows. At most you may want to delete the data in those Google apps

3) If you wipe and reinstall Windows and create a new G account, everything will be fresh/default and there will be no relation to the old accounts. (I assume, technically G could still track you based on your IP address and other aspects but we'll never know if they really do that.)

4) A new account is new account so nothing will be transferred. Caveats:
  • If you use the same phone number on 2 accounts, Google may attempt to connect them somehow, but I don't think they do anything like that by default. I think you'd need to connect the accounts manually.
  • I'm not sure about the settings as I don't use G apps, but I believe all the settings are account-specific. I mean that's the point of web apps. So if you log out and log in with another account, the settings will be different.

5) I'm not sure about this one. Chrome can be used with or without a G account. So you can change some settings, then log in and have different settings. When you log out or delete the account, you'll get the previous settings back, not the defaults, unless you deliberately reset to defaults. Drive can't be used without an account at all so settings are always account-specific; it wouldn't make sense otherwise. Music Manager I don't know.

6) Same as with 5) Basically when you log out of your account in Chrome, it will revert to the settings it was before you were logged in.