How to delete your Scribd account
Scribd is a digital library and document-sharing service run by Scribd, Inc., which since its 2023-2024 unbundling operates three brands off a single login: Scribd (user-uploaded documents and PDFs), Everand (ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts and sheet music) and SlideShare (presentations). One account holds your name, email address, username and public profile with photo and bio; your credit/debit card or PayPal billing details and purchase history; every document, presentation, comment and image you have ever uploaded; and a detailed behavioral record that Scribd's own California Privacy Notice describes as "Reading and listening history, search history, and saved items," plus internet activity, geolocation data and device identifiers. Deleting the account removes all three services at once and is permanent — Scribd states its support team "may not be able to restore your reading history, document uploads or other information if you delete your account."
Delete your Scribd account, step by step
- 1If you have a paid subscription, cancel it first — Scribd will not delete an account that still has active subscription time on it
- 2To cancel on the web: sign in at scribd.com or everand.com, open your account page, scroll to "Subscription & Payment Details" and click "End My Subscription" (labeled "Cancel Subscription" on some accounts), then follow the confirmation pages until you get the confirmation message and email
- 3If you subscribed through Apple, cancel in iOS Settings > your Apple ID > "Subscriptions" > Scribd or Everand > "Cancel Subscription"; on Mac, App Store > your name > "View Information" > Subscriptions > "Manage" > "Edit" > "Cancel Subscription"
- 4If you subscribed through Google Play, go to play.google.com > "My Subscriptions" in the left menu > Scribd or Everand > "Manage" > "Cancel subscription" (or in the Play app: profile icon > "Payments & subscriptions" > "Subscriptions")
- 5Wait for your remaining subscription time to expire — once inactive, your account page shows the end date
- 6Recommended before deleting: go to your uploads page at https://www.scribd.com/uploads, find each document you want gone, click the trash can icon to the right of it (below it on mobile) and confirm by selecting "Delete" — a confirmation message appears once it is removed
- 7Sign in to scribd.com or everand.com on a desktop browser and click the user icon in the upper right-hand corner
- 8Select "Your account" from the drop-down navigation menu (direct link: https://www.scribd.com/your-account)
- 9Check that the page shows no active subscription time remaining
- 10Scroll down to the "More options" section
- 11Click "Delete account" and complete the on-screen prompts to confirm
- 12In the Scribd or Everand mobile app instead: tap "Account" in the bottom right, select "Account Information", confirm your subscription is inactive, tap "Delete account" and follow the prompts — an "Account deleted" banner confirms it worked
- 13If the self-service "Delete account" control is missing on Everand, Scribd's Everand-specific article directs you to start a conversation with its virtual assistant and request deletion; you will be asked to verify your identity, and the process may take a few business days
- 14For a SlideShare account: sign in on the SlideShare website, click the account icon in the top right, select "Account Settings", click the "Account" tab, verify no active subscription, select "Delete Account" and confirm with "Yes, delete my account" in the pop-up
What actually happens when you delete
Gets removed
- ✓Your single Scribd, Inc. login and public profile — username, display name, profile photo and bio — across Scribd, Everand and SlideShare simultaneously
- ✓Reading history, saved books, unlocked books and account settings — Scribd states these are "permanently removed" and that this "can't be undone"
- ✓Search history and saved items, which Scribd's California Privacy Notice lists among the personal information tied to your account
- ✓Documents and presentations you uploaded, once you remove them — deleted uploads also drop out of Google's search index, though Scribd warns this takes "several days (up to a week)"
- ✓Your public profile page at scribd.com and the follower/following relationships attached to it
Stays behind
- ✗The license you granted over anything you posted: Scribd's Global Terms of Use (Section 11.0) take "a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide, nonexclusive, sublicensable, and transferable license" over your User Submissions — that grant does not end when your account does
- ✗Any of your documents that other users downloaded, re-uploaded elsewhere, or that search engines and third-party mirrors have already cached
- ✗Billing and transaction records Scribd, Inc. keeps — the Global Privacy Policy commits only to retaining information "for as long as we determine is necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected," with no stated end date
- ✗Your App Store or Google Play subscription itself — Scribd explicitly warns that "deleting your account doesn't automatically stop billing if you subscribed through the App Store or Google Play," because Apple and Google hold that billing relationship, not Scribd
- ✗De-identified and aggregated usage data, which Scribd's California Privacy Notice places outside the definition of Personal Information and therefore outside the scope of deletion rights
Before you delete
The blocking prerequisite is subscription time, not the subscription itself: Scribd requires you to cancel AND wait for every remaining paid day to expire before the "Delete account" control becomes usable, so a user who cancels the day after renewing waits roughly a month. Cancelling through Apple or Google is a separate action from deleting the Scribd account — deleting the account does not stop App Store or Google Play billing, and users who delete first often keep getting charged with no account left to log into. Scribd's newer Everand-specific help article routes deletion through the site's virtual assistant chat with an identity-verification step and says "the process may take a few business days," while the main "Deleting your account" article still documents the self-service control under "More options"; if the self-service option is missing, the assistant flow is the documented fallback. Deletion is one account across Scribd, Everand and SlideShare. Note that Scribd does offer a pause (up to 12 weeks) as well as cancellation, so users wanting a break have a genuine reversible option short of deletion. Two things survive regardless: the Terms of Use license over content you posted is "perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide, nonexclusive, sublicensable, and transferable," and the Privacy Policy sets no retention cap, committing only to keep data "as long as we determine is necessary." Delete uploads individually first — Google's index takes up to a week to catch up.
Download your data from Scribd first
Most platforms only honor a data-export request while the account is still active. Do this before you delete.
- 1Scribd offers no self-service "download your data" button. To get a copy of the personal information Scribd, Inc. holds on you, submit an access/portability request through Scribd's Privacy Rights Request Form, linked from the Global Privacy Policy and the California Privacy Notice — the form is hosted on Wufoo and requires JavaScript enabled. Requests the form does not cover go to [email protected]. California residents may make verifiable access or portability requests only twice in any 12-month period. Do this before deleting your account — once deleted, reading history and unlocked titles are unrecoverable. Separately, download anything you uploaded from https://www.scribd.com/uploads while you still have access, since you lose it on deletion.
Want to take a break instead? Deactivate
Deactivation hides your profile without permanently destroying it. Logging back in restores everything.
- 1Scribd has no account-level deactivate or hibernate mode — the account itself is either live or permanently deleted. But there are two reversible subscription-level options that keep your account, profile, uploads, saved lists and reading history fully intact. PAUSE: open your account information on scribd.com or everand.com and look in the "Plan" section for "Pause subscription," which Scribd documents as letting you "pause your subscription for up to 12 weeks." CANCEL: sign in at scribd.com or everand.com, open your account page, scroll to "Subscription & Payment Details", click "End My Subscription" (or "Cancel Subscription") and follow the confirmation pages until you receive the confirmation message and email; you retain premium access until the end of the current billing period, after which the account reverts to free but survives. If you subscribed via Apple or Google, cancel in iOS Settings > Apple ID > "Subscriptions" or Google Play > "Payments & subscriptions" > "Subscriptions" instead — cancelling on Scribd's site will not stop those charges.
If deletion fails — or you live in the EU, UK, or California
You have a legal right to request erasure of your personal data under GDPR (EU/UK) and CCPA (California). Use these official channels if the self-service flow doesn't work.
Scribd deletion FAQs
Why won't Scribd let me delete my account?+
Almost always because you still have paid subscription time remaining. Scribd's help center is explicit: "If you have an active subscription, you must first cancel your subscription and allow any remaining time to expire before you can delete your account." Cancelling does not end access immediately — you keep premium access through the end of the billing cycle you already paid for, so the "Delete account" option stays blocked until that date passes. Cancel, then check your account page: once the subscription is inactive it displays an end date. Come back after it.
Does deleting my Scribd account cancel my subscription and stop the charges?+
No, and this is the single most expensive mistake people make. Scribd states plainly that "deleting your account doesn't automatically stop billing if you subscribed through the App Store or Google Play." Apple and Google own that billing relationship, so you must cancel in iOS Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions, or in Google Play > Payments & subscriptions > Subscriptions. Cancel there FIRST, let the paid period lapse, and only then delete.
Will I get a refund for the unused part of my subscription?+
Generally no. Scribd, Inc. states it "does not offer partial refunds. If you've used the service for part of the billing cycle and then canceled, you will not be eligible to receive a refund for the charge." Refunds are limited to charges within the last 30 days and only for technical issues that are Scribd's fault, account compromise by a third party, a charge made in error, content that differs significantly from the preview or is defective, or subscription time you never used at all. Scribd states it "cannot grant you a refund for any charges over 30 days old."
I deleted my account — will my uploaded documents disappear from Google?+
Not instantly. Scribd's guidance on removing uploads is written around deleting documents individually from your uploads page, after which "your document will also be removed from Google's search index, though it may take several days (up to a week) for Google to reflect this change." Delete each upload with the trash can icon and wait for the confirmation message BEFORE you delete the account, so you can verify each one actually came down rather than relying on account deletion to sweep them up.
Can I reactivate my Scribd or Everand account or get my library back?+
No. Scribd's Everand deletion guidance says "Deletion is permanent. If you want to use Everand again, you'll need to create a new account, and your previous reading history and unlocked books won't be recoverable." There is no documented grace period or reactivation window, and support "may not be able to restore your reading history, document uploads or other information." Scribd does not publish any commitment about releasing your old username back into the pool.
Is there a way to take a break without deleting my account?+
Yes. Scribd documents a pause control alongside cancellation: in the "Plan" section of your account information, "Pause subscription" lets you "pause your subscription for up to 12 weeks." That stops billing for the pause window while leaving your account, uploads, saved items and reading history intact. Cancelling is the other reversible option — it ends future charges but keeps the account and its data. Only deletion is irreversible.
I use Scribd, Everand and SlideShare — do I have to delete all three separately?+
No. Scribd, Inc. uses one account to log in on Scribd, Everand and SlideShare, so deleting it removes all three at once — the help center's reminder is literally "one account to log in on Scribd, Everand, and Slideshare." The exception is a SlideShare account created independently, which is deleted from the SlideShare site under Account Settings > "Account" tab > "Delete Account" > "Yes, delete my account". Scribd's Everand guidance adds that if you have Scribd or SlideShare accounts sharing that login, you should contact support to confirm how deletion affects them before starting.
How do I make Scribd delete my personal data without deleting my whole account?+
Use Scribd's Privacy Rights Request Form, linked from the Global Privacy Policy and the California Privacy Notice (the form is hosted on Wufoo and requires JavaScript). Anything the form doesn't cover goes to [email protected] — that's also the address a parent or legal guardian uses to "request termination of the Minor's account and deletion of their information." California residents are limited to two verifiable access or portability requests in any 12-month period.
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