I returned to the Middle Ages, thanks Apple. WTF, during a huge digital privacy return session with obsolete accounts deletion and lots of other fun stuff, I found out that I still had some Apple accounts in operation.
Ok, when I was young I fell in love for the first iPhone and I also developed some apps for it. A long time ago, I also had long hair. Anyway, no problem. I recovered my credentials and logged into the Apple account and the Apple developer account looking for the ‘DELETE ACCOUNT’ option.
No, there isn’t a ‘DELETE ACCOUNT’ option for the Apple accounts. Really? I did some research on DuckDuckGo and, again, there’s no option. Apple makes you unable to delete your Apple accounts. Go straight back to Middle Ages.
Also on the official Apple forums there are no answers from Apple to this matter. How do I delete my Apple developer account? No way.
How to delete Apple Developer account? Ahh, cheers. You can simply let your membership lapse. You will not be able to delete your Apple ID because it is associated with your iTunes account.
And many many other questions about it, with only one viable answer: you just have to contact them and ask them to close your account, Apple does not provide a way for you to do it yourself.
Ok, so I went to contact them.
Nice, after some days I received a mail from the Apple support team. Here the translation from Italian:
Dear Luca,
Michele from Apple Developer Program Support.
I wish to inform you that my technical department has reviewed your request to cancel your Apple ID “*******@mac.com”.Apple considers the privacy of our developers to be very important, and we thank you for your patience as your request was analyzed.
At the moment, our technical department is unable to cancel its Apple ID because it was used for transactions within the App Store Connect. For financial and analytical reasons, these transactions are recorded including information regarding the Apple ID in question.
Luca, thank you for your cooperation. Do not hesitate to contact me if you need further assistance with this request.
For all other communications, you can contact us by visiting the site https://developer.apple.com/contact/#!/topic/selectApple Inc.
I wish you a good day.
Sincerely,
Michele
Oh, my gosh. “At the moment, our technical department is unable to cancel its Apple ID because it was used for transactions within the App Store Connect. For financial and analytical reasons, these transactions are recorded including information regarding the Apple ID in question.”
For financial and analytical reasons, these transactions are recorded including information regarding the Apple ID in question.
Apple Inc.
We are talking about data of more than 5/6 years old, so ‘financial and analytical reasons’ means nothing. And aren’t you really ‘UNABLE TO CANCEL IT’? You have the top developers and engineers from all over the world and you are ‘UNABLE’ to delete an account? Please, don’t be kidding me.
So, I sent them another email explaining my reasons.
Here, the new answer translated from Italian:
Dear Luca,
Apple Inc.
Thanks for your answer.
I understand that you want to delete your Apple ID and your developer account.
Please bear in mind that the cancellation of the Apple ID is handled by our technical department which denied me the request. However, I contacted them asking for an exception. I cannot guarantee that it will be approved, as I told you earlier.
As for your developer account, I deactivated it since you don’t want to use it.
Luca, thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
I wish you a good day.
Sincerely,
Michele
Oh… “I contacted them asking for an exception”. Wow, Apple is going to make an exception for me, maybe.
Is all real in 2019? Come on Apple, you are bringing me back to the Middle Ages.
Final instructions on how to delete Apple account and Apple developer account
Contact the Apple Support Service and ask them for an exception made just for you. And start praying that they will do it.