If you cannot remove an email account from Outlook, the solutions provided in this article will help you. In Microsoft Outlook, you can create different profiles and add different email accounts to each profile. According to the feedback, different users encountered different errors when they tried to delete their email accounts from Outlook.
Some of the error messages encountered by the users while deleting their email accounts from Outlook are:
The primary account cannot be removed unless it is the only account in the profile. You must remove all other Exchange accounts before removing the primary account.
Before deleting the email account containing your personal mail, contacts, and calendar data, you must create a new location for your data.
Fix Can’t remove email account from Outlook
If you can’t remove an email account from Outlook, use the fixes provided below to resolve the issue:
- Use the right-click context menu
- Remove all other Exchange accounts
- Delete the Profile by using the Control Panel
- Delete the Profile by using the Registry
- Delete some Registry keys corresponding to your email account
Below, we have explained all these fixes in detail.
1] Use the right-click context menu
This is the easiest fix. If the Remove option is greyed out, you can try to delete the email account by using the right-click context menu. Right-click on the email account in Outlook that you want to delete and then select Remove. If this does not work, you can use the other fixes explained below.
Related: How to remove Primary account from Outlook
2] Remove all other Exchange accounts
The error message “The primary account cannot be removed unless it is the only account in the profile,” states that you cannot remove the primary account. The primary account can only be removed if it is the only account in the Outlook profile. Outlook allows users to create multiple profiles and in each profile, users can add multiple email accounts. The first email account that you add to an Outlook profile is the primary account.
If you want to remove the primary account, first, you need to remove all the accounts added to that particular profile. After removing all the other accounts, you can remove the Primary account. If you have multiple email accounts, this fix can take time. Therefore, the best solution to this is to remove that particular Outlook profile. We have explained this fix below.
3] Delete the Profile by using the Control Panel
If you are unable to delete your email account in Outlook, you can delete the Profile associated with that email account in Outlook. But remember, this action will delete all the email accounts added to that particular Outlook profile. If you have Exchange accounts, you need not worry about data loss, as all your emails are saved to the cloud. For other types of accounts, you can take a backup.
Follow the steps provided below:
- Open the Control Panel.
- Switch the View by mode to Large icons.
- Click Mail (Microsoft Outlook) (32-bit).
- Now, click Show Profiles.
- Select the profile that you want to remove and click Remove.
4] Delete the Profile by using the Registry
If for some reason, you cannot delete the Outlook Profile via the Control Panel, you can do the same via Windows Registry Editor. All the profiles that you create in Outlook are also added automatically to Windows Registry. You can locate the profile in Registry and delete it from there.
Before you proceed, we recommend you create a System Restore Point and backup the entire Registry, so you can revert the changes if any problem occurs. Please be careful while working with the Registry Editor, as deletion of the wrong Registry key can make your system unstable.
Now, open the Registry Editor. Copy the following path and paste it into the address bar of the Registry Editor. After that, hit Enter.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles
In the above path, replace 16.0 with another version number depending on the version of Microsoft Office you are using. Now, expand the Profiles key. You will see all the Outlook profiles there. Right-click on the Outlook profile that you want to delete and select Delete.
5] Delete some Registry keys corresponding to your email account
Deleting an Outlook profile also removes all the email accounts added to that particular profile. Therefore, if you want to remove a particular email account but cannot do so, you can delete the Registry Key(s) associated with that particular email account.
This is a Registry fix, hence, it may sound technical for some users. We recommend you create a System Restore Point before proceeding. If any problem persists, you can restore your system to the previous working state.
Open the Registry Editor and go to the following path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles
Expand the Profile key to view all the keys associated with the Outlook Profiles. Export the Outlook Profile key which contains the email account that you want to remove. For this, right-click on that key and select Export. By doing this, you can restore your Outlook profile if you accidentally delete the wrong keys.
Expand the key associated with your Outlook profile. You will see many subkeys there. Select each subkey and then double-click on each value shown on the right side. Do not modify these values. Your aim is to find out the Registry value that contains the information of your email account.
I use Outlook 2019 and in my case, the Registry value was 001f6641. I opened each value to find out the correct value associated with my Outlook email account. You can see the above image. The value shows the email account on the right side. I have highlighted it in yellow. If you use Outlook 2016 or 2019, the Registry value may be the same for you.
Now, select the Registry key (the folder on the left side) that contains the value showing your account. Right-click on it and select Delete.
Now, open the Control Panel and try to delete the email account. Follow the steps provided below:
- Open the Control Panel.
- Switch the View by mode to Large icons.
- Click Mail (Microsoft Outlook) (32-bit).
- Now, click Show Profiles.
- Select your Outlook Profile and click Properties.
- Click Email Accounts.
- Now, select the email account that you want to remove and click Remove.
If you are unable to delete the email account, the other Registry keys in your Outlook Profile also contain the same values that you have just deleted. Again go to the same location in the Registry Editor and look for the same value in other subkeys. When you find the value, delete that subkey. Now, check if you can delete the Outlook email account via the Control Panel. Repeat this process until you get success in removing your email account from Outlook.
I hope this helps.
Why can’t I remove an email address from Outlook?
You cannot remove the primary email address from Outlook if you have added multiple email accounts to the same profile. If you want to remove the primary email address, first, remove all other email addresses added to the same profile in Outlook.
How do I delete an old email account?
The process of deleting an old email account is different for different email clients. Hence, it depends on which email client you are using, like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, etc.
Read next: Outlook Delete button grayed out.
