How to delete your household and all its data

Deleting your household is the most drastic action in Melimelo: it erases all the household's data and its members' accounts. Only the household owner can start it. It becomes permanent 7 days after the request, a period during which the owner can still cancel it, or trigger it immediately if they don't want to wait. This guide explains what deletion involves, the alternatives if you only want to leave, and the procedure step by step.

# Before you delete: 3 actions not to confuse

Deleting the household is often confused with 2 other, far less drastic actions. Before going any further, check that it's really the one you need.

# You want to join another household

No need to delete everything. Open the invitation link you received, or enter its code, then confirm with “Leave and join”: you move to the new household and your user account is kept.

If you're the owner of your current household, the “Delete the household” screen also shows a “Got an invitation?” box with the “Join an existing household” button. In that case, your current household is deleted automatically, and your account is kept.

Good to know before you leave:

• The owner can't be removed from the members. To leave without deleting the household, they first transfer ownership with “Change owner”, in “Manage subscription”.
• To transfer ownership, you first need to make a member who has their own account an admin, and cancel the Premium subscription where it was taken out.

# You only want to delete your account

That's a separate flow: “Delete my account”, from “Personal info” in your menu, or from “My data” in the household menu. Only your profile, your devices and notifications, your reminders and preferences and your access to the household are deleted. The household's data (shopping, calendar, tasks, budgets, recipes) stays available to the other members.

As with the household, account deletion becomes permanent 7 days after your request, and you can cancel it until then.

A few special cases:

• If you're the last user in the household, deleting your account also deletes the whole household. The app tells you so explicitly before you confirm.
• If you're the owner of a household that has other members, transfer ownership first from “Manage subscription”.
• When deleting your account takes the household with it, a renewing subscription blocks that too.

# You really want to delete everything

Deleting the household means total destruction: all the data from every module, and the members' accounts. Keep it for when nobody in this household will use Melimelo any more. If that's your situation, the rest of this guide is for you.

# What deletion erases

All the data from every module of the household is deleted. The app shows the main examples before you confirm:

• All household members
• All shopping lists
• All calendar events
• All tasks and notes
• All budgets and expenses
• All recipes and favorites

The actual list covers every module: fridge, contacts and birthdays, vehicles, documents, loyalty cards and all the others.

# Cancel your Premium subscription first

A Premium subscription that renews blocks deletion. As long as it's active, the app shows the message: “You can't delete a household with an active subscription. Please unsubscribe first.” The household isn't deleted. A subscription you've already cancelled, which still runs until the end of the paid period, doesn't block it.

Deleting the household doesn't cancel your subscription with the store. Cancel it first where you took it out:

• App Store for a purchase on iPhone or iPad.
• Google Play for a purchase on Android.
• For a subscription taken out on the website, write to us from the contact page.

Once renewal has stopped, you can start the deletion.

# The procedure, step by step

The labels below are exactly the ones on the app's screens. Only the household owner can see it through: another member sees the “Owner only” screen.

1. Tap your household's name, at the top left of the home screen, to open the household menu.
2. Open “Manage subscription”.
3. In the “Household owner” card, tap “Delete my household”.
4. The “Delete the household” screen lists what will be deleted and reminds you that “Deletion becomes permanent 7 days after your request. Until then, everything stays available and you can cancel it.”
5. Turn on the “I confirm I want to delete this household” switch (“I understand the deletion becomes permanent after 7 days”).
6. Tap “Delete the household”. The deletion is scheduled: the household keeps working normally until the date shown.

# During the 7 days

The deletion is scheduled, not done yet:

• All members see a “Household deletion scheduled” banner on the home screen, with the date.
• The owner receives an email when the request is made, then another when it's cancelled or once the deletion is done.
• In the “Household owner” card, the “View or cancel the deletion” button reopens the “Deletion scheduled” screen, which shows the date.

On this screen, the owner has 2 choices:

• “Cancel deletion”: the household stays as it is, nothing is lost.
• “Delete now”: after one last confirmation (“Delete the household now?”), the household, its content and its members' accounts are deleted immediately, then you're signed out. This action can't be undone.

The other members see “Only the owner can cancel it”: if they want to keep the household, they have to ask the owner before the date.

# And after deletion?

Once the deletion takes effect, after the 7 days or straight away with “Delete now”, nothing in your name remains in Melimelo. No household is recreated automatically. If you come back one day, there are 2 ways in:

• A new sign-up, which creates a brand new, empty household.
• An invitation to someone else's existing household.

Nothing from your old household can be restored then, not by you and not by support. That's the price of a truly permanent deletion: the 7 days are there for changing your mind, not afterwards.