How to deactivate your Pinterest account

You've pinned your last pin and you want to leave Pinterest. The good news is that Pinterest makes it easy to walk away. The bad news? You can only sort of leave.

As it turns out, you can't completely delete your account on Pinterest. Instead, you can deactivate your account, which removes your profile and pins from Pinterest and puts it in a state of suspended animation.

To deactivate your account, first visitPinterest.com, click your username in the upper-right corner, and selectSettings from the menu that pops up. Next, scroll to the bottom of the Settings page and click theDeactivate Account button.

Are you sure you want to leave? Pinterest will ask you to confirm that you want to say good-bye.

At this point, Pinterest will ask you to confirm that you really want to deactivate your account. Click theDeactivate Now button, and Pinterest will remove your account pages and pins from the site. It will also unlink your Pinterest account from your Facebook and Twitter accounts (if you happened to link them). Note that you have to visit the Pinterest website to say farewell; you can't deactivate your account from the phone or tablet apps.

After you deactivate your account, Pinterest will preserve your username and password, and if you want to come back to Pinterest and reactivate your account, all you need to do is log back in