You own your documents, and removing one is straightforward. It helps to know how your data is scoped first, because that determines what "your data" means whether you are working as a guest or signed in.
Deleting a document
You can delete a document from the Explorer or from the editor. Open the document's ⋯ menu (on its row or card, a right-click, or the current document's menu in the Explorer panel) and choose Delete Document. It goes straight away, without a question, because nothing is lost yet: a note appears with Undo, which puts it back where it was, and after that the document is still in the Trash, where Restore puts it back.
Deleting a document moves it to the Trash, where it waits for 30 days before it is removed for good, along with the content that belongs only to it, such as its tabs and comments. While it waits, its share links stop working and it disappears from your lists, and you can restore it with everything it had. To remove it straight away, delete it permanently from the Trash.
A tab the document shares with another document is not deleted with it: it stays in the other document.
If you have organised documents into folders, you can also tidy up by moving documents between folders or removing folders, separately from deleting the documents themselves.
Deleting your account
When you are signed in, open Settings, go to Account, and choose Delete Account under Danger Zone. You are asked to type your email address to confirm, because this cannot be undone.
Deleting your account removes from the server, straight away:
- every document you own, including anything already in the Trash, with its tabs, comments and share links;
- your folders and favourites, images (every image you uploaded, in any liveworkspace app) and preferences;
- your workbench pairings and sessions, which closes any workbench you had open;
- your API tokens, which stops any script or connected AI tool at once;
- your liveworkspace account itself, which also closes it for livediagram and the other liveworkspace apps.
Closing the account also takes you out of every team you were in. If email is set up, you get a short confirmation once it is done.
Your livedocuments data goes first, then the account. If closing the account fails, livedocuments says so and you stay signed in, so choosing Delete Account again finishes it. Documents in This Browser were never on the server, so they stay in this browser until you clear its storage.
How your data is scoped
Where your data lives depends on how you are identified:
- As a guest, your new documents are kept in this browser until you sync them; the ones on the server are owned by your guest identity, which liveworkspace gives this one browser. Clearing the browser's site data for liveworkspace.app and livedocuments.app removes the browser's link to your guest content, and using a different browser or device shows a fresh, empty workspace.
- When signed in, your documents are owned by your account and synced across every device where you sign in. Deleting a document removes it everywhere, because the account is the single source of truth.
A guest has no account to delete. To remove what you created as a guest, delete the documents you no longer want and empty the Trash. Clearing the browser's storage deletes your documents in This Browser, but only removes this browser's record of your guest identity: documents saved to livedocuments stay on the server, out of reach from a fresh browser, so delete them first if you want them gone.
If you plan to clear your browser, sign in first if you want to keep anything. Your guest documents on the server move into the account on sign-up. Ones in This Browser move only if you accept the offer to move them after signing in, so do that before you clear the browser.
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