Deleting your account: what goes, what stays

A Sentinel account is deleted from the mobile app or from the Web app, two steps away in either case. Deletion is permanent: it cannot be undone, and nothing that is erased can be recovered.

This page describes the exact flow, the important difference between what disappears and what stays in the trail site, and the special case of an owner.

Where: on mobile, the gear at the top of the home screen → your name under Profile → Delete account. On the Web, your picture at the top right → Edit profile → Delete account.

The flow on mobile, step by step

Open the settings. The gear, at the top of the home screen, to the right of your trail site's name.

Tap your name, the first row under the Profile heading. That is your account screen: your picture, your name, your email.

Tap "Delete account", the last row of that screen.

Read the screen. It lists what will be deleted and what will be kept. If you own a trail site, an orange banner at the top of the screen tells you what will happen to it — see below.

Choose the new owner, if the screen asks you to. The site's administrators are listed right under the banner; tap the one who should inherit the site.

Enter your email address. The one on your account, exactly. Capitalization does not matter; the address does. As long as it does not match, the button stays inactive and a message says so.

Tap "Delete permanently", then confirm in the dialog that appears. The app returns you to the sign-in screen: it is done.

The screen that opens gathers everything you need to know before confirming.

There is nobody to contact and no waiting period. You do not need to email customer support.

The flow on the Web

The same flow exists in the Web app in another shape: a dialog instead of a screen.

Click your picture, at the top right, then Edit profile. Your account panel opens on the right.

Click "Delete account", at the bottom of the panel, below your Name and Email fields.

The dialog that opens holds exactly what the mobile screen holds: the owner panel if it applies, the list of administrators to hand the site to, what will be deleted, what will be kept, then the confirmation field. Delete permanently stays inactive until your email address is typed — and until an administrator is chosen, if you are asked to.

One difference worth knowing: the Web app has no offline mode, so there is nothing to sync first. On mobile, do check your sync queue — see below.

What gets deleted

• Your profile: name, email address, phone number, picture.
• Your access to every trail site you are a member of. You leave each one.
• Your notifications, your notification settings, your preferences and your pending invitations.
• Your sessions: every sign-in is revoked, on every device.
• Your activity history — the record of your actions in the site's log.
• All Sentinel data stored on the device you delete the account from: on the phone, trails, structures, tasks, conversations, checklists and photos still waiting to upload; in the browser, whatever the Web app keeps in reserve.

That last point deserves care on mobile: changes that have not synced yet are lost. If your sync queue is not empty, the app warns you before you confirm. Get back online and let the sync finish before deleting, if that work matters.

What stays

The tasks, inspection reports, messages and time entries you created stay in the trail site — without your name. The author becomes an anonymous deleted account.

This is not an oversight. That work describes the state of a trail network: a bridge inspected, erosion reported, a repair done. It belongs to the organization running the network, not to the person who entered it. A volunteer who closes their account in October should not erase the season's inspection history.

If you own a trail site

The owner is the person who created the site. Deletion is never blocked for them — but it has a consequence, and the screen tells you before you confirm. Three cases, depending on who is left behind.

If administrators remain, you pick which one becomes the owner. They are listed under the banner with their name and email address; you tap one, and only then does the delete button become active. The site keeps working normally and your subscription stays active — it simply changes hands.

That choice is deliberately not automated: deciding who inherits a trail network, its subscription and its billing is not a decision the app should make for you.

If members remain but no administrator does, there is nobody to pick. Ownership then passes to the longest-standing member. If that is not what you want, appoint an administrator before coming back here — see roles and managing members.

If you are the only member, the trail site is closed and its subscription is cancelled. Nobody can reach it any more. If you want to keep it, invite and promote an administrator before deleting your account.

Afterwards

Your email address becomes available again. You can create a new Sentinel account with the same address whenever you like — it will be a brand-new account, unconnected to the old one, with no access to the trail sites you had.

There is no way back: creating a new account restores nothing. To get into a trail site again, you have to be invited again.

A pause instead of a deletion

If all you want is to stop the noise — the end of a season, a leave, a role changing hands — deleting is out of proportion. Two lighter moves do the job:

• Turn off your notification channels in the notification settings. A single switch silences email or phone alerts, and you turn it back on when you return.
• Just sign out: Settings → Sign out on mobile, your picture → Sign out on the Web. Your account and your access stay intact.

An administrator can also remove you from a trail site without touching your account: you lose access to that site and keep everything else.