Remove old apps’ access to your Google and Microsoft accounts

You tried a calendar tool, connected a file converter to Google Drive, or let a task app sync with Microsoft. Months later, you no longer use it. Before you consider it gone, check what access remains in the account you connected.

Remove unwanted permissions in your Google or Microsoft account, then check the app’s own account and data settings. Check those permissions even if you have already signed out or uninstalled the app.

The account you used determines where to start:

These destinations come from Google’s connection-management instructions, Microsoft’s privacy settings guide, and Microsoft’s My Apps instructions. Check the signed-in email address before changing anything, especially if you use personal and work accounts in the same browser.

Before removing an app, decide what you still need

Start with one service you recognise and no longer use. Read the access it has, then ask whether it still provides a needed backup, calendar sync, document workflow or sign-in method. Make a note of the app name, account and permissions you intend to remove.

If you want to keep the service but stop using Google to sign in, establish another supported way into that same service account first. Google explains that some apps do not support multiple sign-in methods for one account. Do not assume registering the same email address with a password will recover the existing account. Use the service’s account settings or ask its support team.

For an account you are closing, export anything you need while you can still reach it. Check subscription cancellation separately as well.

If the service also installed a browser add-on, review that component too. Our Chrome extension permissions guide covers the website access an extension can have inside Chrome.

Remove an app’s Google account access

Google connections can do different jobs. Using your Google identity to sign in is not automatically permission to read your Gmail or Drive files: basic Google sign-in shares your name, email address and profile picture, while an app can request additional access separately.

Google’s linked-app overview distinguishes these common relationships:

For example, linking a music service to Google can let a Google device use that service. That is a different relationship from allowing an app to read your Google Calendar. Identify which connection you actually want to end.

Withdraw permission to Google data

Follow the current Google removal instructions:

1. Open Google linked apps in the account you connected.
2. Choose the Access to your Google Account filter.
3. Select the app, then See details.
4. Review the data and actions it is allowed to use.
5. Select Remove access, then Confirm.

An app can have more than one connection type. If you also want to retire its Google login, open that connection’s details and choose Stop using Sign in with Google. Review any other connections you want to end.

Read the permission description closely. Google distinguishes viewing or copying data from permission to change it, which can include creating or deleting content. A grant limited to Calendar does not itself grant access to Photos or Contacts.

Match the permission to the feature you need. A planner that only displays events needs an explanation for requesting edit access. If you cannot narrow the permission, decide whether to keep the integration.

Remove access from a personal Microsoft account

Use this route for your personal Microsoft identity. The work or school route is in the next section.

1. Open Microsoft app consent management and sign in to the personal account you connected.
2. Select the app or service you want to review.
3. Read the permissions associated with it.
4. Choose Remove these permissions to withdraw access.

Microsoft’s privacy guide links to this account-level manager. Its Samsung Reminder instructions document the removal action and make a useful distinction: signing out stops that integration’s sync, while removing its Microsoft account permissions is a separate instruction.

Even if you have already signed out or uninstalled the app, check its entry in Microsoft’s consent manager.

Remove access from a Microsoft work or school account

For an organisational account, follow Microsoft’s My Apps permission guide:

1. Sign in to My Apps with the relevant work or school identity.
2. Find the app, hover over its tile and open the three-dot menu.
3. Select Manage your application.
4. Review the permissions you granted. Use Revoke Permissions for access you want to withdraw.

The page separates permissions you approved from permissions an administrator approved. You cannot revoke the administrator’s grants yourself through this control. If those are the permissions you want removed, contact your organisation’s IT team and identify the app and access you are concerned about.

For routine cleanup, check whether a team workflow depends on the integration before disrupting it. If you suspect a malicious authorisation, tell IT promptly instead of trying to solve the whole incident through your personal settings.

Removing access does not delete an earlier copy

Google explains that apps can copy shared data onto their own servers. Removing those copies depends on the service’s deletion process, so use its controls or contact the developer.

Removing access does not erase a copy already held by the service. Source: Google’s data-access guidance.

Microsoft documents a concrete example too: disconnecting LinkedIn from a personal Microsoft account does not automatically delete contacts already imported into LinkedIn.

Read the service’s privacy policy and account controls for its retention and deletion process. Google’s data-sharing guidance explains that the developer’s policy governs how long it keeps shared information. Avoid treating an access-removal confirmation as a deletion receipt.

If you also close the service account, revisit the provider’s connections list afterwards. Google notes that a developer may not tell Google when its own account has been deleted, so an old connection can remain listed.

Worked example: retiring an old calendar planner

Suppose you have replaced a planner that used Google sign-in and imported Calendar events. You want to keep its notes but stop future imports.

Check that you can still reach the planner account without relying on a login you intend to remove. In Google’s linked-apps page, remove the planner’s Calendar access. If you also remove its sign-in connection, treat that as a separate change.

Reopen the entry to confirm which permissions remain. Events still visible in the planner may be old imports; they do not by themselves show that fresh access continues. If you want those copies deleted, use the planner’s deletion process and keep its confirmation.

Check the result without granting access again

After each removal, use the same account-management page to check the targeted permission. Record what you removed if you are reviewing several services, so you can distinguish an intentional change from an unexplained failure later.

Do not approve a fresh access request merely to see whether disconnection worked. Read the request first: approving it would change the state you are trying to check.

An app window that still opens is not sufficient evidence that the old grant remains. It may show information already held by the service. In work and school environments, Microsoft also documents app-issued sessions that its identity platform cannot directly revoke. This is why a still-open interface and a permission record answer different questions.

For routine cleanup, confirm the intended grant was removed and follow up with the service about retained data. If you have evidence that new account information is still being retrieved, check other connected identities and permissions, then contact the provider or your IT team. Do not assume a single screen settles every possible route.

Questions that come up during cleanup

Will changing my password remove all app access?

Do not use a password change as your only app-permission check. Google lists exceptions to the sign-outs caused by a password change, including some devices with authorised third-party apps. Separately, Google app passwords are revoked when the Google password changes. Different access mechanisms behave differently.

For organisational Microsoft 365 accounts, Microsoft warns that a password reset alone does not remediate an illicit app-consent grant. Review the permission itself; involve IT if the consent is suspicious.

Why is the app missing from the list?

Check the signed-in account, then any other Google or Microsoft identity you might have used. Revisit the app’s own connection settings if you can do so safely. You may have used a different login method or already removed that relationship.

Treat absence from one list as a result for that account and connection type. It does not establish what the service holds or whether you connected it elsewhere.

Does an unfamiliar app mean the account was hacked?

An unfamiliar name alone is not enough to establish that. Try to identify the service, its publisher and the feature that explains its access. Remove access you do not want, and investigate signs such as unexpected security activity, changed recovery details or an authorisation you did not make.

For those signs, follow Google’s compromised-account guidance or Microsoft’s personal-account recovery guidance. Work and school users should also involve their administrator.

When you retire another service, repeat the account-side review as part of leaving it. For each connection you keep, you should be able to identify the app, explain its access and name the feature you still use.