How to Delete Your Plenty of Fish Account

On an iPhone, open My Profile, tap Manage Account, then Delete My Account. On Android, go to POF.com in your phone's browser and follow the same steps, and on a computer go to My Profile, then Settings, then Delete Account. A deleted account cannot be reactivated, and a paid subscription stays active unless you turn it off at least 24 hours before it expires.

1. Open the POF app and go to My Profile.
2. Tap Manage Account.
3. Tap Delete My Account.

That is the whole path on iOS. Before you tap the last step, read the rest of this article, because two of the things below cannot be fixed afterwards.

On Android, POF sends you to the website for this. Open POF.com in your phone's browser, sign in, and go to My Profile, then Manage Account, then Delete My Account.

On a desktop computer the path is slightly different: My Profile, then Settings, then Delete Account.

This is the part that costs men money. Deleting your account does not cancel a paid subscription. It stays active unless you turn it off at least 24 hours before it expires.

So cancel first, in the place you paid. If you bought it on an iPhone, that is in your phone's Settings, under your Apple ID and Subscriptions. If you bought it on Android, it is in the Google Play app. If you paid on the website, it is on POF.com. Once the renewal is off, delete the account.

A deleted account cannot be reactivated. Your matches, your conversations and everything on your page go with it, and there is no getting them back later.

Upgrades do not transfer to a new account either. If you delete an account with time left on a paid membership and sign up again next month, the new account starts without it.

The women you were writing to lose something too. From their side, you simply vanish. If one of them mattered to you, tell her before you go.

A few minutes now can save you a lot of regret.

• Is any conversation going somewhere? If a woman has been warm and you have talked about meeting, ask her out today, or get her number, before the account disappears.
• Is the subscription off? Turn off renewal where you paid, at least 24 hours before it renews.
• Do you have your photos? If any photo on the account exists nowhere else, save a copy first.
• Are you only planning to start again? Then read the last section before you tap anything.

For the first one, a single plain message does it: "I am getting off the apps this week, but I would still like that drink. What is your number?" If she wanted to meet you, that gets you the number. If she did not, you have lost nothing.

Deleting is permanent, so only do it when you are certain. If you are not, there is a gentler order of steps.

Turn off the subscription first, so nothing renews while you decide. Then, if you are in a region where POF offers Take a Break, use it instead of deleting. It sits on the same screen as Delete My Account, in the app or on mobile web. It hides you, keeps your profile intact, and ends as soon as you use the app again.

Give it a few weeks. If you still have no wish to go back, delete the account then, knowing nothing you wanted was left behind.

Men delete for two very different reasons.

The first is a good one. You have met someone, or you are done with the dating apps for a while and want the account gone. Delete it, cancel the billing, and enjoy the quiet.

The second is a reset: delete, open a fresh account, and hope the new one does better. On its own, that rarely changes much. If you bring the same photos and the same writing to the new account, women see the same page they passed on before. You also give up every match you had.

If starting over is the plan, change what she sees first. Put a different main photo up front, taken in daylight with your face clear. Rewrite your bio so it says something specific about your week. Then give the change a couple of weeks on the account you already have. If it works, you never needed to delete anything.