Leaving a community as a member
Go to Settings > Account and click Leave this community. You'll be given the option to delete your personal data at the same time.
Deleting your personal data is permanent and can't be undone. For a breakdown of exactly what gets removed and what stays, see What happens when a member leaves and deletes their data.
Removing a member from your community as an admin
Go to Settings > Members > Manage Members, find the member, and select Remove User or read more on our article on removing members from your community.
Deleting your Heartbeat community
You delete the community yourself, from inside Heartbeat, and it takes effect immediately. The option appears once your subscription has ended, so if your plan is still active, cancel it first.
Log in from an Administrator account with full permissions. You'll land on a page titled Your subscription has been canceled. Click Delete Community at the top of that page and confirm.
The same page appears when a free trial expires, so the steps are the same there.
If your plan is still active and you need a hand, message Support from an active Administrator account in the community and include the community URL and the last 4 digits of the card used to pay for the subscription.
What happens to your data
Your community data is retained for 90 days, then permanently deleted. Nothing is recoverable after that point, so export anything you want to keep before you delete.
Before you delete
Deletion is permanent, so handle these first:
- Export your data. Support can send you a CSV of your Documents, Comments and Posts – see Can I request an export of my Heartbeat community?
- Cancel your plan. The delete option only appears once the subscription has ended – see How to cancel your platform subscription
- Tell your members, especially anyone on a paid membership.
Stepping away rather than shutting down? You can hand the community to someone else instead – see How to transfer community ownership.