I recently deleted a Google Workspace account. It's one I've had for 15 years (dating back to the days when this service was called "Google Apps for your Domain")
I finally succeeded in deleting the workspace, although it was anything but smooth sailing. So I'm posting this in case it helps anyone.
First, take a backup
Because it was such an ancient account, obviously I had a lot of data there to retrieve first, which I downloaded using Google Takeout.
First stab at deleting account
I tried clicking the link to delete, as described here:
Which led to...
Problem #1
Was unable to delete account because it said I had projects in GCP.
A link to GCP was provided, which I clicked.
The project list showed a project "alarm-osqu" under my Google Workspace account's Organization. It looked like a Dialog Flow agent.
Another project was shown, not belonging to any Organization. This was the Hotel Reservation agent, that is kind of a template/starter project in Dialog Flow. I guess this one belongs to Google.
I tried to delete project "alarm-osqu". Which led to...
Problem #2
Was told that the agent has liens attached to it. I guess that means some kind of deletion protection.
A link to Dialog Flow was provided, which I clicked.
Problem #3
On arrival at Dialog Flow, I was unable to do much of any kind of management/administration, let alone delete the agent. I was able to edit the content of that agent, i.e. edit/delete Intents and Entities. But I couldn't delete the agent.
Finally I found the answer here:
Solution
I went back to the GCP page and opened the CLI (command line interface).
I ran the following commands:
Set my project as the current project:
arka@cloudshell:~$ gcloud config set project alarm-osqu
arka@cloudshell:~$ gcloud config set project alarm-osqu
Updated property [core/project].
Tried to delete the project, but failed because of I needed to delete the DialogFlow agent, and it's protected by the lien:
arka@cloudshell:~ (alarm-osqu)$ gcloud projects delete alarm-osqu
Your project will be deleted.
Do you want to continue (Y/n)? y
ERROR: (gcloud.projects.delete) FAILED_PRECONDITION: Precondition check failed.
- '@type': type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.PreconditionFailure
violations:
- description: 'A lien to prevent deletion was placed on the project by [You cannot
delete this project because it is linked with a Dialogflow agent. Please follow
the link to Dialogflow and delete the agent: https://console.dialogflow.com/api-client/#/agent/684e3456-0972-46ae-8e97-d5e8e78b9905].
Remove the lien to allow deletion.'
subject: liens/p1095610256492-l8b88642c-f7dd-4442-a9f5-f7db6e05d7d4
type: LIEN
- '@type': type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.Help
links:
- description: Troubleshooting project deletion
url: https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/troubleshooting-project-deletion
- '@type': type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.ErrorInfo
domain: cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com
reason: PROJECT_DELETE_LIEN
Listed the lien (for some reason it again told me I can't delete the project, even though I all I asked for was the liens list):
arka@cloudshell:~ (alarm-osqu)$ gcloud alpha resource-manager liens list
NAME: p1095610256492-l8b88642c-f7dd-4442-a9f5-f7db6e05d7d4
ORIGIN: You cannot delete this project because it is linked with a Dialogflow agent. Please follow the link to Dialogflow and delete the agent: https://console.dialogflow.com/api-client/#/agent/684e3456-0972-46ae-8e97-d5e8e78b9905
REASON: Deletion blocked by Dialogflow.
arka@cloudshell:~ (alarm-osqu)$ gcloud alpha resource-manager liens list
NAME: p1095610256492-l8b88642c-f7dd-4442-a9f5-f7db6e05d7d4
ORIGIN: You cannot delete this project because it is linked with a Dialogflow agent. Please follow the link to Dialogflow and delete the agent: https://console.dialogflow.com/api-client/#/agent/684e3456-0972-46ae-8e97-d5e8e78b9905
REASON: Deletion blocked by Dialogflow.
Deleted that cursed lien:
arka@cloudshell:~ (alarm-osqu)$ gcloud alpha resource-manager liens delete p1095610256492-l8b88642c-f7dd-4442-a9f5-f7db6e05d7d4
Deleted [liens/p1095610256492-l8b88642c-f7dd-4442-a9f5-f7db6e05d7d4].
arka@cloudshell:~ (alarm-osqu)$
Confirmed there are no more liens:
arka@cloudshell:~ (alarm-osqu)$ gcloud alpha resource-manager liens list
Listed 0 items.
Finally, delete the project:
arka@cloudshell:~ (alarm-osqu)$ gcloud projects delete alarm-osqu
Your project will be deleted.
Do you want to continue (Y/n)? y
Deleted [https://cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects/alarm-osqu].
You can undo this operation for a limited period by running the command below.
$ gcloud projects undelete alarm-osqu
See https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/creating-managing-projects for information on shutting down projects.
arka@cloudshell:~ (alarm-osqu)$
Then I was able to go back to the original instructions to delete the workspace account.
Succeeded. ✅
