How to Delete Your MyHeritage DNA Data: Step by Step

Deleting your MyHeritage DNA data is a two-step process that the company’s interface does not present as two steps. The digital data lives in your account and is removed through self-service settings. The physical saliva sample lives at the lab and requires a separate written request. We walk through both in order, with the download step that you should do first.

Before you do anything, download your raw data

Once you delete a kit you cannot recover it. If you ever might want the data, including for upload to a different service such as FamilyTreeDNA or GEDmatch, download the raw file first.

Go to the DNA menu in the top navigation, choose Manage DNA Kits, find your kit in the list, and use the menu beside the kit to choose Download DNA Data. MyHeritage will email a verification link, then a download link. The file arrives as a compressed text file and is yours to keep indefinitely.

We recommend saving a copy in two places, one on your computer and one in your password-manager’s secure file storage or another encrypted location.

Step 1: Delete the DNA kit

Once you have the download saved, go back to the DNA menu, choose Manage DNA Kits, and on the kit row open the menu and choose Delete DNA Data. MyHeritage will ask you to confirm and may email you a confirmation link.

Deleting the kit removes the DNA data from your account, removes you from DNA matching with other users, and stops the use of your data in any opt-in research the kit was enrolled in. It does not by itself close your broader MyHeritage account, which may also hold a family tree, photos, and records subscriptions.

Step 2: Close the broader MyHeritage account

If you only used MyHeritage for DNA and want everything gone, close the account. Go to My Account in the top right, scroll to the bottom of the Account tab, and choose Delete My Account. Confirm.

Account deletion removes your profile, your tree if you built one, and the personal data MyHeritage holds about you outside the kit. As with the kit deletion, this is final and not recoverable.

Step 3: Request destruction of the biological sample

The physical saliva tube you mailed in is stored at MyHeritage’s laboratory partner. It is not destroyed automatically when you delete the digital data. To have it destroyed, contact MyHeritage support and request sample destruction explicitly.

A short, clear written request is fine. Reference your account email, your kit number if you still have it, and the action you are requesting. The fastest channel is the Help Center contact form at the MyHeritage support URL above. Keep a copy of your message and the response.

How long deletion takes

MyHeritage’s published timelines describe processing within thirty days of a verified request, consistent with the timelines several US state privacy laws require. The actual experience is often faster for the digital deletion and slower for the lab-side sample destruction.

Two important caveats

Data already exported by other users through DNA matching cannot be recalled. Anyone who had matched with you and saved your information, for example to a personal spreadsheet, still has that copy. Deletion prevents future matching, not past sharing.

Research that has already been completed and published using your data under prior consent is generally not unwound by deletion. New uses stop, prior uses do not retroactively change.

Related reading

For the equivalent walkthroughs at the other major services, see how to delete your 23andMe data, how to delete your AncestryDNA data, and how to delete your FamilyTreeDNA data. For the underlying download step, see how to download your raw DNA data. The privacy pillar is at genetic data privacy.