Ready To Take A Pinterest Break? Here Are Some Options For Doing It.

Have you found that you need a break from Pinterest? You’re in good company.

Since its launch in 2010, millions of users have found Pinterest to be entertaining and useful. You can use Pinterest to find and collect images and videos of the things you find online in just about any subject. You can also use it to share your collections with family, friends, and other Pinterest users.

Pinterest can also become a problem for some users, with people spending a lot of time scrolling, searching, pinning, and curating their collections. Before you know it, you can have spent hours per day on the app without much of anything to show for it.

Some who have struggled with Pinterest as well as with other social media have decided to separate from the platform. However, you have several options if you are considering distancing yourself from Pinterest. Keep in mind that permanently deleting your Pinterest account is different from simply taking a temporary break from the site.

Are you thinking about disabling your Pinterest account or even deleting your profile permanently? Here are some things to consider and steps to take.

What does it mean to disable or delete a Pinterest account?

Have you been asking yourself, How do I stop using Pinterest? One method is to delete your account. However, be aware that deleting your Pinterest account can be permanent and will result in losing all your data, so consider this option carefully.

You may deeply regret losing your account data, so you may want to avoid fully deleting your Pinterest account.

Can you deactivate Pinterest without deleting it?

Rather than permanently deleting your Pinterest account, you might instead ask, How do I pause Pinterest without disabling my account? The best way is to deactivate your Pinterest account without permanently deleting it.

When you deactivate your Pinterest account, your profile and boards won’t be visible on Pinterest anymore. If you change your mind, just log in to reactivate your account. Note that if you have a business account, you can deactivate your account in your Pinterest settings.

Deactivating only certain features of Pinterest

Another option for distancing yourself from Pinterest is to deactivate only certain features of the app. This will reduce the number of notifications you receive from Pinterest, which will help keep you from getting pulled back into the app, but you can continue to use Pinterest’s core functionality. Below are a few features you can consider disabling.

Deactivating Pinterest notifications without deactivating Pinterest

Pinterest’s notification feature can be useful in helping you keep up with activity on your account, such as when someone else pins a Group Board you are following. The downside is that, because Pinterest sends notifications via the app itself, via email, and via push notifications, you can feel bombarded and intruded upon. They can also make you want to open up the app and check your notifications.

You can turn off Pinterest notifications on your phone while still being able to use all of Pinterest’s other features. Here’s how: 

1. Log into your Pinterest account.
2. Tap your profile pic at the bottom right corner of your screen.
3. Tap the three dots in the top right corner.
4. Tap Notifications.
5. Tap the notification category you wish to customize:
   • Personal account holders will see three categories: On Pinterest, By email, or By push notification
   • Business account holders will see two categories: By email, By push notification
6. Set your preferences for each type of notification.
7. Your changes will save automatically.

Deactivating Pinterest advertising tracking features without deactivating Pinterest

It can be a bit creepy to have the sponsored ads that pop up on your Pinterest be tied to what you have been viewing and searching for. Another method for stepping away from Pinterest without permanently deactivating your account is limiting the ability of advertisers to track your activities. Here’s how to do this on your phone:

1. From your profile, tap the hexagon-shaped icon in the top right corner to open your menu.
2. For iOS, tap Privacy & Date, then toggle the switches next to “Use sites you visit” and “Use partner info” or “Use your activity to report on ads performance” to set your personalization preference.
3. For Android, tap Edit Settings, scroll down to the “Personalization” section then Toggle the switches next to “Use sites you visit” and “Use ad partner info” or “Use your activity to report on ads performance.”
4. Your changes will save automatically.

Stop pinning and checking the app

The most straightforward way to take a break from Pinterest is to stop pinning new content and checking the app altogether. While this might seem simple in theory, it can be challenging in practice, and here’s evidence of why.

People can find themselves wasting hours and hours of their lives scrolling through Pinterest, seeing what others have pinned, and adding pins to, and curating their own collections. We can become hyper-focused to the point where we forget everything else going on around us and just concentrate on Pinterest.

People with ADHD are especially susceptible to this. Even users who realize they have such an addiction can find it difficult to simply stop using Pinterest for fear they may be missing out on its social aspects.

This is the nature of virtually all social media, including Pinterest, and one of the reasons it becomes addictive. Your initial intentions in using Pinterest to find fun new ideas can start innocently enough.

But before long you can find that using it wires your brain to quickly open the app and begin scrolling and pinning when you feel bored or desire some entertainment or just a distraction.

Uninstalling the Pinterest app without disabling your account

Another effective but not permanent option for getting away from Pinterest is to uninstall or delete the app from your phone. With this option, all your account data will remain intact since this doesn’t delete your Pinterest account itself, but it will give you a chance to take a break from the app.

By deleting the app from your phone, you’ll receive no notifications that urge you to open and begin using the app, which is what you are looking to avoid. You’ll also be less tempted to want to use the app if you can’t simply tap and open it but must instead go through the steps to re-install the app to your phone to use it.

Fully deleting and deactivating your Pinterest account

There is one more option for taking a break from Pinterest without permanently deleting your account, and that is deactivating your account.

When you deactivate your account, you simply suspend the activity on your account until you’re ready to re-activate it. All your information will remain in the Pinterest database. However, Pinterest will hide your profile so know one else can see it.

Here’s how to deactivate your account:

1. Log in to Pinterest.
2. Click the three dots at the top right.
3. Click Edit Settings.
4. Click on Deactivate Account.
5. Your account will be deactivated, and Pinterest will unlink it from connected Facebook or Instagram accounts.
6. To reactivate your account, log back in, and all your pins and messages will be available again.

The most extreme option for getting away from Pinterest is to fully delete your Pinterest account. This option is permanent: Once you do this and go past a 14-day window, you will never be able to use that account again, and all the data on that account will be gone forever (of course, you can always create a new account later).

If you’ve decided this option is best for you, here’s how:

1. Log in to Pinterest.
2. Click the three dots at the top right.
3. Click Edit Settings.
4. Click Deactivate Account at the bottom of Account Basics.
5. Click Permanently Close My Account.
6. Confirm that you want to close your account.
7. Open the inbox of the email associated with your Pinterest account. In the confirmation email click, “Yes, close account” to confirm.
8. Your Pinterest account will then be deleted. However, if you want to restore your account, you can log back into your account within the 14-day timeframe.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this information and found it useful. If you have your own experiences or tips to share related to deactivating or putting your Pinterest account on pause, post in the comments below.

— Sean