If you cannot reach Settings, the same link is offered on the screen you land on instead: on the email confirmation screen for an account whose address has not been confirmed yet, and on the appeal screen for an account that has been suspended. Closing your account never depends on getting into Settings first.
Data Handling: Two things go the moment you confirm: the login itself, so that you cannot sign in again, and the profile document that holds your display name, your picture and the record of what you agreed to when you signed up. You are told on the screen in front of you when that much is done.
The rest does not go in that same instant. Deleting the profile document is what starts a second process, which runs straight afterwards and takes down: your username, which is released so that it can be claimed again, the people you follow and the people who follow you, your posts, including any post you scheduled that has not been released yet, your comments, your likes, your notifications, the photos, videos and audio you uploaded, your profile picture, the record of the devices you were signed in on for notifications, and every letter you wrote that has not yet been delivered. It usually finishes within a few minutes, and until it does, some of what you posted can still be there.
If part of it fails, nothing retries on its own, and what is left has to be deleted by hand. We do not put a number of days on that, because there is nothing in the system that would keep the promise.
One thing stays: a letter that has already been delivered belongs to the person who received it, and this does not take it back from them. Our Privacy Policy sets all of it out in full, including the short list of records that are kept after an account closes, and why.
Irreversibility: Deleting your account is irreversible. There is no waiting period before it starts, and no period in which we would put it back. If there is anything in the account you want to keep, take a copy of it first: the settings panel has a "Your copy" section that saves everything this service holds about you to your device in one file.
Communication: No email is sent to confirm the deletion. The screen in front of you when you confirm is the only confirmation there is. While you still have an account, certain essential communications, such as announcements and administrative messages, are considered part of the Services and your account, and you may not be able to opt out of them.
If something goes wrong while you are doing this, write to us from the contact page. One person runs Goodbye App and reads what comes in.