Cancel and delete a group

Closing a group for good is deliberately not a single, instant action. Instead, you cancel the group, which starts a read-only window where everything can still be viewed and downloaded, giving you time to change your mind before anything is permanently removed.

There’s no separate “delete” button. Cancelling is how you wind a group down, and the group’s owner does it from the Billing screen, on a computer.

Who can do this

• Only the owner can cancel a group. Admins, members, and viewers can’t. If you’re not the owner but want to hand the group off instead, see transfer ownership.
• Cancelling happens on the web, not the mobile app.

How to cancel a group

1. On a computer, choose Organization in the left sidebar, then the Billing tab across the top. Only the owner sees this tab.
2. Scroll to the danger zone at the bottom.
3. Choose Cancel Organization (on a free group) or Cancel Subscription (on a paid group).
4. Read the summary of what will happen, then confirm by typing the group’s slug exactly as shown in the box. Choose the red confirm button to finish, or Keep Organization to back out.

The slug is the short identifier for your group. Typing it is just a safety step so a group is never closed by accident.

What happens right after you cancel

This depends on the group’s plan:

• Free group: it goes read-only immediately, and the 30-day countdown to deletion starts right away.
• Paid (Standard) group: your plan stays fully active until the end of the current billing period, so nothing changes at first. You won’t be billed for another month, though a final invoice still covers any storage overage from the period you’ve already used. When the period ends, the group becomes read-only and the countdown begins.

The read-only window

Once a group is read-only (its status is suspended), it isn’t locked away. For 30 days:

• Still works: viewing every collection, downloading photos, videos, and whole collections, and deleting content. The owner can still manage members.
• Blocked: adding new photos or videos, creating collections, and sending new invites.

During this window, Fika emails the owner reminders that deletion is coming, so it’s hard to miss.

Getting the group back

You can undo a shutdown right up until the data is deleted:

• Before a paid plan’s period ends: choose Reactivate on the Billing screen to keep your Standard plan running without interruption.
• After the group has gone read-only: choose Resubscribe on the Billing screen to restore full access. Your billing history carries over, so past invoices stay in one place.

When data is permanently deleted

If nothing is done during the 30-day read-only window, the group is permanently deleted: all of its collections, photos, videos, and member data are removed and cannot be recovered. If there’s anything you want to keep, download it before the window ends.

Deleting a group does not delete your Fika account or anyone else’s. Members simply lose access to that group, and everyone keeps their account and any other groups they belong to.

Alternatives to deleting

Closing a group isn’t always what you actually want:

• Handing it to someone else? Transfer ownership instead, for example when a season ends and a new coach takes over. Billing moves to the new owner, and no data is lost.
• Just want out yourself? If you’re not the owner, leave the group. Your contributed photos stay behind for everyone else.
• Only trying to stop paying? You can downgrade a paid group to Free rather than close it, as long as you don’t already own another free group.

If you’re closing a group so you can delete your whole account, note that you will have to wait until the group is fully deleted before you are able to close your account. See delete your account.

Other ways a group can become read-only

Cancelling isn’t the only path into the read-only state:

• A failed payment first puts the group in a past-due state where everything keeps working while the card is retried automatically. Updating your payment method from the Billing screen clears it. See manage your subscription.
• A free group that stays over its storage limit can be suspended too. See understanding your storage.