Can You Tell If A Discord Server Was Deleted?

Can you tell if a Discord server was deleted? If the server is there one minute and gone the next, can you find out what happened? Why would a Discord server just disappear? This situation happened to a reader who emailed us to ask for help. They had already contacted Discord and heard nothing back, so what’s up?

Discord runs thousands or hundreds of thousands of servers across every subject known to mankind. For all their efforts, sometimes things go wrong. The platform is very stable and fairly secure but anything that relies on databases is going to suffer glitches every now and then, servers disappearing is one of many symptoms of such a situation.

Can you tell if a Discord server was deleted? Only by the fact it isn’t there any more. If a server disappears from your server list and you cannot find it in search, it has likely been deleted. If it disappears from your server list but still appears in search, you may just have been kicked and/or banned.

Discord server was deleted

According to Discord, there are only two reasons why a server is deleted. The first is because the server owner deleted it. The second, because the server or its members repeatedly violated Discord’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. There is a third reason, system issues but Discord doesn’t mention that one.

Discord does not delete servers for inactivity, for having no members or for any other reason. I run test servers for these tutorials that have very little activity and they run fine. I know people who have had their own test servers that have sat inactive for over a year and they have not been deleted.

Server owner deleted the Discord server

This is the most likely situation if a server is suddenly deleted. The server owner deleted it either on purpose or accidentally. Or their account was hacked and the server was deleted as part of the package. I can see some server owners denying any knowledge of having deleted a Discord server but if this is one of only two reasons a server could be removed, it is possibly, or even likely the reason.

Discord deleted the Discord server

Discord seem fairly even handed. If a server is reported for breaching the Terms of Service and Community Guidelines, the owner will usually get a warning or two before the server is deleted. That doesn’t mean the owner will share that with the community but a responsible owner would so behavior can be modified to prevent any more reports.

System error deleted the Discord server

We have seen in the past servers and accounts having been deleted by accident on Discord. Anything that relies on databases is susceptible to errors and this could be such an error. It is very unlikely, but also possible.

How easy is it to delete a Discord server?

So that’s the why, what about the how? If a server owner wanted to delete one of their servers, how easy is it to do? It is actually a little too easy in my opinion.

1. Open the Discord app and log in.
   
2. Select the server you want to delete and select Server Settings from the menu.
   
3. Select Delete Server in red at the bottom of the left menu.
   
4. Double check the correct server name in the popup box and select Delete.
   
5. Enter the OTC code if you have two-factor authentication enabled.

If you don’t have 2FA enabled on the server, it will be deleted at Step 4. If you do have it enabled, you will need to complete Step 5 for your server to be deleted.

Unless you used a backup bot to keep a recent copy of your server, once you hit Delete for the second time, your server is gone for good. There is no grace period, there is no 30 day wait for it to disappear. It is gone right there and then.

As far as I know, server members are not notified of the deletion when it happens. The server just disappears from the list in the app and you won’t find it in the server browser or search. It’s as if it never happened.

You can tell if a Discord server was deleted but only by its absence. Given how we are online and how quickly things move, we will soon find another home and another server to hang out so all is not lost.

Do you know any more about what happens when a Discord server is deleted? Have you deleted one yourself without telling anyone? What happened? Tell us about it below!