If you use Google Chrome, you have likely encountered this incredibly frustrating scenario: you are logged into your personal Gmail, your work Gmail, and a shared team account all at the same time. At the end of the day, you want to sign out of just your work account to stop receiving notifications. You click on your profile picture, look for a “Sign out” button next to that specific email, and discover that it does not exist.
Google intentionally designed their account switcher this way. Clicking the “Sign out” button forces you to sign out of all your accounts simultaneously. If you do this, you are forced to painstakingly type in the passwords and two-factor authentication codes for every single account you want to keep active.
There is no native button to sign out of a single Google account on the web. However, there are two excellent workarounds that solve this UX nightmare permanently.
Method 1: Stop Using the Website Account Switcher (Use Chrome Profiles Instead)
The absolute best way to manage multiple Google accounts is to stop logging into all of them inside a single browser window. Instead, you should use Google Chrome’s built-in “Profiles” feature. This separates your accounts into completely different browser windows, each with their own bookmarks, history, and active logins.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Look at the very top-right corner of the browser window (next to the minimise and close buttons). Click the small circular Profile icon.
- At the bottom of the drop-down menu, click + Add.
- Click Sign in and log in with your work (or secondary) Google account.
- Chrome will open a brand new window. You can even choose a different colour theme for this window so you never confuse your work and personal emails.
Now, whenever you want to check your work email, you simply open your Work profile. When the workday is over, you just close the window. Because the accounts are completely isolated from one another, you never have to worry about signing out of one account accidentally affecting the other.
Method 2: Use Incognito Mode for Temporary Logins
If you only need to log into a secondary Google account for five minutes (for example, to quickly print a document from a friend’s Drive), you should never log in using the standard account switcher.
- Open Google Chrome and press Ctrl + Shift + N (Windows) or Command + Shift + N (Mac) to open an Incognito window.
- Navigate to Gmail or Google Drive and log into the secondary account.
- Perform your task.
- When you are finished, simply close the Incognito window.
Incognito mode does not save cookies or login sessions. The moment you close the window, you are instantly and securely signed out of that secondary account, while your primary accounts in your main Chrome window remain safely logged in and undisturbed.
