Trouble closing Organization account and its member accounts

Question

I have complete the project using AWS and shut the larger project down. I need to shut down my AWS organizational account -- I'm still getting billed for services I no longer use.
I have root access to the org account.
There are two member accounts. I cannot remove them from the org -- I get error messages
I have tried to close them. I got pop up messages that the closure requests were submitted. The accounts do not have a CLOSED tag in my view, however, if I try to close them again I get the message that there's already a request in.
I still cannot delete/close the organizational account. In my org account settings (https://us-east-1.console.aws.amazon.com/organizations/v2/home/settings) I try to delete, but it says I cannot as long as there are members in the org.
**What do I need to do to be able to delete the organization when I cannot remove the members?**
Thank you!

Riku_Kobayashi · Accepted Answer

Hello.

You cannot delete AWS Organizations until the member accounts have been completely deleted.  
If the message "there's already a request" appears, it means a request to close the account has already been submitted, so the "CLOSED" tag should be applied after a short while.  
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_accounts_close_management.html  
> To close the management account in your organization, you must first either close or remove all member accounts in the organization. The act of closing the management account also deletes the instance of AWS Organizations and any policies that you created inside of that organization after the post-closure period has expired.

As an alternative, you could cancel the member account closure, remove the account from AWS Organizations to make it a standalone account, and then delete the Organization itself.  
However, since this requires converting the account to a standalone status—entailing the need to link billing information to each individual account—it involves a great deal of effort; I believe it is simpler to just wait for the member account closure to complete.  
https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/reopen-aws-account

If you no longer need the AWS account, why not use a tool called "aws-nuke" to delete all the resources within it in one go?  
Running this will remove any remaining AWS resources, which should stop any unnecessary charges.  
https://github.com/ekristen/aws-nuke

re:Post Agent · Answer

Based on your situation, here's what you need to do:

**Wait for Member Account Closures to Complete**

Since you've already submitted closure requests for the two member accounts and are receiving messages that requests are already in progress, you need to wait for these closures to complete. Member accounts that have been closed will display a "CLOSED" label next to their account names in the AWS Organizations console for up to 90 days before being permanently removed.

**Check Account Status**

Go to the AWS accounts page in your AWS Organizations console and verify the status of your member accounts. Once they show "CLOSED" next to their names, you'll be able to proceed with closing the management account.

**Close the Management Account**

You can only close your management account (the organizational account) after all member accounts show as "CLOSED" in your organization. You don't need to delete the AWS organization itself before closing the management account - you just need to ensure there are no active member accounts remaining.

**Important Note About Billing**

While waiting for account closures to process, make sure you've terminated all running resources in all accounts to stop incurring charges. Account closure requests being submitted doesn't immediately stop billing - you need to ensure all services and resources are actually stopped or deleted.

If the member account closures seem to be taking an unusually long time or you continue to experience issues, you can add correspondence through the AWS Support Center at https://console.aws.amazon.com/support/ for assistance with your specific situation.  
**Sources**  
[Closing a member account in an organization with AWS Organizations - AWS Organizations](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_accounts_close.html)  
[Troubleshooting issues with AWS account closure - AWS Account Management](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/accounts/latest/reference/troubleshooting_close-account.html)

Trouble closing Organization account and its member accounts

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