Can't delete Workspace/Cloud Identity account — "Delete Google Cloud resources" step blocked, but no Cloud resources exist

I’m trying to permanently delete a Google Workspace account (Admin console → Account settings → Account management → Delete Account). Step 3, “Cancel subscriptions and delete Google Cloud resources (Required),” will not clear — it shows “has at least 1 Google Cloud resource” and the final Delete button stays disabled.

The problem is I have no Cloud resources left to delete, and I’ve verified this thoroughly. As Organization Administrator in Cloud Shell — and after granting my own account the Browser role at the org level to rule out any visibility issue — every one of these returned zero:

  • gcloud projects list → 0 items
  • gcloud projects list --filter="lifecycleState:DELETE_REQUESTED" → 0 items
  • gcloud resource-manager folders list --organization=<my org> → 0 items
  • gcloud billing accounts list → 0 items
  • “Resources pending deletion” in Manage Resources → empty
  • Access Context Manager API is disabled (SERVICE_DISABLED), so no access policies can exist
  • No Apps Script projects

As far as I can tell, the only remaining resource is the organization node itself, which was auto-provisioned with the account and which a customer cannot delete — there’s no console option or gcloud command for it. That creates a loop: account deletion is blocked by the org resource, and the org resource is only removed when the account is deleted.

I’ve already opened a Google Cloud support case for this. Posting here in case a Product Expert or Googler has seen this exact dead-end and can point me to the right escalation, or confirm the fix.

Has anyone resolved this org-node-blocking-account-deletion loop? What finally cleared it?

(I can share my organization ID and case number privately with a verified Google rep — happy to DM.)

Many thanks as i cannot find a solution to this nor find assistance from their AI tool or technical support

It often boils down to hidden system assets, org-level metadata, or a backend sync delay. Try running a comprehensive Asset Inventory search across the organisation as a next step:

$ gcloud asset search-all-resources --scope='organizations/YOUR_ORG_ID'