How do I properly "unaccept" an answer?

Question

I answered my own question then found the solution was incomplete. I unchecked the box and put in a note that I was the author and had moved my comments to the original question. Somebody reviewed the "answer" and tagged it as "does not answer the question". Apparently they did not note that I was the author and indicated it was an edit because it was not the answer. (I could not find an appropriate tag for this question.)

I did not realize I could delete an accepted answer. I must have missed a delete button somewhere. That's all I really wanted to do in the first place.

Answer 1

It's probably about this answer (now deleted). You left it in the form

(not the answer, moved back to poster comments)

Screenshot for users who cannot see deleted answers:

You said it's not the answer. More importantly, answer that only says it's not the answer, is literally not an answer to the question. Considering it "not an answer", tagging as "does not answer the question" and commenting "this does not provide an answer to the question" seems to agree with your own statement and the actual state of the "answer" at the time.

Whether or not the reviewers recognized that the "answer" is from the author of the question is irrelevant. It should have been deleted regardless.

It would have been better if you deleted it on your own in the first place, instead of editing it to a not-an-answer state. The timeline shows the review process started after you edited the answer. You didn't delete it, then the reviewers did this for you. Proper action was taken.

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How do I properly "unaccept" an answer?

The deleted answer is not accepted. The timeline doesn't show it was ever accepted, but I guess if it was unaccepted soon after, then maybe there may be no trace. So if you ever accepted and unaccepted, then this was done properly.

The review and deletion have nothing to do with the answer being accepted or not. They happened because your "answer" was not really an answer.

Answer 2

If you're referring to your January question: you did "unaccept" it - there is no checkmark. It doesn't matter if you are the original asker or not; if you want to remove the answer you gave you can just delete it.

Your question was closed because it was considered off-topic based on community guidelines, which had nothing to do with the answer you provided.

If you'd like to learn more about keeping your questions on-topic, you can do so in the Help Center.