How to delete your Facebook account

Facebook is still popular, with around

3 billion users logging in each month

, but there’s no doubt some are there for a single purpose: to delete their account.

If you’ve decided you can no longer be associated with a platform that has struggled to effectively manage

hate speech

and

misinformation

, are just learning about whistleblower Frances Haugen’s scorching 2021 testimony before a Senate subcommittee, or simply have no use for the social network anymore, it’s fairly easy to back up your data and leave Facebook behind.

When you do, you’ll also lose access to Messenger, but not

Meta

‘s other apps. If you want to deactivate Instagram or delete WhatsApp, you’ll have to do so separately. And if you’ve linked Facebook to any other services, you won’t get locked out forever, but you’ll need to use a different login method the next time you open them up.

Consider downloading all your Facebook data first

Before you pull the plug, you may want to save all the data you’ve amassed on the platform throughout the years. Of course, you can skip this and immediately delete your Facebook account (

steps below

), but we think it’s better to download everything and not need it than to trash it all and wish you hadn’t. You can do this from the mobile app or a web browser.

Facebook knows a lot about you, so you won’t get your data immediately—it may be several days before the file or files are ready for you. Once it’s done, though, Facebook will let you know via email.

It’s a time-sensitive matter too: The files are large, so Facebook will only hang onto them for a few days before they delete them. If the download window closes on you, you’ll have to start the process again.

Download your Facebook data from a browser

2.

Find

Download profile information

, then click

View

to its right. This will bring you to a page where you can customize exactly how much you actually want to save.

3.

Select a file format:


HTML


or

JSON

. The latter is better if you want to transfer your data somewhere else.

4.

Use the dropdown menu under

Media quality

to decide if you want to save photos and

videos

at

High

,

Medium

, or

Low

quality. Higher-quality media will increase the size of the final data file.

5.

Choose a date range. You can select one of Facebook’s preset time periods (like

Last week

and

Last year

), but if you have a specific range in mind you can pick

Custom

to set your own

Start date

and

End date

. If you want to download everything, click

All time

.

Download your data from the Facebook app

1.

Tap

Menu

in the bottom right, then the

cog icon

in the top right to open

Settings & privacy

.

2.

Scroll down to

Your information

and tap

Download your information

.

3.

You’ll see a long list of data categories, including Messenger conversations, pages you’ve liked, posts, Facebook Marketplace data, login information, and your interactions with ads. Everything will be selected by default, but you can tap an item to deselect it and omit it from the final data file.

4.

Choose a date range. You only have two options here:

All of my data

and

Date range

. If you don’t want to save everything, tap the latter option, then touch the dates that appear to set beginning and end dates for the time period you want.

How to delete your Facebook account on a mobile device or a computer

Whether you’ve downloaded your data and safely stored it on a hard drive or skipped straight here to erase all memory of your time on the social network, it’s time to delete your Facebook account. The process is essentially the same whether you’re using a web browser or the mobile app.

1.

Open Facebook’s settings. This is the only step that’s substantially different whether you use a browser or the app.

• 
  From a browser:
  
  Go to your Facebook profile, click your
  
  profile picture
  
  in the top right, then
  
  Settings & privacy
  
  , followed by
  
  Settings
  
  .
• 
  From the app:
  
  Tap
  
  Menu
  
  in the bottom right, then the
  
  cog icon
  
  in the top right to open
  
  Settings & privacy
  
  .

2.

Look for the

Meta Accounts Center

. On the web, it’s in the left-hand sidebar, and in the app it’s at the top of the page. Hit

See more in Accounts Center

.

3.

Click

Personal details

, then

Account ownership and control

.

4.

Choose

Deactivation or deletion

.

5.

Select your Facebook account from the list of Meta accounts that appears.

6.

Click

Delete account

. Doing so won’t immediately delete your Facebook account, but it’ll start the process. Deletion is permanent, though, and you won’t be able to get any of your Facebook data or Messenger messages back once it’s done. That said, your information will remain in Facebook’s possession (but invisible to the public) for at least 30 days. During this time you can change your mind, log into Facebook, and hit

Cancel deletion

to recover your account. After that grace period, it’ll all disappear into the internet ether.

• 
  Note:
  
  Your other option here is
  
  Deactivate account
  
  , which will allow you to temporarily remove your Facebook account from public view. The difference between this and deleting your account is that no one will be able to see your name, photos, and most of the things you’ve shared, but you’ll still be able to use Messenger. It’s also not permanent, so you can undo deactivation whenever you want.

7.

Whether you chose to deactivate or delete your Facebook account, click

Continue

. Facebook may ask you to click through several other dialog boxes (like reminding you that deactivating or deleting your account will also shut down any pages you run) and will ask for your password one more time before it makes everything disappear.

How to delete your Facebook account without a password

As you may have noticed, you need your password to delete your Facebook account. But if you’ve forgotten it or your account has been compromised, there are some workarounds you can try.

Recover or reset your password

1.

From the Facebook login page on the web or in the app, click

Forgot password?

.

2.

Enter the email or phone number associated with the account and hit

Search

.

3.

You may see a partially-hidden email address or other information on the next screen (like

R*********@g****.com

), and that may help you remember your login information. If not, click

Try another way

.

4.

Facebook will offer you several password reset options, and they’ll vary depending on what other services you use. Choose the one that works best for you, and hit

Continue

to begin the reset process.

Report your account as fake

As a last-ditch attempt to remove your account without any login information, you can report it as fake. There’s no guarantee this will work, but you can try. And it goes without saying that you should not maliciously report an account you don’t like in the hope that it’ll be deleted. You’re better than that.

You will have to be logged into Facebook to file a report, though, so you’ll need to either create a new account to find and report your old account, or team up with a friend or family member to report it from their account. If you can’t do any of these, Facebook has an

online

form that will let you

report an imposter account without logging in

. Otherwise, follow these steps:

1.

While logged into Facebook, go to the Facebook profile you want to report (yours, in this case).

2.

Click the

three dots

under the cover photo. If you’re using a web browser, choose

Find support or report

; if you’re in the app, tap

Report profile

.

3.

Select the problem you have with the account. There are several options here, but you’ll probably want to choose

Pretending to be someone

. It’s you, but the account is pretending to be someone who wants to be on Facebook, after all.

4.

Choose

Me

, and Facebook will ask if the account is violating the social network’s community standards. You can click

See Community Standards

to read up on them, or just hit

Submit

to report the account. If all goes well, Facebook will remove it from the site.

This story has been updated. It was originally published in 2021.