How to delete or deactivate Facebook account permanently?
Facebook is the biggest social network of all time with over 2.45 billion monthly active users. But there are some bugs that exploit the user’s privacy to third parties (A recent bug that triggers camera in the background while the user scrolls through the news feed on iPhone). Even though the CEO, Mark Zuckerberg tried his best to minimize the bugs, the user’s data are on the air.
Many people tired of being a victim of these exploits and many more actually don’t want to be and decides to leave Facebook. Now so many questions may arise when you try to delete the Facebook account. How do I actually delete the Facebook account? What is the difference between deleting and deactivating? Will my pictures, videos and posts still being stored after deletion?
What is the difference between deactivating and deleting a Facebook account?
Deactivating a Facebook account will take your account down temporarily with an option of reactivating whereas the deletion will permanently wipe your account from Facebook. There is no undo in the deletion.
Deactivating will have the following impacts
- You can always reactivate it which lets you resume with the same settings
- Your timeline, friends, interest, photos, etc will be hidden to all the users
- The messages you’ve sent can still be seen but won’t be able to respond
- Your profile won’t be found on the search
- You can still use the messenger
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Deleting will have the following impacts
- Your account will enter a period of 30 days to delete the account. However, Facebook mentions that it may take up to 90 days to completely remove all your data from Facebook.
- During the period, the account will be on the deactivation stage which means the account is still eligible for reactivation.
- Deletion removes each and every data services from Facebook including messenger
- Deletion can’t be undo
A tip worth mentioning: If you would like, you can download a copy of your entire profile data.
How to deactivate or delete the Facebook account?
Facebook account can be deactivated or deleted with the following steps
- Click the down arrow at the top right corner
- Select ‘Settings’
- Choose ‘Your Facebook Information’
- Select ‘Deactivation or Deletion’
- Now choose your option to delete or deactivate it.
How to do the same from the android or iPhone?
- Tap the three lines at top right corner in the app
- Scroll to the end and you will find ‘Settings & Privacy’
- Tap it and select ‘Settings’
- Scroll down and tap ‘Account ownership and control’ from ‘Your Facebook Information’ section
- Tap ‘Deactivation and deletion’ and select your choice
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How to reactivate the Facebook account?
It’s very simple to reenable a Facebook account. Go to facebook.com and enter your email id and password. This will take you directly to the newsfeed just like usual. But this doesn’t mean that your account was active. Facebook reactivate your account as soon as you enter your credentials. You will get a mail notifying that your account has been reactivated.
How to download a copy of your profile data?
A copy of your data can be downloaded from Facebook in HTML and JSON formate. You will have options to select which kind of data to be downloaded including photos, videos, posts, etc. Processing time may vary depending on the data you have. And also the data will be available for download only for a few days.
Your information can be downloaded with the following steps
- Click the down arrow at the top right corner
- Select ‘Settings’
- Choose ‘Your Facebook Information’
- Click ‘Download Your Information’
- Go through the page and click ‘Create File’
- It may take some time depending on the data you have
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If you accidentally deleted your account, you can always reactivate as it enters the 30 days grace period of deactivation. However, if the account exceeds the time period, it is not possible to recover the account. But you can create a new account with the same mail id.
Remember that as per Facebook data use policy, copies of your information may still remain visible on other platforms that have been shared with.
If your developer of an app and you’re the only admin of it, the app will also be deleted. But if you need the app, I suggest you create a new Facebook account and make that account as an admin before deleting your current account.