In this lesson of your favorite Facebook Academy, we’re covering a topic that might interest you now or somewhere down the road — in other words, how to delete your Facebook account.
There are many reasons that might lead you to end your relationship with Facebook, but regardless of what pushed you to do it, we’ll help you understand how to remove yourself from Facebook and no longer be reachable on this hugely popular platform.
If you don’t know how to permanently delete a Facebook account, but that’s exactly what you want to do, don’t worry… in this lesson we’ll walk you through every step to reach that goal.
A quick note first. To delete your Facebook profile you don’t need any in-depth knowledge of the Facebook platform or any special IT skills. The process to close a Facebook account is very simple and fairly quick.
To get to the point of permanently deleting your Facebook profile, we’ll go through 3 main steps:
- Backing up your data
- Deleting your information and any photos or videos you’ve uploaded
- Deleting your Facebook account
So let’s not waste any more time — let’s go through these steps together.
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What to do before closing your Facebook account
Before we dive into the explanation of how to delete a Facebook account, there’s one thing you should do that you won’t regret. To avoid losing precious data — or simply some good memories — while deleting your profile, you can back up everything you’ve shared on Facebook over time.
So let’s run the backup, meaning we’ll download the data stored on the social platform before deleting your Facebook profile.
The process is quick and easy: just log in to Facebook (here) and sign in. Enter your credentials as you always have (the registration email or the phone number you signed up with at the start of this adventure, plus your password) in the login boxes at the top right and hit enter.
Now that you’re inside the platform, click on “Settings”. If you’re browsing on a PC, this option is hidden behind the little down arrow in the menu bar — it’s the very last item in the blue menu.
Next, click “Your Facebook Information”, which you’ll find in the navigation bar on the left. Among the choices there, click “View” next to the “Download Your Information” option.
Now that you’re in the right place, select the data you’ve decided to download and set the preferences for the backup you’re about to run. Tick the checkboxes next to the items you care about (Photos, Posts or videos). You can select the time period you’re interested in using “Date range”. Finally, select the download format and the quality of the content for the media files you’re about to download.
Once everything is set, click “Create File” and you’re ready to download your personal archive with everything you want to keep.
The backup procedure we’ve just explained — which should be done before you permanently delete your Facebook account — can be carried out not only from a PC but also from mobile, no problem.
When your archive is ready, you’ll receive a link by email letting you know the download is ready. Remember, Facebook has an email address associated with your account, so the link will be sent to that specific address.
Download time? It depends on the amount of data and files to download.
Free image from Pixabay
How to remove yourself from Facebook: personal information
Before we get into the specifics of how to delete a Facebook account, there are still a few actions you should take on your profile so you won’t have regrets in a few days or months.
Now that your most precious data is safely stored on your computer thanks to the backup, you can delete all the data on Facebook. That way you can be sure nobody can get hold of material traceable back to you.
Here’s how:
- Log in to the platform and, specifically, go to your profile
- Click “About” on your cover image
- In the section on your left you’ll find a series of categories (for example “Work and education”, “Places you’ve lived”, etc.). You’ll need to go into each of these subcategories and click “Edit” or the pencil icon next to every item you want to delete.
- Among the options available you’ll find exactly the one you need: “Delete”.
This step brings you closer and closer to the moment you’ve been waiting for — deleting your Facebook profile — and it will be worth it, because if your goal is to erase every trace, this is how you can finally do it.
Deleting your photos is another action to take now that you’re almost ready to close your Facebook account. How? Go to your Facebook profile and click “Photos”.
Can’t find it? Look right under your cover image. Select the “Albums” tab and you’ll find the various albums you’ve saved. Open them one by one and click the gear icon in the top right. Finally, click “Delete album” to remove the entire album.
Want to delete individual photos from Facebook instead? No problem. Select the thumbnail you want to remove, click “Options” at the bottom and select “Delete this photo“.
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Permanently deleting your Facebook account: the final step
We’re getting close to the long-awaited moment of discovering how to delete a Facebook account. Ready?
There are two main procedures you can follow to close your Facebook account:
- deleting your Facebook profile temporarily
- going ahead with the deletion of your Facebook profile permanently
The choice is yours, but either way, let’s look at both procedures together.
Free image from Pixabay
How to remove yourself from Facebook temporarily
If what you want is to disappear from Facebook for a short or medium period, no problem.
Here’s how:
- Go to the platform and log in.
- Open the “Settings” section, which you’ll find under the little down arrow in the menu.
- Under “General”, go to “Manage account”.
- You’ll find the option “Deactivate your account”: fill in the form you’re shown, stating the reason you’ve decided to delete your Facebook profile.
- click “Deactivate”.
This deactivation is temporary: if you ever decide you want to come back to Facebook as an active user, all you have to do is log in again.
How? On the Facebook screen, enter the same username and password you used before. With that simple action, your profile will be active again.
This procedure works just fine from PC, tablet and smartphone.
Free image from Pixabay
How to permanently delete your Facebook account
This operation — permanently deleting your Facebook profile — is also very simple. Here’s how:
- Log in.
- Go to “Settings” again via the little down arrow in the menu.
- Select “Your Facebook Information”, which you’ll find in the left-hand column of the screen.
- Select “Delete your account and information” and, when you’re ready, click “Delete my account“.
Since this is a permanent procedure, you’ll be asked for your login credentials once more, because Facebook wants to be absolutely sure that you are the owner of the account that’s about to be deleted.
So you’ll need to enter:
- your password
- the security code shown on screen
All that’s left is your click on “OK” to complete the procedure.
Permanently deleting your Facebook account is an option that only takes a few minutes. Once the operation is complete, the platform will show you a confirmation message letting you know the procedure was successful.
This procedure works just fine from PC, tablet and smartphone.
Free image from Pixabay
Conclusion
Let’s wrap up this process that led you to close your Facebook account.
- Over the years or months you’ve posted photos and added personal information you’d rather not lose. The backup lets you download all that information and those memories.
- You remembered to delete the information and media you had uploaded to the platform.
- You decided whether to carry out the procedure permanently or temporarily.
From the moment you decide to close a Facebook account, people will no longer find you if they search for you, but the complete deletion of your data will take place over the course of a few weeks.
The complete removal of your uploaded media can take around 90 days.
Thanks for joining this lesson of your favorite Facebook Academy, where we covered how to delete a Facebook account — and the steps are really easy to follow. Keep following us! In the next lessons we’ll cover more topics dedicated to Facebook. Stay up to date and keep following your favorite Facebook Academy!
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