How to Delete a Facebook Account
You might want to delete your Facebook account for a number of reasons; for example, you may need a new account and want to delete your old one; you want to close your account permanently; you are just not satisfied with Facebook security and want to delete your account etc.
Understand the Difference between Deleting and Deactivating
There are many of you who may think that deactivating your Facebook account is enough; it certainly is not. When you deactivate your account; all your information, photos and posts get saved, which you can access when you re-activate your account by simply logging in again. Deleting your Facebook account means that all your information, such as posts, photos, timeline and status updates etc. will be erased and your account will be closed permanently with Facebook; you will not be able to recover this information. Even permanent deletion might leave some data behind, which according to Facebook’s disclaimer is retained by the social networking site due to some technical reasons; however, Facebook claims that this data cannot be identified with the user or searched using your name. After two weeks or so of deleting the account, your existence on Facebook vanishes forever.
Therefore, to make your job easier, here are a few useful tips on how you can delete your Facebook account.
Important Tips to Follow
Do Not Delete without Backup
You must understand that once you delete your account you will essentially lose all your profile data; therefore, you must make a backup of all the items you may need from your profile, such as profile pictures, photos you have tagged, important posts, personal messages etc. Facebook allows archival volume downloads of your data so that you can access your information even when you are offline; this will let you access your photos and other posts without having to log on.
Click the icon that shows next to your name on the upper side of the right corner of your page. A drop down menu will appear; select settings tab.
Now let’s delete…
You will see a blue tab with “Delete my Account” written on it; hit the button and you are done. Do not try to log into your account for another 14 days or you might activate it again.
Understand the Difference between Deleting and Deactivating
There are many of you who may think that deactivating your Facebook account is enough; it certainly is not. When you deactivate your account; all your information, photos and posts get saved, which you can access when you re-activate your account by simply logging in again. Deleting your Facebook account means that all your information, such as posts, photos, timeline and status updates etc. will be erased and your account will be closed permanently with Facebook; you will not be able to recover this information. Even permanent deletion might leave some data behind, which according to Facebook’s disclaimer is retained by the social networking site due to some technical reasons; however, Facebook claims that this data cannot be identified with the user or searched using your name. After two weeks or so of deleting the account, your existence on Facebook vanishes forever.
Therefore, to make your job easier, here are a few useful tips on how you can delete your Facebook account.
Important Tips to Follow
Do Not Delete without Backup
You must understand that once you delete your account you will essentially lose all your profile data; therefore, you must make a backup of all the items you may need from your profile, such as profile pictures, photos you have tagged, important posts, personal messages etc. Facebook allows archival volume downloads of your data so that you can access your information even when you are offline; this will let you access your photos and other posts without having to log on.
Click the icon that shows next to your name on the upper side of the right corner of your page. A drop down menu will appear; select settings tab.
- A menu will appear on the left side of your Facebook page; the first tab on this menu reads “General”; click it; this will take you to your “General Account Settings” page.
- Read the last sentence of the page you will see “Download a Copy” written in blue; click it. It will take you to a page that will have a big green tab of “Start my Archive”; click the button. You will be asked to enter your password; enter it and proceed by clicking “Submit”.
- You will then get an email telling you about your download; the email will have a link which you will click to go to the download page. The page will have a green button with “Download Archive” written on it; click it; you will again have to enter your password in a dialogue box after which you will get the option to choose the folder in your computer where you want to save the data; after selecting that hit the “Save” button.
- Delete all other attached accounts, such as Instagram, spotify, Twitter etc. otherwise you will automatically log into Facebook account because you get a 14-day return period after deletion.
Now let’s delete…
- Click the icon that appears next to your name again; select “Settings” from the dropdown menu.
- See the menu on the left side and select “App”. Now delete all your app activity by clicking on the cross sign “x” in front of each app.
- Now comes the tough part; Facebook is very clever about not letting you find the “Delete my Account” page that easily so you always have to look for it and might end up not finding it; therefore to make your job easier, follow this link http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
You will see a blue tab with “Delete my Account” written on it; hit the button and you are done. Do not try to log into your account for another 14 days or you might activate it again.