Laura’s Blog

“Facebook is stupid. Why am I wasting my time with it? I just want to delete my account, forever.”

It’s a complaint I’ve heard more than once.

So, as a public service to those of you who are yanking your hair out and crying, “I just can’t take it anymore!” here is a step-by-step tutorial for how do say “bye-bye” to Facebook.

What does “deactivate” mean?

First, you need to know that deactivating your account is not the same as permanently deleting it. Deactivating is like taking a temporary break from Facebook.

Your profile and all information associated with it are immediately made inaccessible to other Facebook users. But your Facebook friends can can still invite you to events, tag you in photos, or ask you to join groups.

When you deactivate your account, you can opt out of  receiving these email invitations and notifications from your friends.

Facebook saves your profile information (friends, photos, interests, etc.) in hopes that you will decide to reactivate your account. If and when you do reactivate, your account will look just the way it did when you deactivated.

How to de-activate your Facebook account

1. From your profile, go to Account (upper righthand corner)
2. From the dropdown menu, select Account Settings.
3. From the lefthand sidebar, click “Security.”
4. At the bottom of the box in the center area of your screen, you’ll see a link that says, “Deactivate Account.” Click it. You’ll be taken to a new window that prompts:

“Are you sure you want to deactivate your account?

Deactivating your account will disable your profile and remove your name and picture from anything you’ve shared on Facebook.”

You’ll also see the following menu of options:

4. After you click “Confirm,” you’ll be prompted to enter your Facebook password. Then you will be prompted to do a security check by typing in a series of letters and numbers (CAPTCHA) to prove you’re a real person.

5. You will then be routed back to the Facebook login page, where you’ll see the following confirmation message:

How to permanently delete your Facebook account

If you’re really, really sick of Facebook and know you never want to use your account again, here’s how to permanently delete it.

WARNING: If you do this, you will NOT be able to reactivate your account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added.

1. To permanently delete your account, you must first log in to Facebook. (Even if you’ve already deactivated your account, you have to log in, so save your password!)
2. If you forgot your password, you’ll need to reset it by clicking the “Forgot your password?” link directly below the field where you’d normally enter your password.
3. Once you have successfully logged in (whew!), you’ll need to click this link, which will submit a request directly to the powers that be at Facebook.
4. https://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
5. Honestly, I’m not sure what happens once you submit that request, because I’ve never completely deleted an account.

Footnote concerning e-mail addresses

Some people have told me that they’ve deleted their account, then later tried to sign up for Facebook with the same email address that was originally associated with the account. They have been unable to use that address because Facebook notifies them that there is an existing account associated with that address.

My workaround suggestion is to create an email address dedicated solely to your Facebook activities. If you delete your Facebook account, you can delete that email address at the same time.

If you decide to start a new Facebook account, you can create a different email address to use with your new Facebook account.

Also in this series

• How to delete a Facebook Business/Fan Page

Thank you to Facebook’s Help Center, which provided most of these instructions.