How to permanently delete the Facebook account

While many know how to do it, it is worth refreshing the steps required to proceed to permanent closure of a Facebook account so that if the need arises to cancel an account, we will be ready to act.
The procedure may seem easy but, whatever the reason for wanting to delete an account, you really need to make sure you do it right and following certain steps, not only to prevent your face from continuing to appear in internal search engines, but also to do so that their data is not stored on Facebook servers.
Since there are many who have decided to give up Facebook due to the numerous privacy problems or simply because they are tired of chains and fake news, we see in this guide how delete the Facebook account correctly and completelyespecially if it has been used for a long time.

Permanent deletion of the Facebook account: what it means

According to the information provided by Facebook regarding the cancellation of the account, deleting your account means you won’t be able to reactivate it at a later time.
Profile, photos, posts, videos and everything that has been published will be permanently deleted and can no longer be recovered. Facebook Messenger cannot be used, nor will you be able to access other apps or sites using that Facebook account. Some information, such as messages you sent to friends, may still remain visible to them after you delete your account. Copies of sent messages are saved in your friends’ inbox.
However, Facebook provides a period of time in which we can rethink and recover full access to our account, even after cancellation: we have 90 days to recover it and start over from where we left off. After 90 days, no recovery will be possible and the account is considered completely canceled.

How to back up your data

The first step before deleting the Facebook account is to create a backup of all data and download it to your computer. This will allow you to keep status updates, photos, videos, messages, friends list and everything that has been done on Facebook since the time of registration. For download the entire Facebook profile on PC, all we have to do is access our Facebook page, take us to the menu Settings (top right, on the small triangle icon), click on Your information on Facebook and finally select the item Download your information.

In the screen that opens, make sure that the parameter is present All my data, then we press on Create the file. The file can be very large, so we will have to wait a while to download it to your computer.

How to disconnect apps that use our Facebook account

The next important step is to disconnect the third-party apps that Facebook has been used for. For example an app like Spotify, which we can also use with the Facebook account without doing the entire registration (Facebook quick registration).
To disconnect third-party apps, let’s take the path Settings> Apps and websites to view the list of apps, select the apps to disconnect (if we delete the account, select them all) and press the button Remove.

However, it should be noted that the data in these apps remains, so it would then be the case to go to each and register or log in with an email address. You may need to contact apps to retrieve those accounts.

How to deactivate the account

If you are still not sure you want to delete your Facebook account forever, you can deactivate the account, so as to have more time to leave and decide later whether to keep it or not.
To proceed in this direction, let’s take the path Settings -> Your information on Facebook -> Deactivation and deletion, then we press on the item View sideways.

Let’s select the item Deactivate account then we press down on Continue to deactivate the account.
Deactivation leaves everything intact: information, friends, photos and so on. With a deactivated account, you can still be invited to events, use Messenger, and receive notifications. It essentially hides the profile page for a while, but doesn’t delete anything. In another article we explained what it means to deactivate Facebook.

How to cancel your account

All you have to do to unsubscribe from Facebook is to click this link that takes you to the account settings, to the “Your information on Facebook“and repeat the steps seen for deactivation, taking care to select this time Permanent deletion of the account.
From this page we use the wizard that will ask us to backup the profile and disable all external applications. At this point you will no longer have to try to log into your account for 90 days, which is how long it takes Facebook to remove all data from its servers. After that, your account is gone forever, and all your data too, hopefully. If you follow this rule, your account will be permanently deleted, otherwise, it will only remain disabled. You will then have to reactivate Facebook and proceed step by step along the cancellation path.

Summary of the steps to be taken

Before unsubscribing from Facebook it is worth summing up all the steps to watch out for:

• log out of all devices that have accessed Facebook (from Settings> Security and access).
• Delete all passwords for apps created in Facebook.
• Manually delete all posts published on Facebook, using an extension like Social Book Post Manager to do it faster (although it might be really impossible to delete everything if you’ve been subscribed for years).
• Delete the location history (three-dot icon in the upper right corner).
• Delete all contacts uploaded from the Facebook app (from this link)
• Delete all account payment information (including credit cards) that you may have used to purchase advertising.
• Remove phone number and all personal profile information.
• If you are an administrator of Fan pages or groups, make sure you have appointed two other trusted administrators to manage those pages which, otherwise, would be left without any management or even delete the pages.
• If you really want to make sure that Facebook no longer appears on any other site, you can install the Disconnect extension for your browser. Google Chrome which prevents the display of the Facebook “like” boxes.

By following all the steps described we will finally be able to unsubscribe from Facebook without leaving visible traces and without regretting the choice.

Conclusions

Unsubscribing from Facebook is possible and allows you to put an end to your experience on the famous social network in a clear and decisive way, with no room for an afterthought (in reality we have 90 days to reconsider, but those who take this step are usually very decisive and do not go back. ).

Do we want to delete other famous accounts we are subscribed to? We recommend that you follow the tips in our guides Unsubscribe from the internet and remove all registered accounts and how Delete Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Instagram, Twitter and all sites accounts.