If you have felt like deleting your Facebook account lately then you are not alone. You might be wanting to take a break from social media, or you might not agree with Facebook’s policies. Whatever the reason, if you were on the fence earlier but have now decided to delete your account, then be warned that the process isn’t a straightforward one.
Also Read: How to log out of Facebook on all devices
Remember, Facebook might have access to hundreds if not thousands of photos and memories shared by your friends. Before you delete your Facebook profile, make sure to download your personal information. This will include your IP addresses, facial recognition data, chat history and more.
How to download your Facebook personal information
- Click on your profile icon at the top right corner.
- Select “Settings & Privacy” from the drop down menu.
- Now, click on Settings.
- In the left-hand column, click on “Your Facebook Information”.
- You will now see an option labelled as “Download Your Information”.
- Click on the view option right next to it.
- You can now select which information you want to download or download all the data that Facebook has collected about you over the years.
- Facebook lets you select the date range and download in either HTML or JSON. You can also choose between low, medium or high media quality for download.
- Once ready, click on “Create File”.
- You will be notified on email when your information is ready for download.
How to delete your Facebook account
Once you have downloaded all your Facebook information, you can proceed to delete your account. However, we must caution you that once you delete your account, it cannot be recovered. So, don’t do it unless you are sure that you don’t need Facebook in your life. If you want to know how to delete your Facebook page instead of your account, click here.
- Go to “Your Facebook Information” page previously used to download your information.
- Scroll to the bottom to find “Deactivation and Deletion”.
- You can now choose between temporarily deactivating your account or permanent deletion of your account.
- Click on the “View” option.
- Now, choose “Deactivate Account” if you want to temporarily deactivate your Facebook account.
- Select “Delete Account” if you want to leave the social network for good.
- Depending on the selection, click on “Continue to Account Deactivation” or “Continue to Account Deletion”.
- If you try to delete your account, Facebook will show a prompt saying deactivate account if you want to keep using Messenger and download your information.
- Click on “Delete Account” once again to proceed.
Facebook says once you click on “Delete Account”, your account gets marked for termination. However, it delays the process by few days in case you have a change of heart. If you log in again during that period, your request for deletion will be cancelled.
While this will delete your Facebook account, you will need to delete your Instagram and WhatsApp accounts as well to truly exit the Facebook universe.