There can be many reasons one would want to deactivate their Facebook account; maybe you no longer want to be present on social media, you are skeptical of the data leaks, or it has just gotten too overwhelming.
No matter what your reasoning is, everyone should know how to delete their account should they decide to.
In this article, we’re going to focus on iOS users and how to deactivate Facebook on iPhone, as well as look at some things you should know before you go ahead with deactivation.
Table of Contents:
How To Deactivate Facebook On iPhone
If you would like to delete your Facebook account from an iPhone device, here is how you would go about it.
- Open the Facebook app on your iPhone.
- At the bottom-right of the home page, click the three lines icon.
- Scroll down and select “Settings & Privacy.”
- Select “Settings.”
- Under the first heading, “Account,” select “Personal and Account Information.
- Select “Account Ownership and Control.”
- Select “Deactivation and Deletion.”
Here you can select to deactivate your account.
Make your selection and click the blue button at the bottom that says “Continue to account deactivation or deletion”.
It will prompt you to select why you are deactivating your account, select your reason and click the blue button.
What Happens When You Deactivate Facebook?
Deactivating your Facebook account can be a good compromise if you want a break from Facebook but don’t want to lose all your friends or information.
When you deactivate your Facebook account, you are temporarily deleting your Facebook account.
If you wish to get your account back, this can be undone at any time after deactivating.
All your data on Facebook, such as friends, photos, status updates, etc, will still be there when you reactivate your account.
When you deactivate your account, no one will be able to see your profile, although people on your friend list will still be able to see your name on their friend list.
If you want to reactivate your Facebook account, log in on any device.
How Long Can You Deactivate Facebook?
Ultimately Facebook doesn’t want to lose any of its users, so it came up with the option to deactivate your account instead of permanently deleting it.
When you deactivate your Facebook account, you are temporarily removing your account from the platform. However, all your data will remain on the site until you log back in and reactivate your account.
This allows users to take a break from Facebook for as long or as short as possible; there is no time limit for deactivating your account.
What Does a Deactivated Facebook Account Look Like?
When your Facebook account is deactivated, your friends will still be able to see your name on their friend lists and on posts you have made to their wall, although they will not be able to click your name and see your profile.
Photos you have been tagged in will still display your name, but users will not be able to click through to your profile, and all posts you have made to groups or other pages will temporarily disappear.
After you deactivate your Facebook account, your friends can still invite you to events or join groups and tag you in photos.
Can You Still Receive Messages If You Deactivate Facebook?
When you deactivate your Facebook account, you will still be able to receive messages from your Facebook friends using the messenger app.
Messenger will not reactivate your account, allowing you to use Messenger still to communicate with your friends.
If you don’t want to continue receiving messages from Facebook friends, mute your Messenger notifications in your iPhone settings or delete the app from your phone.
If you delete the Messenger app, it will not delete all of your chat histories.
Can I Hide My Facebook Account Without Deactivating It?
Facebook has some very in-depth privacy options that allow you to hide parts of your account from anyone on Facebook.
Using these privacy features, hiding parts of your Facebook account (your post likes, for example) without deactivating or deleting it is possible.
You can limit almost anything on Facebook, from notifications, comments, and tags, to what you see on your timeline, who sees your age or job information, and who can contact you or add you on the platform.
If all you want is to be able to peruse Facebook while appearing offline, you can do that too.
There is no blanket option to hide your profile, but using the privacy options to your full advantage is the next best option.
Can I Reactivate My Facebook Account After a Few Years?
Since Facebook keeps all of your data when you deactivate your account, you can reactivate your account any time you choose, months or years later.
If you are choosing to deactivate your Facebook account but think that you might be interested in reactivating it later, keep up to date with Facebook as a company just in case they change their policies for deactivated accounts.
How To Permanently Delete Facebook On iPhone
If you’ve decided that Facebook is no longer something you would like to participate in, you can permanently delete your account from your iPhone.
- Open the Facebook app on your iPhone.
- At the bottom-right of the home page, click the three lines icon.
- Scroll down and select “Settings & Privacy.”
- Select “Settings.”
- Under the first heading, “Account,” select “Personal and Account Information.
- Select “Account Ownership and Control.”
- Select “Deactivation and Deletion.”
- Here you can select to delete your account.
- Make your selection and click the blue button at the bottom that says “Continue to account deactivation or deletion.
- It will prompt you to select why you are deleting your account, select your reason and click the blue button.
Final Thoughts On Taking a Break From Facebook
It’s fine to take a break from social media; we all need to disconnect and remove ourselves from our devices once in a while.
Social media is great for keeping up with friends and family. Still, sometimes it can also be a huge time-suck, and you might want to deactivate Facebook on your iPhone for a few weeks or months but then find you can’t resist checking one more post, and before you know it, your account is reactivated.
So, if you need to take a break from Facebook for whatever reason, it may be time to deactivate your account and take a step back.
You’ll get back onto Facebook soon enough, and remember all your friends are still waiting for you when that happens.