How to Delete Facebook Account temporarily and Permanently

Facebook is a powerful platform that connects us to friends and family near and far away. Unfortunately, our tech-savvy social life sometimes takes over and we end up getting caught in the virtual life, sometimes at the cost of our actual one. If you feel that your life is engulfed with too many Facebook activities and you need some time out, or if you think that your privacy is somehow compromised and you cannot allow that to happen, you can consider deleting your Facebook account. Deleting your Facebook account doesn’t have to be permanent. You can delete Facebook account even temporarily and in this post, I’ll show you how you can do it both ways.

How to Temporarily Delete Facebook Account

When you temporarily delete your Facebook account your Timeline moves to an offline mode. Your profile, name, picture and stuff you shared on Facebook will be removed and no one will be able to find you using Facebook Search. However, your data such as your friends and photos continues to remain in the hands of the social media company. If you don’t mind the fact that your data is stored in the web while you take a break, you can go ahead with this option. If you want to get back in, all you need to do is login using your Facebook credentials.

To temporarily delete Facebook account:

1. Login to your Facebook account.

2. Click the drop-down arrow on the top menu at the far right of the screen and select Settings.

3. In the left navigation menu, click Security.

3. In the Security Settings area, click Deactivate your account.

4. In the next screen, you will be given the option of reconsidering your decision. You’ll be shown a list of all your friends you will miss you when you’re not around and if that still doesn’t change your mind you can go ahead and pick out a reason for leaving temporarily.

If you are the admin of any Facebook Pages, those accounts will also be deactivated so make sure you transfer the admin rights of those pages to someone you trust by clicking the Edit Admins link.

5. Once you input the necessary data, you can opt out of receiving future emails from Facebook and permanently delete all applications for which you are a developer.

6. Then click Confirm and your account will be deactivated.

How to Permanently Delete Facebook Account

If you have decided to completely do away with your account, and you won’t be needing your photos, messages and other content stored therein, you can delete your account permanently. Once you delete your account permanently, you will not be able to recover any of your data, so you’ll want to make sure you download all the required stuff before you go ahead with the account closing.

To permanently delete Facebook account:

1. Login to your Facebook account and navigate to the Delete my Account page.

2. Click Delete my account. Remember, once deleted, you will not be able to reactivate your account or get back any of your Facebook data. If you want to download a copy of your data, be sure to go to the General Settings and click the Download a copy link.

4. In the next screen, you will be given a security check and once you’ve input your password and captcha you will be informed that your account will be deleted within a certain date.

You still have a chance to change your mind and cancel deletion of your Facebook account if you log back into your account before the said date and hit the Cancel Deletion button.