4 Things You Need To Know Before Deleting Your Facebook Account

Facebook has come under quite some criticism lately following reports of Cambridge Analytica and what’s been going on with users personal data and information. Due to this, a lot of people have been considering jumping ship and leaving the social media giant to sink gracefully with its mistakes.

Well before you decide on the fate of your Facebook account, we thought you’d like to know 4 things which anyone should know prior to that deletion process.

1) Deactivating and Deleting Are Two Different Processes 

Some people aren’t sure which option to choose when they want to remove their account from existence. What’s the difference between deactivating your profile and deleting it? Well let’s say you’re frustrated and in a spur of the moment you decide you no longer want to use Facebook. You could opt to deactivate your account by tapping the icon in the top right hand corner of the app (it looks like 3 horizontal lines).

From there —> Account Settings —> General —> Manage Account —> Deactivate. 

If you do go ahead and deactivate your account then people won’t be able to search for you and nobody will be able to access your timeline. You’ll still exist in messages though, although it’ll probably just say “Facebook User” along with a blank profile picture. The benefit of deactivating your account is that you can easily log on once you’ve sorted out your life and activate it again without losing anything.

If you go for a proper deletion of your account, then know that this is permanent. You can’t undo it once it’s been finalized! 

Which leads us on to our next point…

2) Tapping on “Delete” will not just make your account disappear without a trace

If you opt to go through the full deletion process then it’s worth bearing in mind that all of your information won’t just disappear as soon as you tap and confirm the delete. Your account will be hidden from friends so nobody will be able to see your profile but Facebook state that a full deletion of all of your data (keep in mind that most profiles have years and years of photos, memories, likes, statuses and everything else in-between).

Facebook also offer you a fail safe too. If within the first couple of hours you decide that you have made a terrible mistake and that you can’t live without your Facebook account, simply log back into your account and the deletion process will be averted.

If you do decide to delete your account, make sure you read our next tip first!

3) It’s possible to save and back up all of your data – MAKE SURE YOU DO!

Yes you can just go ahead and press the delete button and move on with your life without a shred of regret. Or you could wish you had all of your content and data saved somewhere safe. All you need to do is:

—>Tap on the three lines in the right hand corner —> Settings —> General —> Download a copy of your Facebook data —> Start my archive. 

This will then download everything you’ve ever done on Facebook, every poke, every like, every single memory you’ve ever shared or had on the communication platform will be safely saved to your device. Whoop!

We strongly suggest you do this before deleting your account so you don’t lose years of irreplaceable photos.

4) Facebook Messenger Can Still Be Used!

Just because you have had enough with Facebook doesn’t mean you can’t access the Messenger app. It’s designed in such a way that it can be used completely independently from the parent app. If you don’t have a Facebook profile anymore then when you go to log in, simply select the option: “Not on Facebook”. You’ll be prompted to add your phone number and then away you go.