How to Permanently Delete a Facebook Account

February 1, 2023

Social media is addictive, that we know without a doubt. With commitment, you can decide to take a break from it and focus on reality, or your hobbies, or spend more physical time with friends and family — and to do so, you could deactivate your accounts(s) or you could go the extra mile of permanently deleting the account(s). One other method other than deactivating or deleting is using “Focus Assist”, a feature that you set for a period of time to help you focus on other things than social media — Meta’s own photo and video sharing platform, Instagram launched a similar feature dubbed “Quiet Mode” once enabled, users won’t receive any notifications to distract them from what they would be doing.

In this article, we give you steps on how to permanently delete your Facebook account. Once you’ve deleted the account, it may take up to 90 days for Facebook to delete all of the data associated with your account, such as photos, posts, and profile information. During this time, your account will be deactivated, and you won’t be able to log in. And if you wish to use the social platform again, you’ll be required to sign up for a new account.

Once your account is completely and permanently deleted, you won’t be able to retrieve its contents or any information shared on Facebook or Messenger, including all your messages. So before proceeding, it’s a good idea to download all the media you might need as well as export any data you need to keep.

Here’s how to delete your Facebook account on Android, iOS, and desktop:

On Android

Tap the hamburger menu in the upper-right corner (represented by three horizontal lines).
Scroll down and tap Settings & Privacy.
Select Settings.
Scroll down to the Your Facebook Information section and tap Account Ownership and Control.
Tap Deactivation and deletion.
Select Delete account and Continue to account deletion.
Choose a reason for deletion or tap Continue to account deletion to skip that step.
Confirm the deletion by tapping Delete Account.

On iOS

Start the Facebook app on your iPhone and tap Menu (three lines) in the lower-right corner of the screen.
Tap Settings & Privacy, then tap Settings.
Under Account, tap Personal and Account Information.
Tap Account Ownership and Control.
Tap Deactivation and deletion.
Select Delete Account and then select Continue to account deletion.
Confirm the deletion by tapping Delete Account.

On Desktop

On the Facebook home screen, click the downward arrow in the upper-right corner.
In the menu that appears, select Settings & Privacy > Settings.
When the General Account Settings screen appears, click Your Facebook Information on the left navigation bar.
Select View next to Deactivation and Deletion.
Select Delete Account and then click Continue to Account Deletion.
Enter your password when prompted and then click Continue.
Confirm the deletion by clicking Delete Account.