Do you want to stay away from Facebook in the meantime? Or how to temporarily deactivate Facebook? You have two options: you can choose to deactivate your Facebook account or request its permanent deletion temporarily. In this article, you learn the procedures to follow to deactivate or completely delete your Facebook account.

How to deactivate my Facebook account?

The deactivation of a Facebook account is temporary, and you can decide to recover it at any time you want. Below is a step-by-step guide to temporarily deactivate your Facebook account.

1. From your profile, click on the down arrow, located on the far right of your screen and which activates a drop-down menu,
2. In this menu, select Settings and privacy, then Settings,
3. In the left column, click on Your Facebook information,
4. Tap Deactivation and deletion, select Deactivate account,
5. Click Proceed with Account Deactivation and follow the instructions.

Note that when you choose to deactivate a Facebook account:

• You can continue to use Facebook Messenger,
• Group admins can still see your name, posts, and comments,
• No one but you can see your profile,
• Your name still appears in the friends list of your Facebook contacts,
• Pages that you manage alone are automatically deactivated,
• You can no longer use your Facebook account to access Oculus products.

To reactivate your FB account, log back into Facebook. You must still have access to the e-mail address or telephone number that allows you to connect to your account. If you forget the FB account password, you can reset it to reaccess your Facebook account.

How to permanently delete your Facebook account?

Deleting a Facebook account is irrevocable, and you will not be able to recover it. To delete your account completely:

1. From your profile, click on the down arrow, located on the far right of your screen and which activates a drop-down menu,
2. Select Settings and privacy, then Settings,
3. Click on Your Facebook information,
4. Tap Deactivation and deletion, select Delete account,
5. Click Proceed with account deletion,
6. Pick Delete Account, enter your password and click Continue.

When you choose to delete your Facebook account:

• You will no longer have access to Facebook Messenger,
• Your profile, your photos, your publications, your videos, as well as all the elements you have added will be permanently deleted, and you will not be able to recover these contents,
• Pages managed solely by you will be deleted.
• You won’t be able to use Facebook for apps you signed up for with your account, like Spotify or Pinterest,
• This action will also delete your Oculus information, including your purchases if you use your Facebook account to log in to Oculus,

Note: It takes 30 days to permanently delete a Facebook account once the procedure has been launched. It is possible to request the cancellation of the deletion within this period. Once the 30 days have passed, your account and all of your information will be permanently deleted, and you will no longer be able to recover it.

Now that you have learned how to delete your Facebook account without stress, we recommend you know how to download a copy of your FB data before the deletion.

How to download a copy of your Facebook data before deleting your account?

You can request a copy of the information you have added or shared on Facebook. To request it :

1. Click on the down arrow, located on the far right of your screen,
2. In the menu, select Settings and privacy, then click on Settings,
3. Click on Download your information,
4. Choose the file options (format, content quality, period) and check the data to download,
5. Select Create File to initiate the download request.

When the procedure is launched, the download request will have the status “Pending“, visible in the “Available copies” section within “Download your information“. Be aware that it may take several days before you can download your data. A notification will notify you when the file is ready to download.