How Do You Delete Your Facebook Account And Start From Scratch
Note: Some information in this post may be outdated. Please use this post as a guide only, not step-by-step instructions.
Earlier this year, I went through my Facebook Profile and read all the status updates and comments I have posted way back in 2006 when I first joined Facebook. Reading back 4+ years, I was really embarrassed in what some of the things I said. I wanted it gone and removed. I started deleting some things, but found it near impossible to delete all this information, so I asked myself “how do i delete my Facebook?”. From that point, I decided I should delete my Facebook account and start again from scratch. In doing so, their are a few things that you need watch out for to make the process clean and easy as Facebook makes it somewhat difficult to delete your profile. To help you out, I have put together this brief tutorial on how you can delete your Facebook account and start again.
By following this tutorial, you will be able to use your same email address, Facebook username, and password, but you will lose everything such as status updates, posts, comments, pictures and friends.
So how do you delete your Facebook account: Before You Begin
Before you being, I must stress, that you will lose all your friends you have and everyone will need to re-add you or re-confirm your friendship. Some people may or may not want to re-add you back as a friend on Facebook, so just be careful. I would also take note of all your friends you have to make it easier to remember who to add.
I would also tell your friends that you are deleting your account, so if they get another friend request from you, they will know it’s not a fake. Or they may ask you questions why you deleted them in the first place.
Update: If your account is the administrator of any groups, or pages, it is highly recommended that you assign someone else as an administrator of that page of group so when you delete your account, there will be someone that can reassign you as an admin (and so your page doesn’t get deleted). If you are the only admin for your page or group, get someone you trust to become an administrator temporarily.
I must also warn you that you complete these steps at your own risk, because you may lose important information such as your applications and games, ad’s, credits, and other important account information that is not covered in the scope of this tutorial. If you do run into trouble, contact me and I will try my best to help you out.
WARNING: FOLLOWING THESE STEPS WILL COMPLETELY WIPE YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT DELETING ALL YOUR FRIENDS, POSTS, COMMENTS, APPS, GAME PROGRESS, FACEBOOK CREDITS. THERE IS NO WAY TO UNDO THIS ACTION!
Note: This method is only for deleting personal Facebook accounts. If you delete a page, it will be deleted straight away.
Step 1: Know The Difference Between Delete And Deactivate
It’s important to note the difference between the two, and I have previously written a post about the difference and how you go about the deleting and deactivating your account. In this tutorial, you are going to delete your account – but don’t do it just yet, just read and understand the difference.
Step 2: Backup Your Facebook Account
When I deleted my Facebook account, I didn’t have the option to backup and download my Facebook information. So before you delete your account (where everything you publish on Facebook will be lost forever), you are first going to backup your data. To do this, click on “learn more” in your Account Settings next to “Download your information”. You can access your Account Settings by visiting https://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php
You will then be presented a number of steps and security measures before you can download your profile.
Once you have downloaded your information, continue to Step 3.
Step 3: Change Your Email Address, Password, And Username
This is a crucial step, because if you don’t do this, you won’t be able to use Facebook for at least two weeks using the same login details. Back in your Account Settings, first of all, change your email address to another email address that you have. We are doing this, so you will be able to instantly signup with your same email address later on in Step 5. Also change your password and username. It is also important to do these so you can keep your original Facebook username (I.e. www.facebook.com/yourprofileusername) (See update below) and to stop other devices such as your mobile phone or laptop accidently logging in to your account and stopping the deletion process. Once you have done all this, continue to Step 4.
Update: A commenter mentioned, that there is a Facebook FAQ stating that usernames cannot be transferred between accounts, so the changing your username step may no longer work, so try this at your own risk.
Step 4: Delete Your Account
Now that you have backed up your profile, have changed your email address, password, username, and told your friends you are deleting your account, you can now finally go through the deletion process.
To delete your account, click on https://ssl.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account and follow the process. I won’t explain it step by step because I don’t want to delete my Facebook account. But it will take at least 2 weeks for it to be fully deleted. Do make sure you read each step carefully.
Step 5: Sign Back Up To Facebook
Now it’s time to sign back up to Facebook. You should be able to simply register your account using your original email address and password because we changed it in Step 3. Once you have confirmed your account, you can follow Facebook’s basic instructions, re-add the information to your Wall and Profile and re-add all your friends.
Just a tip, you may not be able to register your username straight away. It took me a couple of weeks before I could re-register my old username.
Step 6: You’re Done
So once you have added all your friends again, you have now successfully started your Facebook account from scratch. You may have thought the question “how to delete my Facebook account” isn’t so hard after all. All you had to do is follow the right procedure to crate a new Facebook account. For some further reading, you may want to read how I protect my personal and online identity so people like future employers don’t read the naughty things you get up to. Another thing I regularly do is delete any status updates and comments I post, so I don’t have to do this again in another 4 years. If I maintain it now, it makes it easier later on.
If you need some assistance on how do you delete your facebook account, I am happy to help you out. Just leave your message in the comments.
I feel silly saying this but I’m a little confused.. So lets say my email is [i]one@email.com[/i], if I change my facebook to [i]two@email.com[/i] before I delete it then I should be able to re-register straight away using [i]one@email.com[/i] right? So then what happens to [i]two@email.com[/i]? Is that the email that takes 2 weeks to delete? So what happens if I then need to use [i]two@email.com[/i] to make a new facebook account? Can I still do that provided I wait the full two weeks before using it?
(Sorry if I confused you at all, I mean the best at explaining what I mean.)
Thanks for you help!
[quote]I mean the best at explaining what I mean[/quote]
[b]I’m not [/b]the best at explaining what I mean*
I’m not the best at typing the right words either apparently lol
Hi Lollie, I understand your requirements.
[i]So lets say my email is one@email.com, if I change my facebook to two@email.com before I delete it then I should be able to re-register straight away using one@email.com right?[/i] –> Correct
[i]So then what happens to two@email.com? Is that the email that takes 2 weeks to delete? [/i] –> Correct
[i]So what happens if I then need to use two@email.com to make a new facebook account? [/i] –> You will need to use a third email address, or substitute email two for another email that you don’t want to wait on.
If I could just comment. I took your instruction of using a different email address as create a “throw away address” and use that, which is what I did. The two thing that I would like to add (because Facebook has probably changed since you wrote this). You can’t just change your email address anymore, I had to “Add” one, then go back and select it as the “Primary” then go back and “Remove” the original address. Also, you can no longer change your Username, you get a message saying something like you must use your Real Name (which sucks if you didn’t use that way back when you joined) or apparently if you get married and change your name you have to send Photographic Proof to Facebook of the name change. Something I would NOT be willing to do. BTW, nice simple instructions, thank you for them.
Hello John,
Thank you for your comment. Yes, Facebook’s processes has changed a little since writing this tutorial. I probably wouldn’t recommend a “throw away address” – but maybe a work, or another secondary address you use for junk etc.
The Facebook username policy has changed – I have referenced links in other comments.
As far as I am aware, you can only change your name a certain amount of times, so as long as you don’t get divorced multiple times, it shouldn’t be a problem. 😛
But yeah, who wants to send FB a photo – just create a new account.
4-20-13)
i just deleted my FB account, but before i did, i did what you said to do , including removing my phone number that was on the account.
on my other account….can i use the phone number that i had on my old account , and use it on my other account that never had a phone number added to it ?
Facebook permits people on having one FB account, so as people only have one mobile number, it might not let you add it multiple times. I believe it has to be unique for recovery purposes.
But if you removed it from the account you deleted, you should be able to add it to the new account.
How can you remove it from the account you deleted if you can’t get back into the account or don’t want to reactivate it?
If you have deleted your account, and it has been successfully deleted, you should be able to reuse the mobile number. If there is an account that still uses it, you should be able to log into the account. It’s a good idea to make a note of the Facebook ID as well.
Hi its me again I’m really desperate I need my facebook account back my profile has been also removed when I login its says unrecognized email address plz help
Can another person get into my computer from theirs and delete my posts I have posted on facebook? In other words, can they get access to my facebook page?
Defiantly possible, but unlikely. I recommend you turn on Facebook login notifications, so if someone logs in, you will be notified. https://www.facebook.com/help/162968940433354/
can someone from their computer get access to my facebook page and then delete my posts?
See my above comment.
Hi. I have read your page here and read many other blogs and comments. Here is what I want to do. I have a personal fb account and added a page a few years ago for a small business, which I haven’t done much with. Now I am starting a new business, sort of related to the other, and would like to delete my facebook personal account, and also that other business page i had added. I want to start from scratch with a business name, not my own name at all, and go from there. Is all of this possible? Thank you! Kathy Hill
Hello Kathy,
Yes, all defiantly possible. Once you have your new FB account, just create a new page by visiting https://www.facebook.com/pages
Hi i was just trying to get a new Facebook account by mistaken i did it on my same email ID and lost my old facebook account…i wonder by any chance i can get my previous account back???i really want to get it back coz all my infomation phone number friends name still there…pls do help me thk u very much
Unless you changed the old Facebook’s email address, you wouldn’t be able to create a new account with the same email address. Have a read of http://www.jackcola.org/faq?catid=4&faqid=56
Hi ! Great info 🙂 I would like to ask a question. I want to permanently delete my account and open a new one with the same e-mail address and the same name and last name. So the idea is that I want to delete every old post, and then create a new profile and add some friends, in order that everything will be new. So all the old posts will be deleted. Is that possible ? Thnx 🙂
Hello Eno,
Yep, change your email address, delete the existing account, then sign up with the new email address.
Thanks ! I appreciate 🙂
hi wanted to know if the username for the new account will be the same or will i have to get a new one?
You’ll need to create another username for Facebook accounts.
jus got to know that our messages sent to our friends still remain in their inbox even after deletion of our account is that true?
Yes, that is true
will they be visible wid our name?
The message content will be unchanged, but when you look in your messages (or they look in their messages if you delete the account), it will show “Unknown user”
mmm k thnkew…:)
Thanks a lot I been wanting to do this for years and never knew you could. I really didnt care about losing everything to be honest because I deleted it all anyways. I just wanted a fresh Start. 🙂 it wont let me use my username for some reason even though i changed it but that is ok thanks again.
You’re welcome 🙂
I thought I was doing the right thing by migrating my account to a business account when I should have created a page for my business. Now I can’t view groups or like pages, very frustrating. I think deleting and starting over would be best. Are the steps above still current? Do you think this is the best route for my situation? Thanks,
Jeff
Hello Jeff,
Yes, you should add a page to your personall account, rather than create a business account (as your personal account) to create a page.
Best to keep the business account open, create your personal account, and add your personal account as a page admin.
Hope this helps.
hello,
I changed my email ,password in my facebook account. I also deleted the page I’d like to create new as a bsiness account. But it still says an existing account is associated with this email.
Try logging in with that email address (or use the forgot password feature). It could be associated as an additional email address.
I backed up my FB. And I deleted my account. I’m currently waiting the 14 days. I used an old school address to create my original FB that I no longer access, so that’s my username to log in. However, at some point, I had all my FB notices go to gmail. I plan to open a new account with my gamil account and a new password after the 14 days. My question – I presume this is do-able. And my second question my domain the http://www.facebook.com/name – I want to get back. Should I have deleted it first, and then just not waited the 14 days and opened a new FB account and requested it? Or does it not matter, and I can just wait for 14 days, and then open a new account with my gmail and new password and try and get get the old domain name? does this make sense?
Hello Anita,
If you added your school email and Gmail email to your deleted Facebook, you might have to remove both, otherwise Facebook might not let you open a new FB account on the gmail email address as it is assigned to another account.
As with usernames, I made an update in the article that these are no longer transferable.
If you desperately want the username, don’t perform the steps in this article.
Will this work if your Facebook account has been temporary suspended
If Facebook has manually suspended your account, it would unlikely work as you won’t be able to log in. If it’s deactivated, to make changes, you will need to activate it again.
So, no, it won’t work.
Can I delete an account if I don’t have a password? The problem I am having is that I messed up and used several passwords and now I want to delete all and start over from scratch So how do I delete those accounts without a password Please help! Joanne
No, you won’t be able to. What’s the point of having passwords, then someone can delete another persons account.
Try the forgot password link of the service you are trying to access – there will be one.
I made an account on facebook and I didn’t know how to delete it so i made another account with the same name and password. later on I deleted that one. I made anew one. I decided to delete the old account and did so. now the first account is not accessible. help i need to delete the first one too!
Facebook accounts are tied with an email address – so reset the password using the email address. Make sure you also uniquely identify each Facebook ID so you know you’re deleting the right one.
Remember, when deleting Facebook accounts, you have a 14 day cooling off period. If it has been longer than this, and you accepted the emails, you’re out of luck.
Thanks so very much. This was the only useful advice I could find online. Easy and awesome.
hello I had Facebook but I forget my password so I tried again then I tried again. I think I tried to many times that’s why everything is messed up.. I would like to keep my e-mail address and start scratch. But it’s not that easy because everything I put down is not accepted or somebody else has that password
Have you clicked on “Forgot my Password” there are multiple ways you can regain access to your facebook account. You can even try http://www.facebook.com/hacked
Thank you so much for the step-by-step instruction! In my case deleting and starting over again is my only option to get my personal profile back after converting it to a business page without being fully aware of the consequences.
I changed email and password, also changed both my FB Name/Username (e.g. my good old real and only name) and my FB vanity url before deleting just to be safe. It all went OK (the warning did come up saying I could only change it once), until when I signed up the new account, I wasn’t able to use the old FB url http://www.facebook.com/firstname.secondname (FB says it’s not available). I’m not sure whether in 14 days this url will be available. However I was able to get that url working without typing the dot between my first name and second name. Well, I thought the dot shouldn’t matter, they all go to the same place?!
Anyway I’m just so happy that I got it working, and I hope those of you, who are in the same boat I was, are able to get around with the “dot trick”, if you come across the same problem with user name and url.
Thanks again for your excellent article, best instruction I’ve found on this topic!
Hello Jim, glad you found this post useful.
Facebook has changed the rules regarding usernames when I first wrote the post. Another FB account can’t use the same username that has already been registered in the past. Having a dot, or no dot means it’s an unique and different username. In most cases, if you change your FB URL, they will automatically redirect it to the new one.
Hi Jack,
I went out of town and had to log in for the first time in forever. I got locked out trying and realized the email was an old school email that has been canceled. I tried using my cell phone to get in but i didn’t get the text with password.
2 weeks and I had to start a new account last night. Can I delete my old account now? Can’t seem to do it since I can’t access it.
Hello Mark, Read this http://www.jackcola.org/2013/06/i-am-having-trouble-logging-into-facebook-how-can-i-log-in/
Hi my account got blocked because I was “adding friends too fast” and now I cannot add friends like posts, or post stuff. This happened two hours after I made my facebook account. I was just adding friends form my sisters list and it temporarily blocked me for a month. I need facebook to campaign for school elections so I need an account that is actually working. Can i delete this accound and make a new one with the same email that will work, even though my block is for a month??
I am not sure how Facebook performs the block – whether it is a block on the FB ID or the email address. If you need it urgently, use another email address and sign up again.w
You might also want to consider using Facebook groups or Facebook pages.
Hi, do you happen to know how long does it take until my old username will be available after I’ve deleted my account?
If you read the article, usernames are no longer re-issued. Once it has been claimed, another account can not use it.
Hi.
I read everything but im a little insecure about this going awry and me having no fb for a while. ..
So, if i change my email before i delete my fb account, and then reapply for my new account, it will work straight away no problems?
What about my user name? Casey anderson. Can i use that straight away? Im paranoid ill have to wait a bit before theyll let me use my own name for a new account. ..
Hello, usernames can no longer be reused on Facebook.
But there is more than six human using real name ‘Piotr Grochowski’.
A name is not a username.
IN MY ACCOUNT THE MESSAGES WHICH I SENT TO MY FRIEND IS COMING WITH OTHERS NAME BUT THE MESSAGES ARE SAME ONLY LAST 2 LINES HAVE BEEN CHANGED
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO DO
Hello, I am not 100% sure of your question. Can you please ask again.
Hi,I need your help last week thursday my facebook disappeared,I was trying remove my Contact number from my profile,my expectations was that my mobile number would be removed from my profile, I pressed remove my Cell phone number but instead it removed my facebook account, now my account has disappeared please help me I really need my account back
Hello, it is unlikely that your Facebook account has been deleted. When you visit Faceboook.com and try to log in, what happens?
Its says I have entered an invailed email address or username.
Hey, thanks for the help! I’m just confused about one thing. When I delete my personal account you said that all my facebook apps (websites, services, etc..) will be deleted as well, right? Is there any way of transferring these apps with the login/permissions to the new account so i don’t lose everything and have to start from scratch? For example, on feedly.com I chose to sign in with my facebook account in the beginning and now I have organized all my rss feeds the way i wanted ever since. It would be cruel to lose all of this with all the services and start over! is there a way around this or do i need to stick with my current account? thank you very much
That’s up to Feedly. Because Feedly associated your Facebook account to their account. So since that FB account doesn’t exist / is different, you won’t be able to access it again, unless they transfer the ownership, your you export all your feeds first.