Facebook has endured several scandals over the years, and they invariably concern the privacy and security of its users. This led to the #DeleteFacebook entrada, and you were peradventure tempted to delete Facebook as a result.

Nonetheless, there is another option. Rather than deleting Facebook, y'all can just deactivate your business relationship. But what happens when you deactivate your Facebook account? If you deactivate Facebook, can you still use Messenger?

What Is the Deviation Between Deleting and Deactivating Facebook?

quitting-facebook

There'south a difference between deleting and deactivating your Facebook account. They're not interchangeable terms.

Deactivation is for people who aren't sure they want to leave Facebook forever. If yous just want to take a sabbatical from social media, deactivation is a good option, although it's not the only ane. You could merely ignore Facebook without deactivating it, but that depends on how tempted you lot'll be to return.

Deleting Facebook is more permanent. It's a determination that yous shouldn't take lightly. If yous delete your account, you can't come up dorsum and look whatsoever of your data to nonetheless be intact. There is a way to start again, just we'll return to that later on.

Can People Search for Me if I Deactivate Facebook?

People can still search for y'all, but your contour shouldn't show up. In theory.

Your timeline will disappear, alongside your list of "likes". That should happen immediately, though you'll need to jump through a few hoops to become to that stage. Everything will be invisible.

Similarly, if y'all delete Facebook, your account volition vanish. Merely full deletion won't happen for a picayune while because the social network gives yous 30 days' leeway before the point of no return.

If you log back in shortly afterward deactivating your business relationship, information technology will be automatically reactivated.

Otherwise, it takes ninety days for Facebook to remove information on a deleted account from its servers. Some details will still exist, but any personal identifiers will disappear. You'll become a statistic.

Does My Profile Completely Disappear if I Deactivate Facebook?

profile name searches

Deactivation should make your profile invisible. Yet, some deactivated users report that, after logging dorsum in, they take numerous pending friend requests. This indicates that their names are withal searchable and the links are still active. Depending on your privacy settings, total details shouldn't be available.

How do you make sure your deactivated Facebook profile disappears? Try a simple search, either through a friend's profile or using Google. The former is a better option; otherwise, it could accept a lot of time scouring results featuring others with the same name as you lot. This should tell you if others can still notice you lot, even after deactivating your account.

If you still be on Facebook, try logging dorsum in then trying to deactivate once again. If this still doesn't work, you lot can complain to Facebook or take the adjacent footstep: deletion. Before y'all do that, read on to detect out what you need to do before deleting Facebook entirely.

If deactivation has worked, your posts on your own timeline won't be publicly visible, and your friends shouldn't be able to see them either. Your whole profile will take gone. But that doesn't mean comments you've made to others will disappear as well.

Facebook is obsessed with memories. It likes to make you nostalgic, and remind y'all of just how long you've used social media. It's to build make loyalty.

That's why your comments won't vanish. Your name volition appear equally plain text since Facebook has removed the link to your account. Facebook will likewise replace your profile image with a default icon.

And of course, if you cull to reactivate your Facebook account, all of those posts will revert to normal.

What happens if you delete Facebook permanently? Facebook will erase your data within three months, merely there are no guarantees that information technology will articulate every terminal bit of flotsam and jetsam—comments, reactions, and posts on others' timelines.

How to Tell if Someone Blocked Y'all on Facebook or Deactivated Their Account

What does a deactivated Facebook account wait like? You won't be able to check their profile because links revert to manifestly text. Posts they've made on your timeline will all the same exist but you will non be able to click on their name.

If you're concerned that someone has been unusually repose on Facebook, there are three options to consider. The first is that they're just busy. Endeavor messaging them to ask if they're okay.

Look through your listing of friends. If they're withal listed, they're probably simply preoccupied. If they're not, the 2nd possibility is that they've blocked you. But before you lot investigate that, question whether they've deleted their account completely.

Facebook advises you deactivate your account if you carry on using Messenger

Then how do you know if someone has blocked you on Facebook or deactivated their account?

Become to a mutual friend'due south profile and check whether it shows the person in question. If their name is searchable, the profile still exists. Sadly, though, that probably means they blocked you.

Check on Messenger; there could exist a technical consequence. You can't send a message to someone who has blocked you, and their profile picture will be replaced on any comments they've previously posted on your timeline.

Can I Yet Use Messenger Without Facebook?

Y'all might worry that past deactivating Facebook, you won't be able to use the separate (simply nonetheless connected) Messenger app. They're both owned by the aforementioned company and mine the same contact list. Information technology seems similar Messenger cannot exist without its parent, and that used to exist the case.

But you can nevertheless use Messenger fifty-fifty if yous don't have a Facebook account.

When you deactivate your account, Facebook will ask if you want to deactivate Messenger as well. Say no, and the app will retain your information. If yous'd prefer to go without the instant messaging service, you tin can deactivate Messenger separately.

In some cases, you'll demand to reinstall Messenger after deactivation. If you delete Facebook, y'all'll certainly have to sign into the app once more, albeit using a slightly different method. To do this, you merely click Not On Facebook?, and add your name and telephone number. Let it access to your address book so you can keep in touch with friends.

Can People See My Messages if I Deactivate Facebook?

Yes, yous can still use Messenger, so it follows that your messages will appear after deactivating your account. In fact, when you press "Send," as long as you lot have internet access, the message will go straight to the recipient'southward inbox.

However, if yous delete Facebook, your previous messages will read "Facebook User". The recipient won't be able to respond. Incidentally, this is the aforementioned thing that happens if you cake someone.

Can Yous Reactivate a Facebook Account?

If you lot've deactivated your Facebook account, all you need to do is log back in. You can alter your password if you've forgotten it. Your profile still exists, as does your personal information. Previous messages and comments typically re-appear as well.

Actually, Facebook makes it very piece of cake to reactivate. That'due south peculiarly true if y'all've given the social network your phone number. Some users have reported getting texts from Facebook, tempting them dorsum. Clicking on the accompanying link—fifty-fifty accidentally—volition reactivate your profile. (Of course, information technology's dangerous to click on SMS links, and then be careful!)

Facebook general account settings let you download all personal information

Tin can you reactivate a deleted Facebook business relationship? Yous can, only it'southward more than difficult. Yous'll need to take taken steps to ready for your reactivation earlier deletion.

The social network lets y'all download a copy of all the data Facebook has stored about yous. That ways you can get your account back upwardly and running, although the process is a bit trickier than if yous've simply deactivated it.

What Happens to Tagged Photos After Deactivating Facebook?

Because Facebook has saved your data for your potential return, tags in pictures will still exist. Even so, those tags volition catechumen to obviously text. No i can link those images to a profile (to reiterate, your profile isn't visible to anyone). This is also true of whatsoever other posts you're tagged in.

If you reactivate your account, the tags will reappear every bit if nothing'south happened.

Much the same happens after deletion; tags will revert to evidently text. If you open a new business relationship, those original tags won't link automatically with your name over again. Just think of the number of people with the same name as y'all.

Let's say you have deleted your contour, and so regretted it, and decided to return. You'll need to ask your contacts to remove previous tags and update them to your new contour.

Worried about an embarrassing photo? Don't want people identifying yous even after deactivation or deletion? Don't forget you can manually remove tags anyway—only do so before taking farther steps with your account.

Should You Deactivate or Delete Facebook?

If y'all're reading this because you're not certain whether to delete or deactivate Facebook, cull the latter and stick with Facebook. Why? Because you're clearly unsure most the decision. It's better to start with the not-nuclear option which will allow you to render one day.

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