What You Need to Know When You Deactivate Your Facebook Account
You're considering a hiatus from social networking? Deactivating your Facebook account is your best bet. But just what happens when you click the "Deactivate" button? Whether you're needing a digital detox or taking a break for privacy reasons, you want to know the consequences. Here's what occurs when you deactivate your Facebook account.
1. Your Profile Becomes Invisible
When you deactivate your account, your profile is no longer visible to anyone else on Facebook. That is:
- Your name and pictures won't come up in search results.
- Friends won't be able to view your timeline or tag you in updates.
- You'll be deleted from friends' friend lists (though your name might still show up in their messages).
But your information isn't deleted — Facebook keeps it just in case you ever want to get your account back up and running.
2. Messenger Stays Active (Unless You Shut It Down Too)
Deactivating Facebook does not deactivate Messenger. You can still send messages to people unless you specifically choose to deactivate Messenger as well. Your friends will still see your name on Messenger, and you can send and receive messages as usual.
3. Old Posts and Comments Might Remain Visible
Even though your profile will not be public, certain activities you have done on Facebook can still be viewed:
- Your comments on someone else's posts are still viewable.
- Your posts and comments in groups could still be viewable to admins within groups.
- Your messages in inboxes (Messenger) are still viewable to the intended user.
4. You Can Reactivate at Any Time
The good news is, deactivation is reversible. To restore, just log in again using your email and password. Your account will be restored with all your friends, posts, photos, and settings intact.
5. Your Pages You Manage Might Be Affected
If you're the sole admin of a Facebook Page and you deactivate your account, the page will also becomehidden. To avoid this, make another admin before deactivating your account.
6. You Stop Receiving Notifications
Once your account has been deactivated, Facebook will no longer send you updates, emails, and notifications — with some respite from the social chatter.
Last Thoughts
Deactivating your Facebook profile is reversible. It's perfect if you require a break without losing your content and connections. Just remember: if you really want to sever ties, you'll need to delete your account instead.
Thinking about a permanent solution? Read our blog post on how to delete your Facebook account permanently.
Tags: #FacebookTips #DeactivateFacebook #SocialMediaBreak #FacebookPrivacy #DigitalDetox