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How to Delete an Old Facebook Account When You Can't Log In

by Josh Kirschner on July 17, 2018

Do you have an old Facebook account that you’re no longer using with posts or pictures from your younger days that you don’t want people to see? It’s easy to delete your account if you still have access to it. But what if you can’t remember the login information?

Here are the two steps you can take to try and recover account access so you can delete your account – and the associated unwanted former memories – permanently.

1. Try to recover your Facebook password

Go to https://www.facebook.com/login/identify to search for your account. You can search by the email or phone number you used to set up the account, or just by name (the search screen doesn’t mention that option but it works, too).

If you go the name route, your account may or may not show up, depending on your privacy settings. If you don’t see it, click “I’m not on this list” and you’ll be prompted to enter the name of a friend and search again.

Once you find your old account, you’ll be able to send a reset code to any of the email addresses or phone numbers you associated with your account. If you’re not sure which email address you used, Facebook will show you a redacted version (e.g., j*******h@hotmail.com) that should spark your memory in case it’s an old email that you don’t log into anymore.

If you don’t have access to that email address or phone number anymore, try hard to regain access to that old email account. Because it gets far bleaker from here…

2. Use Facebook’s Trusted Friends feature

If you can’t access the email address or phone number on your account, your only other hope is Facebook’s Trusted Friends feature. Launched in 2013, Trusted Friends lets you regain access to your account in case of forgotten credentials by asking three “trusted friends” to supply a reset code. The big problem with Trusted Friends is that you had to have set it up in advance for your account, which very few people have done, according to a quick check I did of my friends and other random accounts.

(To set it up for an account you still have access to: 1. Go to Settings (down arrow). 2. Go to your Security and Login Settings. 3. Scroll down to Choose 3 to 5 friends to contact if you get locked out and click Edit. 43. Click Choose friends and follow the on-screen instructions.)

Facebook lockout contacts

If you fall into the category of one of the lucky few who set this up, when you tell Facebook that you “No longer have access to these?” on the email and phone recovery page you’ll be provided with an option to enter a new email or phone number and continue with the process.

Click “Reveal My Trusted Contacts” and type the full name of one of your trusted contacts. Facebook will then give you a special URL that each of your three friends need to access. The URL contains a recovery code to reset your account, which your friends need to provide back to you. You will need to contact your friends and provide them the URL – Facebook will not do this for you. If you can’t contact one of your trusted friends for whatever reason, you’re out of luck.

As I mentioned above, if you didn’t already set up Trusted Contacts, it’s too late now. When you tell Facebook you can’t access the email account, you won’t have the option to provide a new email address or phone number, you’ll just be told to try logging in again (in other words, you’re outta luck).

3. Report your old account as fake

While Facebook makes deleting an old account difficult, thanks to the proliferation of Facebook account spoofing, deleting a fake account is far easier. So one of our clever readers told us in the comments he reported his old account as fake and it was quickly deleted. Another reader also had success going this route.

To report your old account as fake:

  1. Go to the profile of your old account
  2. Click the three little dots on the bottom right of the cover photo and select "Give feedback or report this profile"
  3. Click on "Pretending to Be Someone" and then click "Me"

Let us know in the comments if this method works for you, too.

4. There is no option four (at least no easy one)

I reached out to Facebook and they have confirmed that, for security reasons, they will only allow you to delete your account if you can access it through one of the two official methods above (or our "unofficial" workaround). Those photos of your ex-relationships, nights of drunken bacchanalia and really, really bad choices of hairstyle are going to live on forever in the Facebook universe.

However, you may be able to pursue avenues outside Facebook’s standard deletion policies. For example, if you reside in the EU, the GDPR provides the right for consumers to demand companies delete their personal information on request. And if Facebook isn’t responding to a request, you may be able to take the issue up with your country’s privacy officer.

According to Facebook’s Privacy Policy, disputes can be resolved through a third-party company called TrustArc. However, at the time of publishing this article, Facebook is blocking its own link to the TrustArc feedback form as malicious (irony noted). Instead, you can use Facebook’s Data Policy Help Center Contact form or send a snail mail letter to:

Facebook, Inc.
ATTN: Privacy Operations
1601 Willow Road
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Since these aren't officially sanctioned means of getting your account deleted, we don't know what your likelihood of success will be. If you go this route, let us know how you fare in the comments below.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Please do not put requests to have your Facebook account deleted in the comments. We cannot delete your account  you must follow the steps with Facebook we outlined above.

 

[Image credit: Facebook login via BigStockPhoto]


Topics

Tips & How-Tos, Facebook, Privacy


Discussion loading

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From Leighni Hadl on November 28, 2018 :: 5:56 pm


One is under Leighni Hadl and one under Leighni Nikkol I can’t remember the passwords but I need them gone! Please help

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From Josh Kirschner on November 28, 2018 :: 6:15 pm


Did you follow steps 1 and 2 above to try and reset your Facebook password so the accounts can be deleted?

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From Leighni on November 28, 2018 :: 8:20 pm


I can’t get in period. I deleted them the first time it said it would take 14 days but then they never disappeared

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From kcrj89 on June 10, 2019 :: 9:14 pm


it worked for me….in minutes, too….

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From laura levy on December 02, 2018 :: 2:13 pm


i created a new organization/business facebook account but because i uploaded a fake picture (i didn’t want to use my picture for my organization) .. the account has been disabled…

I have deleted the google account associated with the facebook account.

How can i recover/remove the disabled facebook account and start over?

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From Josh Kirschner on December 03, 2018 :: 3:42 pm


It may be possible to recover your Google account, which would then let you get access to your linked Facebook account. Here are the steps: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6236295

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From laura levy on December 03, 2018 :: 7:29 pm


i can’t access the old Facebook acct because it is disabled.. i need to free up the associated email address with the disabled Facebook acct.

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From Josh Kirschner on December 03, 2018 :: 9:17 pm


The link above is a means to recover your old Gmail account so you can use it to recover your old Facebook account.

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From Leigh Ann McLean on December 08, 2018 :: 4:47 pm


I cant get in an old gmail account, actually 2 of them. I have my uaername to both accounts but I have forgot my passwords to both. I have a new phone now and I cant remember the number I had qhen I opened the account.
Need help
Leigh Ann

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From Patricia Woodward re Sidney John Woodward {de on February 18, 2019 :: 6:56 am


How do I close down my late husbands Facebook when I do not know his password etc. ?

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From Josh Kirschner on February 26, 2019 :: 3:07 pm


Hi Patricia,

Sorry for you loss. Facebook has options for either memorializing your husband’s account (so friends and families can still see the memories) or deleting it entirely. You can find instructions for both methods here:
https://www.facebook.com/help/1506822589577997

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From So Done on February 20, 2019 :: 5:12 am


I tried creating an account for chatting with my gamer friends, and fb disabled the account a few days later before I even had the time to fully deck it out with photos. I don’t have a phone number to add to the account, which was not required at sign up, but when I tried to login today it demanded I give them one in order to access my account. With all the trouble fb gave in setting up the account to now this, I just want to delete it so they can’t spam my inbox. Hate fb.

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From Tiyezye on March 13, 2019 :: 5:35 pm


Please help me delete this old account which was hacked


https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002432116439

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From Josh Kirschner on March 13, 2019 :: 6:17 pm


We give you the steps for deleting an account above. Follow those and see if it works for you.

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From Sinazo Wulana on April 03, 2019 :: 12:43 am


I uploaded picture of me with out a bra and faceboik disabled my account becouse I couldn’t remember my password now I want to use my account again it doesnt recognise my phone number which I used to join please help I need that account

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From Himal Sunil on April 11, 2019 :: 7:04 am


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From Josh Kirschner on April 11, 2019 :: 7:14 am


If you want your Facebook account deleted, follow the steps in the article above. Posting it here isn’t going to help.

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From Ellie on April 15, 2019 :: 6:28 am


HELP PLEASE! This never happened previously.

I bought a new mobile phone.

As a result I was locked out of my FB account. It’s been a few years since I opened the account. I cannot remember the password. The email used was an old hotmail, more than 2yrs since used -as a result deleted. The phone number was a landline no longer in use.

I have tried search by name but end up going in circles because one page after another leads back to the first question.

I need to get that account back because of the information (contacts, groups, etc.) linked to the account which was gather over a longtime search.

P.S. snail mail doesn’t work from Canada to USA.

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From Josh Kirschner on April 15, 2019 :: 9:44 am


Have you tried setting up a new Hotmail account using your old email address? If not, you’ll likely need to recreate your Facebook account. But it shouldn’t be a big deal to resubscribe to the various groups you’re interested in (you can even look at the old account to see what groups it was originally a member of).

Also, it sounds like you were autofilling your password on your old phone. Are you sure you don’t have your passwords synced to Google? If you are using Google as your password manager, you should be able to get to it through https://accounts.google.com/.

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From Disgruntled One on April 15, 2019 :: 8:57 am


Will reporting my account keep me from using the same name later on should I want to try it again with facebook? Will they delete both the main account and business page connected to it?

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From Josh Kirschner on April 15, 2019 :: 10:18 am


Reporting your account shouldn’t prevent you from using the same name later. After all, there are many people with the same name on Facebook. As far as your business page, I’m not 100% sure. However, a page requires at least one owner. And if this is the only account associated with it, then you wouldn’t be able to make any changes or updates to the page in the future.

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From Disgruntled One on April 16, 2019 :: 5:14 am


Thanks for the reply. That account might be lost to me forever unfortunately. I can’t even find it in the search cause I might have put the preferences as “only friends can search for me” and never got a chance to change that before being locked out. It was worth a shot. I just wish Facebook had a proper phone number for customer service support. It would fix so many technical issues and loopholes.

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From Sinazk on April 15, 2019 :: 9:54 am


My account was disabled on facebook before i fond out i dont remeber my my password they ask me for a password and they disabled it now i cant even delete or see it all i want are my pictures

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From Josh Kirschner on April 15, 2019 :: 10:20 am


Did you follow the advice in Step #1 above? If so, what happened?

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From Sinazk on April 15, 2019 :: 10:28 am


They stopped my account from effective usage now I cant delete or gett my pictures from it

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From Brittiny nicole jane dennis(godby) on May 06, 2019 :: 4:45 pm


I have sent my documents to facebook to verfy i am who i say i am. I need the new account unlocked and my old one needs deleted because credit card info listed is at risk.

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From Karen Ulloa on May 06, 2019 :: 11:29 pm


That message is driving me crazy! So I got locked out of my account, after getting a message that said, “Your account has been locked because someone has been trying to login.”, so I changed my password to a very difficult one. After that I got a new iPhone and didn’t do a backup of my saved passwords, my fb password was a keychain suggestion, so I never memorized it. Now even though I have trusted contacts codes everytime I try I get the “You are trying too often…...” message, I’ve tried clearing Facebook cookies a million times, and still can’t login.
Is there any solution that I’m ignoring? I really want to access my account since I have information that is very important

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From Prince ify orizu on June 03, 2019 :: 8:22 am


My Facebook account was hacked and I did not register it with my phone number and I don’t have access to the email that was there again I want to block the account permanently the account name is prince ify orizu please help me

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From Josh Kirschner on June 10, 2019 :: 10:06 am


Did you follow the steps above (especially #3 and #4)? We can’t help you get your Facebook account deleted beyond providing you advice on how to do it - you need to take those steps yourself.

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From Arpine Darbinyan on July 10, 2019 :: 1:25 am


Thank you for your supporting. I just want to say that your 3th method really works. Thank you very much.

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From Josh Kirschner on July 10, 2019 :: 9:39 am


That’s definitely an “unofficial” method for deleting your Facebook account, so glad to hear it’s working.

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From Komal on July 29, 2019 :: 7:04 pm


I can’t login in my facebook account plus I forgot my yahoo password where the recovery code is sent to….please advise me what I can do

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From Josh Kirschner on July 30, 2019 :: 3:26 pm


Have you tried recovering your Yahoo password? That’s your best bet.

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From Megan Aldine on October 08, 2019 :: 1:19 pm


None of them really work anymore. Since the big hack FB has gotten devoted to this and unfortunately reckless. On the plus side if they log you out for security reasons your account will be deleted anyways if you can’t contact them and tell them to halt, which you wouldn’t if you intended to delete it. None of them work though because Facebook doesn’t actually delete anything. It’s called ghosting as opposed to bleaching. All your data is still there, you just can’t see it. And still in FB’s personal database and still shared as they see fit. As a general rule once you write something down it’s always there, same applies to the internet. A damned if you do or don’t situation. My hopes is the many services that require a FB account to use will reconsider that.

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From Teresa Dedman on October 20, 2019 :: 8:16 am


Hi.

My old account was deleted quickly when I reported it as a fake account.

Many thanks

Teresa

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From Fmb Rocilem on October 28, 2019 :: 5:35 am


my father made an account in facebook but already forgot his details account name and password and the phone no. used was already not active. someone made uncontrollable abusive and hatred post comments which we cant delete as no access on that account. i want to know how to delete the account.

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From Josh Kirschner on October 29, 2019 :: 3:09 pm


If you don’t have access to the email or phone used to create the Facebook account (he can’t access his email, either?), then follow steps 3 or 4.

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From Ann Anderson on November 04, 2019 :: 12:33 pm


How do i remove my old profile from face book as there are about four i don’t want them to get in to the wrong hands.  Please advise me thank you.

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From Josh Kirschner on November 04, 2019 :: 12:40 pm


We have another article that gives you step-by-step instructions for how to delete your Facebook account.

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From Paul on November 05, 2019 :: 10:49 am


Hi
i really dont know what to do i have a 15 year old account and am trying to get access to it .what i did was when i tried to setup 2FaApps in my fb i never actually set it up i just chose 2fa app over txt now when i go to log in it says we sent you a 6 digit number i cant check it i dont receive the code to mobil because it wasnt setup.so i tried to send fb a few requests with my new email so they can contact me on because the email that they contact me on which i had when i joined fb many years ago is no more active.
So i contacted microsoft about my email the said that its been disabled because its not been active for many many years. So i dont know what to do az this account is still active i cant make a new one unless either i get this account back or i have fb delete it altogether which i have no idea how im going to do that either can you please give me steps or links vital information to help me   out.

Kind regards paul

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From Josh Kirschner on November 06, 2019 :: 8:11 pm


I give advice above for deleting your account when you can’t log in - start by following those (step 3 is probably what you need). Not clear on why you can’t create a new account, though. If you’re using a different email address to create the new account, there shouldn’t be an issue.

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From Jonathan Robert Vosburgh on January 04, 2020 :: 12:45 pm


click the three dots under ther cover photo on bottom right and then go to report and report for pretending to be someone then put me and in five min the profile will be gone I just got rid of 4 old profiles

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From Srinivas on January 19, 2020 :: 5:58 am


This idea of marking as fake or something else was really amazing. I had three more accounts in which I forgot login details. But all those were deleted within few minutes or maximum half an hour

Thank u soooooooooo much

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From hannah on January 19, 2020 :: 3:46 pm


wow my old account was deleted in minutes. i reported it as pretending to be me. i posted some dumb stuff years ago… haha finally dont have to have it hanging over my head.

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From Wendy on January 22, 2020 :: 2:04 am


I’ve been trying to delete my old fb account for years now having forgotten my password and email. Finally was able to do so by reporting it as fake like the instructions said above. It was deleted within days. Thanks!

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From Shiela Ballester Loria on February 16, 2020 :: 5:51 am


I was a victim of online shaming. So I deactivated my personal account to protect my privacy. But I would like FB to delete the account of my daughter since I no longer have access to it. Somebody under a dummy account kept on stalking her account and post comments which I think is not appropriate. I don’t want other people to harass me through my daighter’s account. So I am asking FB to delete my daughter’s account. We have reported it already as her fake account.

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From Kelly on April 11, 2020 :: 4:33 am


Hi! So i have an old account maybe more than 6 years ago. I remember logging it to that account before and the password was incorrect. After many years, i tried logging it again but still the password is incorrect. I have no access on phone number, email, or any devices that i logged in using that account. Now, I want to just access it again before deleting it. But if i REALLY can’t open it anymore, i just want to delete that account. Can you please help me how?

And what will happen if an account gets deleted? Is it really deleted already or “authorities” (idk) still has a control of it?

THANKS SO MUCH’

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From Josh Kirschner on April 13, 2020 :: 5:03 pm


If you can’t login to your old email account and don’t have the phone number, the you’re pretty much out of luck for logging in. But you can still delete the account by reporting it as fake, as many people have had success doing.

Once the account is removed as fake, I do’t know whether Facebook permanently deletes it or it goes to a “inactive” state. But it shouldn’t really matter - it will be gone from public view, either way. Not sure what “authorities” you’re concerned about or why it would matter.

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From Kim Swafford on April 29, 2020 :: 8:39 pm


I tried to create a facebook and it will not let me finish creating the account.  It is stuck on this page below and I cannot opt out or add a photo.  What do I need to do? 

Upload Your ID


To help us check that this account belongs to you, we need a photo of your official ID. This could be a driving licence, passport or other type of official identification. If there are any issues, we’ll send you an email.
When you submit a copy of your ID, we’ll keep it for more than 30 days, but no more than 1 year, unless you opt out. This helps us improve our automated systems for detecting fake IDs and related abuse. Your ID will not be visible on Facebook. Learn More.

 


Choose Photo

 

Continue

 

What IDs does Facebook accept?

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From Josh Kirschner on April 30, 2020 :: 10:11 am


Facebook has been increasing their security in response to many issues with scams and fake accounts being used to disseminate false information (e.g., Russian sock puppets). To help combat this, Facebook may ask people for ID if something flags as suspicious. It could be your name is very common or the same as a celebrity, or the country or IP address you’re using has a history of suspicious activity.

In any regard, these are the types of ID Facebook will accept to set up a new account or reclaim one to which you’ve lost access (you can read more on this Facebook Help page: https://www.facebook.com/help/159096464162185):

Group One
You can send Facebook one of the items from group one to confirm your name or get back into your account. Anything that you send Facebook should contain either your name and date of birth or your name and photo.
Birth certificate
Driver’s license
Passport
Marriage certificate
Official name change paperwork
Personal or vehicle insurance card
Non-driver’s government ID (ex: disability, SNAP card, national ID card, pension card)
Green card, residence permit or immigration papers
Tribal identification or status card
Voter ID card
Family certificate
Visa
National age card
Immigration registration card
Tax identification card

Group Two
If you don’t have anything from group one, you can send Facebook two different items from group two. Anything you send must include your name and at least one of the two documents should contain your date-of-birth and/or photo. The name on the items that you send should be the same name that you want to show on your profile.

If you’ve lost access to your account, you may be asked to provide something from the list that also shows a photo or date of birth that matches the details on your Facebook account.
Bank statement
Transit card
Check
Credit card
Employment verification
Library card
Mail
Magazine subscription stub
Medical record
Membership ID (ex: pension card, union membership, work ID, professional ID)
Paycheck stub
Permit
School ID card
School record
Social Security card
Utility bill
Yearbook photo (actual scan or photograph of the page in your yearbook)
Company loyalty card
Contract
Family registry
Diploma
Religious documents
Certificate of registration for accreditation or professional
Professional license card
Polling card
Health insurance
Address proof card
Social welfare card

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