How to Delete Your FB Account on Your Phone Step by Step

Step by step

1. 1

   Open the app and go to settings

   Launch Facebook and tap the menu icon, the three horizontal lines. On Android it's usually in the top right corner, on iPhone in the bottom right. Scroll down, choose Settings & privacy, then Settings.

2. 2

   Open Accounts Center

   At the top of the settings screen you'll find the Accounts Center section. Tap it and go to Personal details. This is where you manage your profile, password and account data. The entry names can differ slightly depending on the app version.

3. 3

   Go to Account ownership and control

   In Personal details choose Account ownership and control. At the bottom of the list is the Deactivation or deletion option. Tap it to move on to selecting the account.

4. 4

   Select the account to delete

   If you have more than one profile connected in the app, you'll see them here side by side. Select exactly the account you want to get rid of, so you don't delete the wrong one by mistake.

5. 5

   Choose Delete account

   Two paths appear: Deactivate account and Delete account. Deactivation only hides the profile, while deletion wipes it for good. Choose Delete account and continue.

6. 6

   Confirm with your password and wait out the 30 days

   Facebook will ask you to re-enter your password to make sure it's you. Once you confirm, a 30-day countdown starts, during which logging in again cancels the deletion. After that time the data is queued for removal, and fully purging it from backups can take up to 90 days.

Deactivation or deletion - which to choose

Deactivation is a pause. Your profile disappears from friends and search, but all your data, photos and messages stay on the servers. You come back any time by logging in again, and you can keep using Messenger.

Deletion is final. After the 30-day grace period Facebook wipes your profile, photos, posts and related data. If you just want a break from the app, pick deactivation. Reach for deletion only when you truly don't plan to return.

How to delete a second FB account

If you have two separate accounts and want to remove one, follow the same path as above, only in the account selection step pick that second profile. Each account is deleted separately.

It's a different story when the second account is merely saved in the app for quick switching. In that case, in the profile switcher (tap your photo or name) you'll find an option to remove the account from that phone. That logs the profile out of the device but doesn't delete the account itself.

What happens to your page and groups

If you run a Facebook page and you're its only admin, it will vanish together with your profile once the account is deleted. Before you delete the account, add another admin to the page or consciously decide that the page should go down with you.

The same goes for groups you manage. It's wise to hand the admin role to someone else beforehand, so the community isn't left unattended. Your old posts and comments usually remain, but without a link to an active profile.

How to remove a Gmail account from your phone

Disconnecting a Google account from your phone is not the same as deleting it. In the system settings go to Accounts (on a Samsung it's Accounts and backup), select the right Google account and tap Remove account. It disappears from that phone but continues to exist - you can sign in to it on another device.

If what you want is to permanently delete the mail or the whole Google account, that's an entirely different procedure. You do it on the Google account website, not in your phone's settings.

Frequently asked questions