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Does Facebook Delete Friends? (Explained)

Avatar photoBy Casper Feeney November 15, 2022

Apple iPhone 6S with facebook application

 

You’ve been going through your Facebook Friends list only to find out the number of your friends has decreased.

If you’re lucky enough, you can find who’s been deleted.

You may even notice a friend isn’t on your list when trying to reach out to them, but you were talking to them a week ago.

There’s no chance they have unfriended you.

Now, you may wonder if Facebook has removed your friend from the list.

 

Does Facebook Delete Friends?

Girl inside car holding smartphone with Facebook app on screen

 

Facebook doesn’t delete your friends unless you want to.

Facebook is a social media network that allows its users to perform any actions as long as they’re within their community standards.

The platform doesn’t dictate who you should follow or unfollow.

In addition, with the massive volume of users, Facebook can’t search accounts one by one and cut friends off their lists.

However, temporary glitches may lead to some users disappearing from your Friends list.

In such cases, your friend will be added to the list automatically after the glitch gets fixed.

Go to online forums and contact Facebook’s support team to make sure you’re not the only user having this issue.

If other users have also experienced the same issue, contact Facebook’s support team and wait until they fix the bug.

You should look for the cause elsewhere if it’s not a glitch.

 

You Deleted The Friend Unintentionally

woman get confused and frustrated of application shopping online Girl hold mobile phone

 

If you’re sure Facebook hasn’t deleted your friend due to a bug or error, you may have deleted them unintentionally.

For example, you may have been looking through your Friends list and accidentally deleted the friend, assuming they were another person.

There’s a low chance of accidentally unfriending a person on Facebook because you must confirm your action in several steps.

However, you may have deleted that friend unknowingly, mistaking their username for another friend.

In any case, you didn’t want to delete the friend, but they somehow made the unfriend list while you were decluttering your list.

 

They Unfriended You

man sitting on sofa holds cellphone read e-mail sms feels shocked

 

One of the most probable causes of not seeing a friend on your list is that they unfriended you.

Facebook doesn’t notify you when a friend removes you from their Friends list.

In addition, when someone unfriends you, they’ll disappear from your Friends list, too.

There’s no way of knowing for sure if someone has unfriended you except by asking them.

They could have used the Unfollow option to view your timeline or tag you in posts without deleting them from your Friends list.

You can ensure they’ve unfriended or unfollowed you by checking other social media platforms if you’re friends on other platforms.

If they’ve unfollowed you on other platforms, it’s a clear sign that they don’t want to interact with you or see any content from your pages.

In such cases, it’s up to you to send them a message and ask them why they’ve done so.

 

They Blocked You

African american guy squinting while using mobile phone

 

Blocking someone on Facebook does the same thing as unfriending them.

As a result, if your friend has blocked you, they disappear from your Friends list.

Although it may hurt your feelings if you think about your friend blocking you, you should consider it a possibility.

When someone blocks you, they’ll disappear from your Friends, and you can have no interactions with them.

For instance, if you have a mutual friend who posts something on their (the friend who’s blocked you) profile, you can’t see it.

 

Their Account Doesn’t Exist Anymore

Close up of a man using smartphone

 

Sometimes the problem isn’t even on your side.

You can’t find a person on your Facebook Friends list because something has happened to their account.

A person’s account on Facebook may become unavailable for different reasons.

They may deactivate their account to step away from social media or continue their activities on another account.

Regardless of the purpose, they can reactivate their account anytime they want.

However, you can’t see them among your friends until they reactivate their accounts.

When they return to Facebook, your account will be as they left it, and they’ll return to your Friends list.

You don’t need to send them a request again.

Deactivating a Facebook account differs from deleting it, which involves removing the account permanently.

They can’t reactivate their account and can only make a new account if they want to return to Facebook.

Finally, your friend’s account doesn’t exist because it was suspended.

If an account doesn’t follow Facebook’s community standards, posts harmful or illegal content, or even bullies someone in a private message, people will report it.

If the Facebook support team receives enough reports, it may decide to suspend the offender’s account.

Sometimes, the account owner doesn’t have anything to do with the suspension.

If Facebook detects suspicious login activity, it temporarily disables the account for security reasons.

Unsuspending the account takes several steps to show Facebook you’re the account owner.

 

Security Issues

Low angle view of upset african american woman in white shirt with phone

 

If your account is hacked or compromised in any way, you may see your Friends disappearing from the list.

That’s particularly the case if several accounts are missing and you’re sure you haven’t deleted them.

You may also notice other suspicious activities.

For example, you may see messages sent to your friends while you didn’t write them or notice changes in your account information like your birthday.

In such cases, you should first change your password and enable two-factor authentication.

You should also go to Facebook’s support page and answer some questions to help the platform secure your account.

Finally, you should consider other people accessing your Facebook account through your device.

It could be a family member trying to prank you or control your online activities by deciding who you should follow.

If you ascertain that’s the case, you can simply undo the changes made by another person and change your password.

In such cases, you should be careful not to give your password to anyone you don’t trust or give them access to devices where you’re logged into your social media accounts.

 

How To Tell Someone Unfriended You On Facebook

Hands hoding mobile with facebook screen in coffee shop

 

As you saw above, being unfriended is only one of the reasons you can’t see someone in your Friends list.

The other possibilities depend on the pattern of changes in your Friends list.

For example, if users keep disappearing and reappearing on your list, there’s a high chance that Facebook’s Friends algorithm is buggy.

You should also consider your recent activities.

Maybe you have hurt a group of friends by making annoying comments, leading to mass unfriending or blocking.

However, if one specific account is missing from your list, you should consider other possibilities.

If someone has unfriended you, you may still see their posts if they’re public.

The only way to know for sure is to ask them if they’ve unfriended you.

That’s a decision you should make according to how close you’re to the person, how important it is for you to know, and how socially acceptable it is for you.

You may also want to send them a friend request or wait until they send you the request.

 

How To Tell If Someone Blocked You

Young caucasian woman sitting on a chair thinking with phone

 

Blocking someone and deactivating one’s account have similar signs.

Therefore, it may be difficult to tell which one happened to your account.

In both cases, the account disappears from your Friends list and you can’t message them, tag them in your posts, or see their private posts.

First, you need to decide whether they’ve unfriended or blocked you.

You can use the Messenger app to search for them.

If they have blocked you, the user will appear in the search results, but you can’t click on their name to message them.

If you already have a conversation open, you’ll see the message, “This person isn’t available on Messenger.”

This message shows that they’ve probably blocked you.

However, you may also get this message if they have deactivated their Facebook account.

The best way to make sure they’ve blocked you is to search for them through a new account or ask a mutual friend to search their Facebook profile.

If they appear in the results, they’ve blocked you.

 

Does Facebook Delete Inactive Accounts?

Facebook

 

Now, you may wonder if your friend has been inactive for too long and Facebook deactivated their account, disappearing them from your Friends list.

However, does Facebook keep track of inactive accounts and delete them after a while?

According to Facebook, they may decide to delete your account if it’s been inactive for too long.

It’s part of their security measures to make sure nobody takes advantage of these inactive accounts.

They may also delete accounts that show unusual activity, indicating they’re hacked or compromised.

However, Facebook doesn’t state how long an account should be inactive for Facebook to delete it.

In addition, if you use your Facebook account on other platforms and services, they won’t consider it inactive.

Still, many users have reported that their accounts have been inactive for many years, but Facebook hasn’t deleted them.

In any case, even if Facebook deletes an account after being inactive, it may not apply to your friend who’s missing from your list.

That’s especially the case if you’re certain that they were on the list a short while ago.

An account has to be inactive for a long time (like several years) before Facebook decides to remove it.

 

Alternatives To Unfriending

man wearing hat looking at phone

 

If you don’t want to be friends with someone on Facebook, you can simply press the Unfriend button next to that specific account and confirm it.

However, many people worry that unfriending a person can lead to awkwardness in real life.

The good news is that the other person will never get notified when you unfriend them.

The only way to know is that they go through their Friends list carefully and detect the missing accounts, which is difficult if they have too many friends.

However, if you want to remain in the person’s Friends list but can’t handle their posts, you can simply snooze them.

This way, you don’t see their posts without them noticing you’ve snoozed them.

The catch is that you can only snooze them for 30 days.

The good thing about snoozing is that you can do it for pages, groups, or specific users.

To do so, open a post from the account you want to snooze.

Click the three horizontal dots in the top right corner and select Snooze.

You can always disable the snooze feature for each profile.

To do so, go to your Facebook profile and select Settings > Preferences > News Feed > Snooze.

The snooze feature is only for deciding whose posts you want to see on your timeline.

If you want to limit people from seeing and interacting with your posts, you can use multiple privacy settings to manage these interactions.

To use them, go to your Facebook Profile > Privacy and Settings > Audience and visibility > Profile and Tagging.

This feature allows you to decide who can post on your profile, which parts of your profile others can see, etc.

Filed Under: Social Media

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About Casper Feeney

I've always had a passion for everything related to technology and innovation. I have a bachelor's degree in Information technology, and I built my first PC when I was 12. I enjoy riding my bike, cooking, and reading business books.

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