Does Facebook Delete Inactive Accounts? (2023 Updated)

Facebook is a useful platform for connecting with friends, doing business, and learning about interesting topics.

It’s one of the largest social networking platforms among all generations.

However, its usage varies from user to user, and some people use Facebook less frequently than others.

Having a Facebook account can sometimes be distracting and time-consuming, so some users might decide to minimize their use.

Does Facebook delete your account if you want to take a break from it or limit your time on it?

In this article, we’ll discuss whether Facebook deletes or deactivates inactive accounts.

We’ll also discuss why Facebook may delete or disable an account and what you can do about it.

Finally, we’ll help you temporarily deactivate or permanently delete your account and discuss how you can reactivate and recover it.

Does Facebook Delete Inactive Accounts?

No, Facebook doesn’t delete or disable accounts just because they’re inactive.

If you want to delete your account, you should do it yourself.

Your Facebook account will stay active no matter how long you don’t log in.

Even when people die, their family members should provide proof to convince the company to delete their account.

If you stop using your account for years and then come back to log in, Facebook might ask you to upload your ID to prove you own that account.

Although Facebook doesn’t delete your account for inactivity, it might disable it for other reasons, such as violating its policies.

Facebook’s terms of service outline some clear limitations for users.

For example, you can’t open an account for someone else or have more than one personal account.

If the company finds out you’ve violated their rules, they might disable your account with or without the possibility of recovering it, depending on the violation.

According to their website, if you don’t confirm your email address or phone number when you first create your account and don’t use your account at all for a year, Facebook may delete or disable it.

Also, if Facebook notices unusual activity on your account, it might lock it to prevent it from being hacked or used for harmful conduct.

You can take steps to unlock your account, but if you don’t unlock it within a year, it might get deleted.

You can deactivate your Facebook account if you want to take a long break and don’t want people to contact you while you’re away or fear they’ll unfriend you.

Deactivating hides your information on Facebook, but you can recover it anytime.

If you don’t plan on using the platform anymore and want to protect your data, you can completely delete your account.

Even if you delete your account, Facebook will keep your data for 30 days.

If you’ve forgotten your password and hope that your account will simply get deleted, you should know it won’t happen.

One way to delete an old Facebook account is to create a new account and report the old one.

Does Facebook Deactivate Inactive Accounts?

Facebook doesn’t deactivate your account because it’s inactive.

However, if your account is inactive for a long period, Facebook might consider it spam or fake and disable it.

Facebook looks at several signals to see whether your account is active, including whether you’ve recently logged in, posted, added friends, or followed pages.

Logging into another service using your Facebook account can also make your account active.

To deactivate your account:

Navigate to the Account Menu on the top right of the Facebook page.
Click on Settings.
Select Security from the left sidebar.
Choose Deactivate.

You’ll be prompted to confirm your decision.

Note: Facebook might throw a few other hurdles to dissuade you from deactivating your account because they prefer to keep every user on their platform as much as possible.

Why Would Facebook Delete An Account?

According to its website, Facebook removes hacked, unused, and unconfirmed accounts to protect the privacy of its users, secure their accounts, and reduce the amount of potential abuse on the platform.

Your account may be deleted or disabled if it seems compromised and Facebook staff can’t confirm ownership of the account after a year.

Also, Facebook may delete or disable your account if you don’t confirm your email address or phone number when you create your account and stay inactive for a year after creation.

Facebook does this to protect your account against being hacked or taken over.

Although Facebook doesn’t delete or deactivate inactive accounts, it’ll disable your account if you violate its policies.

Some examples include:

Posting content that doesn’t follow Facebook’s terms and conditions.
Sending too many messages.
Using a fake name.
Impersonating someone.
Poking too many people.
Behavior that’s not allowed on Facebook and goes against their Community Standards.
Joining too many groups.
Contacting other people for harassment, advertising, promoting, or other conduct that’s not allowed.

If you have a friend or family member who is mentally or physically unable to maintain their account, you can report them to Facebook.

If the information you provide is convincing, Facebook will delete their account.

If their condition is reversible, Facebook will deactivate their account so that they can come back after recovery.

However, the company doesn’t consider someone who is in prison or rehab to be incapacitated.

Also, if your friend has passed away, you can report their account to be memorialized so that no one can log in to it.

How Can You Recover Your Disabled Facebook Account?

If Facebook has disabled your account by mistake, you have to submit a report to them using the email or phone number associated with your account.

You need access to this email or phone number as Facebook will use it to contact you.

You’ll have to enter your full name and upload a picture of your ID.

There’s an Additional Info field near the end of the page that you can use to explain anything you think Facebook should know to recover your account.

They’ll usually reply soon, depending on how many submissions they’ve received and what day of the week it is.

If Facebook asks for additional documentation, you’ll have 30 days from when they send the email to provide the required documents.

Otherwise, your account will be permanently disabled.

If you didn’t violate their terms of service and they’ve made a mistake, they’ll restore your account and send an apology message.

Facebook doesn’t release information about an account to anyone other than the account holder and doesn’t take action on appeals sent on behalf of others.

If the company disables your account, you’ll see a message that your account has been disabled when you try to log in.

However, if you don’t get this message, you might have other login problems.

You can learn how to fix your login problems from this link.

Also, if you feel your account has been hacked, you can visit the hacked accounts section of the help center and begin securing your account from here.

How Can You Temporarily Deactivate Your Facebook Account?

If you don’t plan on using your Facebook account for a long period, you can temporarily deactivate it and come back whenever you want.

To deactivate your Facebook account, you should follow these steps:

Open the Menu.
Navigate to Settings & Privacy > Settings.
Select Your Facebook Information from the left sidebar.
Click Deactivation and Deletion.
Now, click Deactivate Account, then hit “Continue to Account Deactivation” and follow the instructions to confirm.

When you deactivate your account, you’ll get a confirmation message on your screen saying, “You have successfully deactivated your account.”

If you’re unsure whether your account is deactivated, you can type facebook.com/yourusername in your browser’s address bar, and if your profile shows up, your account is still active.

There’s no limit on the number of times you can deactivate and reactivate your Facebook account.

What Happens If You Deactivate Your Facebook Account?

No one else can view your profile, but some information like messages you sent to friends may remain visible.
Your timeline will get hidden, and you’ll no longer appear in search results.
Your name may still be visible to your friends on their friend list.
You won’t be able to access Oculus products or your Oculus information through your Facebook account.
The posts and comments you shared in groups may remain visible to group admins.
Pages that only you control will be deactivated, too. If you don’t want to deactivate your Page, you can give its full control to someone else.

When you deactivate your account, Messenger will remain active if you’re logged in.

In that case:

Other people can find you through search and send you a message.
You can still send messages to friends on Messenger.
Your Facebook profile picture will remain visible in your Messenger conversations.

Visit this page to learn how to deactivate Messenger.

Will You Lose Your Data If You Deactivate Your Facebook Account?

When you deactivate your Facebook account, you won’t lose any of your data on the platform.

Your information gets hidden, and no one can contact you on the platform or view things you’ve shared, including your timeline, photos, and status updates.

Also, your friends can’t tag you or post on your wall while your account is deactivated.

However, all your information will come back as soon as you reactivate your account.

Facebook doesn’t remove old account information after any set time, so you can keep your account deactivated as long as you want.

How Can You Reactivate Your Facebook Account?

There are two ways to reactivate your Facebook account:

Logging in again.
Using your Facebook account to log in to another service or application.

You’ll need access to the email or phone number connected to your account.

If you have trouble accessing your email or phone number, you can use an alternate email or phone number listed on your account.

If you don’t know what alternate information you have, use a device you’ve previously used to log in to your account, go to facebook.com/login/identify, and follow the instructions.

You can also contact your email service provider to recover your email account.

If you’ve forgotten your password, you can request a new one.

You can visit this page for solutions if you have trouble logging into your account.

If you see your Facebook account has been reactivated against your will, someone else might have logged into your account.

Also, if you connect third-party apps to your Facebook account and log in to them, your account might be automatically reactivated.

How Long Can You Leave Your Facebook Account Deactivated Before It’s Deleted?

Facebook saves all data for deactivated accounts and doesn’t remove your account information after any set period.

This means that you can leave your Facebook account deactivated for as long as you want and activate it whenever you desire.

Once you log in to your account and reactivate it again, you can access all the content you added to your Facebook account before deactivating, including your posts, photos, and friends list.

The company says there’s no limit on how long you can keep your account deactivated.

Still, if you want to make the separation permanent, you can delete your account.

How Can You Permanently Delete Your Account?

To permanently delete your account:

Open the Menu.
Navigate to Settings & Privacy > Settings.
Select Your Facebook Information from the left sidebar.
Click Deactivation and Deletion.
Click ‘Delete Account, then hit Continue to Account Deletion.

After permanently deleting your account, you won’t be able to retrieve anything.

Therefore, you may want to download your information from Facebook before deleting your account.

What Happens If You Permanently Delete Your Facebook Account?

If you delete your account permanently, everything you’ve added to your account, including your posts, photos, and videos, will be deleted forever.

There are also a few other consequences:

You can’t use Facebook Login for other apps like Pinterest or Spotify that you may have signed up for with your Facebook account. You may need to contact them to recover those accounts.
Messages you’ve sent to your friends may still be visible to them.
Pages that only you control will be deleted. If you want to keep the Page, you should give someone else full control of the Page before deleting your account.
You can no longer use Facebook Messenger.
If you use your Facebook account for Oculus, you’ll lose all your Oculus information after deleting your Facebook account.