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Deleting vs Deactivating your Facebook account: Which one should you do?

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So you’ve decided to quit Facebook, more power to you. Now, you can go about this in either of two ways — you can delete your account or deactivate it. They may sound similar, but they are very different. Deleting your account is for those who want to get out of Facebook’s servers permanently. Deactivating, on the other hand, is for those who wish to take a break from the site. You can return to reactivate and restore your profile whenever you choose.

Think of it as an archiving system which will archive your data for future use. Deactivating makes your profile invisible to users, so you don’t have to worry about people snooping in on your profile while you’re away.

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How to Deactivate your Facebook account?

Now, disabling your account is a relatively straight forward process. Go to Settings> General account settings.

Deleting vs Deactivating your Facebook account: Which one should you?

Manage account subsection> and click ‘Edit’.

Go to Settings> General account settings.

You will be prompted for your account password. Once entered you’re done with the deactivation process and will be logged out of your account. You can re-activate it by just logging into your account again.

Go to Settings> General account settings.Also read: How to check the OS version in Linux?

How to Delete your Facebook account?

The deletion process takes around 90 days to complete, but your profile will become inactive once you initiate the process. This process is irreversible, and you will lose all your data. We strongly recommend using the backup feature to back up your data to avoid losing it forever.

To delete your Facebook, go to Settings> Your account information and select the ‘View’ option next to the Delete your account and information section.

Go to Settings> General account settings.You will be given the opportunity to download your data and a choice to either delete or leave out the messenger service (you can still use it without your main Facebook account) before you move on.To delete your Facebook go to Settings> Your account information and select the "View" option next to the Delete your account and information section.

What happens post-deactivation or deletion of your account?

In any case, whatever you decide to do your profile will become invisible. Meaning your profile will not turn up in search results, those who have you on their friend’s list would only see your name and clicking on it would result in a prompt being displayed stating that your profile is unavailable.

Your comments and tags on photos remain in plain text which will stay non-interactable if you choose the deactivation route.

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How to check if someone has deactivated Facebook?

How to block someone on Facebook via PC, Android and iOSIf you feel that someone is inactive, look up their profile with the help of the search bar. If it does and you can’t access it — hate to break it to you, but they’ve probably blocked your account.

But If they don’t come up in the search result but do show up in your friends list it’s because they’ve deactivated their account. If they don’t show up anywhere you can be sure they’ve deleted their account.

In all honesty with all the scandals involving Facebook recently, we don’t blame you if you choose to delete your Facebook account. But you do have to bear in mind that you are losing out on a platform to keep in touch with your friends and family. If all you need is a detox from Facebook, deactivate it till you wish to return. But if you want out, deleting is the way to go.

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Mani Maaran

Mani Maaran

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