How To Permanently Delete All Your Facebook And Meta-Owned Accounts

Even after you've pressed the final "delete" button, Facebook notes that it can take up to 30 days for your data to be completely erased. That also means you can cancel the request if you change your mind within 30 days.

How To Permanently Delete All Your Facebook And Meta-Owned Accounts - RAVZGADGET
How To Permanently Delete All Your Facebook And Meta-Owned Accounts.
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It’s never easy to close a social media account that you’ve had for years. Many of us have accounts that are filled with years of photos, memories, and memes that are difficult to let go of, even if we are ready to give up the daily scrolling habit.

Similarly, deleting an account from Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta-run services isn’t always simple. And, despite the fact that all of the services are run by the same company, there is no centralized way to delete all of your Meta-related accounts.

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The good news is that removing these accounts is often much easier than in the past, albeit with a few extra steps in some cases. Continue reading to learn how to delete your Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Oculus accounts.

First, download your data

Regardless of your reasons for wanting to leave your accounts behind, it’s worth it to take the time to download all your data before you delete them for good. Downloading your data will ensure you have a record of your prior posts, messages, photos and other activity.

These data archives look a little different for each service, but in general they contain your previous posts, a record of what accounts you follow, your messages and even some of your past activity on the services. Some, like Facebook, will even provide a record of what the site’s advertisers know about you.

In other words: it’s a lot of data. And it may not seem like a lot of that is worth hanging onto, but if you’ve used an account for years it’s a good way to preserve a record of your past photos, videos and other posts. (Though you should also be prepared for it to surface some data you might not want to remember, like conversations with former partners or cringey college photos.)

On Facebook, you can access your archive from: Settings & Privacy -> Settings -> Your Facebook Information -> download your information -> request download.

On Instagram, it’s More -> Settings -> Privacy and Security -> Data download -> Request download.

On WhatsApp, it’s Settings -> Account -> Request account info. (Of note, WhatsApp’s reports don’t include the content of your actual messages. If you want to preserve a copy of your messages, you’ll need to export your chat history on each message thread you wish to hang onto.

On Messenger, downloads have to be initiated through the mobile app. On both Android and iOS, go to Account Settings (located in the “chats” tab) -> Your Facebook Information -> Download your information. You’ll then be able to specify a few aspects of the data, like the media quality, data format and date range you want the download to cover.

For Oculus and Meta Quest users, you can use the “download your information” tool linked here.

Once you have your data archives stashed away, you’ll be ready to permanently nuke your accounts. Though, like the data downloads, it can take up to several days for the process to be complete.

How to delete Facebook

How To Permanently Delete All Your Facebook And Meta-Owned Accounts - RAVZGADGET
Facebook

Before you permanently delete Facebook, a word of caution: nuking your account will also nuke third-party accounts where you’ve also used Facebook to log-in. In some cases, you might be able to recover them via the app’s support channels, but there’s no guarantee. Follow the steps here to review which apps and websites you use Facebook as a log in.

Likewise, if your Oculus account is linked to your Facebook identity, then deleting your Facebook will also permanently delete your Oculus account, including your past purchases. (Of note, Meta now allows VR users to create a separate “Meta account” that doesn’t rely on Facebook.)

Once you’re sure you’re ready to delete, you can find the option from Settings & Privacy -> Settings -> Your Facebook Information -> Deactivation and Deletion -> Delete Account -> Continue to account deletion -> Delete Account

Even after you’ve pressed the final “delete” button, Facebook notes that it can take up to 30 days for your data to be completely erased. That also means you can cancel the request if you change your mind within 30 days.

According to the company, the deletion process can take up to 90 days to complete, though your profile and other information will not be visible to others on Facebook during that time.

How to delete Instagram

How To Permanently Delete All Your Facebook And Meta-Owned Accounts - RAVZGADGET
Instagram app.

How to delete Facebook Mengersse

If you delete a Facebook account, your Messenger account will be permanently deleted as well, so you don’t need to take any additional steps if you’ve already cleaned up your Facebook presence. However, simply deactivating your Facebook account will not affect your ability to use Messenger or other users’ ability to find you on the app.

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However, if you use Messenger without a Facebook account, you can delete your account through the app. Both on iOS and Android: Enter your password in Account Settings -> Delete Your Account and Information.

How to delete WhatsApp

WhatsApp accounts can be deleted directly from the app via Settings -> Account -> Delete My Account. The app will then prompt you to enter your phone number. As with facebook and Instagram, the company says the full deletion process can take up to 90 days.

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