How to Delete a Post on Facebook

Table of Contents Hide

How to Delete a Facebook Post from a Mobile App
How do you delete a Facebook post on a Computer?
Remove Yourself from Posts
How to Edit/Delete/Restore a Facebook Post on the Web
How to Hide Other People’s Facebook Posts
Making use of the “Only Me” Privacy Setting
How to Delete Facebook Posts in Bulk
How to Download Facebook Data
Related Articles
References

Most people have, at some point, regretted posting something on social media. But, regardless of why you want to delete a Facebook post — whether it’s inaccurate, embarrassing, unflattering, something you wouldn’t want an employer to see, or anything else — you can permanently delete a post you’ve made on Facebook with a single tap or click.

How to Delete a Facebook Post from a Mobile App

Launch the Facebook application.
Navigate to your timeline by tapping the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines in the bottom right corner) and then tapping your name at the top.
Locate the post you wish to delete and tap the three dots in the upper right corner.
Select “Delete.” Facebook will then ask you to confirm that you truly want to delete the post — tap “Delete Post” to confirm.

How do you delete a Facebook post on a Computer?

Open your web browser and navigate to Facebook.
Navigate to your timeline by clicking your name in the upper left corner of the window, just below Facebook’s search box.
Locate the post you wish to delete and click the three dots in the upper right corner.
Select “Move to the Recycle Bin.”
To confirm, click “Move” in the pop-up. All posts moved to the recycle bin will be deleted after three days. If you want the post to be removed immediately, you must also remove it from your recycle bin.
Click the downward-facing arrow in the top right corner of the Facebook window to access your recycle bin. Click “Settings & privacy,” then “Settings.”
On the main Settings page, in the left-hand menu, select “Your Facebook information” and then “Activity log.”
On the Activity log page’s left side, click “Recycle bin.”
Click the three-dot icon next to the post you want to completely delete, then select “Delete” from the dropdown menu.
In the pop-up, click “Delete” once more to confirm. Your post has now been removed from your timeline as well as your recycle bin.

Remove Yourself from Posts

You can’t delete something that someone else posts and tags you in, whether it’s a photo or a text post, because you didn’t create it. You can, however, remove your name from the post. To do so, click the down arrow next to the post, followed by “Remove Tag.” Remember that if the post mentions you or a photo includes your image, other people may be able to see it and recognize your name or image even if you aren’t tagged in it. If you want the post completely removed, contact the person who made it. You cannot delete someone else’s Facebook post.

You can report a post to Facebook if it is threatening, harassing, or otherwise appears to violate Facebook’s policies. To do so, go to the “…” menu and then select “Give Feedback.” You’ll be able to submit a brief form describing what’s wrong with the post and why it should be removed.

How to Edit/Delete/Restore a Facebook Post on the Web

Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the post you want to edit.
If you want to change something, click Edit post, make your changes, and then click Save.
If you want to delete it, click Move to Trash, and then click Move.

Please keep in mind that when you “delete” a post, you are actually moving it to the trash section, where it will be deleted after 30 days. Follow the steps below if you want to restore or delete it right away.

In the upper right corner, click on your personal icon.
Navigate to Settings & Privacy > Activity log.
Scroll down to and select Trash in the left-hand column.
Locate the post and check the box next to it. Restore it to your timeline by clicking Restore, or Delete to permanently delete it.
Click Restore or Delete in the resulting pop-up.

How to Hide Other People’s Facebook Posts

Of course, you can only delete posts that you have created; you cannot delete something that someone else has posted to Facebook.

If you don’t like a post in which you’ve been tagged or mentioned, you can ask the creator to edit or delete it. You also have the following options:

You can make it disappear from your timeline. This isn’t the same as deleting the post, and it may still appear in other people’s timelines, but you can prevent it from appearing in yours. To do so, tap or click the three dots in the upper right corner of the post and select “Hide from timeline.”

If you’ve been tagged in a post, you can untag yourself. This will prevent it from appearing in your timeline or in searches for posts containing your tag. To accomplish this, click or tap the three dots in the upper right corner of the post and select “Remove tag.”

Making use of the “Only Me” Privacy Setting

You can make a Facebook post that only you can see. You might do this if you’re using Facebook to save photos or notes to yourself that you don’t want to make public, or if you want to see how something looks on the Facebook site and apps before making it public.

Whatever the reason, you can select this option when creating a new post or updating the privacy settings on an existing one. If you’re making a new post, select an audience from the drop-down menu next to the “Post” button. The menu will display the last privacy option you used, which is usually “Friends” or “Public.”

If you select “Friends,” only your Facebook friends will be able to see the post. If you select “Public,” anyone can view it. Also, you can specify a custom list of people who can see the post, or select “Only Me,” which means only you can see it when you’re logged into your Facebook account.

You can still change the audience of a post after it has been created. You can use the audience selector next to the timestamp on the post in the same way you would when creating a post. Remember that if you restrict the audience of an existing post or even delete a Facebook post, people may have already seen it when it had the more permissive setting.

How to Delete Facebook Posts in Bulk

Some people’s timelines are clogged with hundreds of posts they want removed from their accounts. Finding and deleting each post becomes tedious and time-consuming in such situations.

Fortunately, Facebook has a Manage Your Activity option that allows you to review the posts and status updates you’ve shared on your timeline. You can easily go back and delete any posts you don’t want others to see.

To delete Facebook posts in bulk, follow these steps:

On your smartphone, launch the Facebook app.
In the top-right corner of your screen, tap the Hamburger menu icon.
Tap on your name to access your profile.
Select the three-dot icon.
Choose Activity Log from the available options.
Select Manage Activity from the menu.
Choose the option for Your Posts.
Select all of the posts you want to remove from your account. You can also select the All option to remove all posts from your timeline.
When finished, tap the Trash icon at the bottom of the screen.

The Manage Your Activity feature is not available on Facebook’s web version. You can only delete multiple posts using your phone’s app.

Facebook friends’ and followers’ tagged posts appear on your timeline as well. You can delete such posts by following the same steps outlined above. Removing unknown people from your friend list can also improve your Facebook timeline because fewer people will be able to tag you in their posts.

How to Download Facebook Data

You may want to download all of your Facebook data before deleting it.

Here’s how it’s done:

Step 1: Once the Facebook website has been opened, click the down arrow icon in the upper right corner.
Step 2: Navigate to Settings & Privacy > Settings.
Step 3: Select Your Facebook Information and then click View next to Download Your Information.
Step 4: On this page, you must first select a date range. Then select the files you want to download. Change the media quality and format as needed, then click the Create File button.
Step 5: Make a copy of your Facebook information. Once the file has been created, navigate to Available Copies and click Download to save a copy of your Facebook data.