Facebook’s search suggestions feature can provide useful recommendations as you type queries into the Facebook search bar. However, some users may find certain suggestions undesirable or want to remove specific searches from their history for privacy reasons. So can you delete Facebook search suggestions?
The short answer is yes, it is possible to delete individual searches from your Facebook search history as well as clear your full search suggestions list. However, the process is not straightforward and involves navigating Facebook’s privacy settings.
In this article, we’ll explain how Facebook’s search suggestions work, why you may want to delete suggestions, and walk through the steps to clear your Facebook search history on both desktop and mobile.
How Facebook’s Search Suggestions Work
When you start typing a query into Facebook’s search bar, you’ll notice search predictions pop up below. These are search suggestions generated automatically based on:
- Past searches you’ve made on Facebook
- Trending/common searches made by others on Facebook
- Information on your Facebook profile and connections
The predictive suggestions are meant to save time and effort when searching. For example, if you start typing a friend’s name, their name and profile should appear as a top suggestion. Or if you previously searched for “cake recipes,” you may see that query auto-fill again as a suggestion.
Facebook personalizes the suggestions based on your search history and profile. However, some users may not always want suggestions for sensitive searches to keep appearing. Others want certain past searches removed from their history entirely for privacy.
In these cases, you can take steps to delete individual suggestions or clear your full search history.
Reasons to Delete Facebook Search Suggestions
Here are some common reasons you may want to delete specific searches from your Facebook search suggestions or history:
Remove Sensitive Searches
You may have searched for something sensitive that you don’t want constantly recommended in the future. This could include searches related to health conditions, relationship issues, confidential topics, and more. Deleting one-off sensitive searches means they won’t auto-fill again as a suggestion later on.
Clear Old Irrelevant Searches
Over time, your Facebook search history may fill up with queries that are no longer relevant. Your interests, connections, and search habits likely change over months and years on Facebook. So clearing your full search history gives you a fresh start with new suggestions tailored to your current needs and profile.
Privacy Concerns
Some users simply feel uncomfortable with Facebook tracking searches they’ve made for privacy reasons. You may not want certain past search terms associated with your profile or appearing in suggestions. Deleting searches provides more control over what Facebook remembers about your activity.
Remove Search Results for Someone
If you’ve searched for a specific person on Facebook, their name and profile will inevitably show up as a recommended search in the future. Some users want to permanently remove searches they’ve made for ex-partners, former friends or colleagues, and other connections.
Delete Searches for Sensitive Health Topics
You may have searched Facebook for sensitive health conditions or terms that you don’t necessarily want associated with your account forever after a one-time search. Clearing these embarrassing or private searches from your history ensures you don’t see suggestions related to them in the future.
How to Delete Individual Facebook Searches
You can delete individual terms from your Facebook search history using Facebook’s “Off-Facebook Activity” tool. Here’s how to do it:
On Desktop
- Go to the Facebook menu in the top right and click “Settings & Privacy.”
- Go to the “Settings” menu at the bottom and click “Your Facebook Information.”
- Select “Off-Facebook Activity.”
- This will show you a list of apps, websites and searches associated with your account.
- Find the “Searches” section and click “View and Manage Searches.”
- You’ll see a list of past searches. Hover over any search term and click “Remove” to delete it.
This removes the individual search from your history so it no longer appears as a suggestion.
On Mobile
- Tap the three-line “hamburger” menu icon in the Facebook app.
- Go to “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings” > “Your Facebook Information.”
- Tap “Off-Facebook Activity.”
- Tap “Searches.”
- Swipe left on any search term and tap “Remove” to delete it.
The search will be immediately deleted from your history.
How to Clear Your Full Facebook Search History
If you want to wipe your Facebook search history completely clean, you can clear your full list of search suggestions:
On Desktop
- Go to the Facebook menu in the top right and click “Settings & Privacy.”
- Go to the “Settings” menu at the bottom and click “Your Facebook Information.”
- Select “Off-Facebook Activity.”
- Click the three dots beside “Searches” and choose “Clear History.”
- Confirm you want to clear your full search history.
This will delete your entire search history and reset any suggestions.
On Mobile
- Tap the three-line “hamburger” menu icon in the Facebook app.
- Go to “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings” > “Your Facebook Information.”
- Tap “Off-Facebook Activity.”
- Tap the three dots beside “Searches” and select “Clear History.”
- Confirm you want to delete your full search history.
Once your search history is cleared out, your search suggestions will be reset based on your profile and new searches moving forward.
Limitations
Clearing your Facebook search history has a few limitations to be aware of:
- It only deletes search terms, not the results you visited from searches. Pages and posts you previously viewed may still appear in suggestions.
- Searches can take up to 48 hours to disappear after deleting them.
- Any searches you make in the future will begin populating your history again with new suggestions.
So deleting your search history provides more privacy but doesn’t completely prevent relevant pages from appearing as occasional suggestions if you’ve engaged with them previously.
How to Prevent Future Tracking of Searches
If you want to stop Facebook from tracking and saving your searches long-term:
- Consider using Facebook in an incognito or private browsing window, where searches are not tracked after you close it.
- Install a third party browser extension like DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials to block tracking cookies on Facebook.
- Adjust your Facebook ad preferences to limit how past searches are used to personalize ads you see.
You can also provide Anonymous or limited data usage when logging into Facebook on mobile devices. This prevents some profile data being used for personalized suggestions.
However, ultimately the only way to stop search tracking entirely is to delete your Facebook account.
Conclusion
While it takes a few steps, you can delete individual Facebook searches or clear your full search history using the “Off-Facebook Activity” tool. This provides more control over the personalized suggestions that appear as you search.
Clearing your search history can help remove sensitive queries, irrelevant old searches, and improve privacy around search tracking. Just keep in mind a few limitations, like searches taking time to disappear and viewing history not being erased.
Managing your Facebook search suggestions is one way to balance the convenience of personalized results with privacy around your account activity and data.