How can I delete the whole conversation on Facebook from both sides once?

Quick Answer

There are a few ways to delete a Facebook conversation from both sides at once:

Delete the conversation from your account, which will also remove it from the other person’s account if they have messaging history enabled.
Ask the other person to delete the conversation from their account.

Use a third party app or service to delete conversations in bulk.

Deleting the Conversation from Your Account

The easiest way to delete a Facebook conversation from both sides is to simply delete it from your own account. Here’s how:

Go to your Facebook messages and open the conversation you want to delete.

Click on the three dots at the top right of the conversation.
Select “Delete Conversation…” from the dropdown menu.
Confirm that you want to delete the conversation.

Once you delete the conversation, it will also be deleted from the other person’s account, provided they have messaging history enabled.

Facebook’s messaging history setting allows you to control whether your past conversations are saved. It’s enabled by default. So if the person you were messaging has this turned on, deleting the conversation from your account will remove it from theirs too.

However, if they have disabled messaging history, then the conversation will only be deleted from your side after you delete it. It will remain in their account.

So in summary, if you want to definitely delete a conversation from both accounts, first check if the other person has messaging history enabled before deleting it. If they do, then deleting it from your account is all you need to do.

Asking the Other Person to Delete the Conversation

If you’re not sure whether the other person has messaging history enabled or not, the safest option is to ask them to also delete the conversation from their account.

Here’s how they can delete a Facebook conversation:

Go to their Facebook messages and open the conversation.
Click the three dots at the top right.
Select “Delete Conversation…”

Confirm that they want to delete the chat.

Once you’ve both deleted the conversation from your respective accounts, it will be completely erased from both sides.

One potential issue is that the other person may not want to delete the conversation. In that case, there’s not much you can do to force them to delete it from their account. But at least you can remove it from your side.

Using a Third Party App

If you need to delete multiple Facebook conversations in bulk, doing it manually can be time consuming. In this case, you may want to use a third party app or service to delete conversations more efficiently.

Some options include:

Social Book Post Manager – Chrome extension to delete Facebook posts and conversations in bulk.

Facebook Conversation Cleaner – Tool available for Chrome and Firefox to delete all conversations.
ChatMatic – Mobile app for iOS and Android to delete multiple Facebook chats at once.

The advantage of using these apps is that you can delete hundreds of conversations with just a few clicks. However, they will only delete the conversations from your account. The other person will still have them unless they also use the app and delete the chats.

So while third party apps can save you time, to ensure the conversations are deleted from both sides it’s best to also directly ask the other people involved to delete them from their accounts as well.

Does Deleting a Conversation Also Delete the Messages?

When you delete a Facebook conversation, whether from your account or someone else’s, it removes the entire chat history. This includes all messages, photos, videos, and any other content sent within that conversation.

However, there are a couple of things to note:

Deleted Facebook conversations may still appear in notification emails or chat logs stored externally.
If any media such as photos was sent within the chat, deleting the conversation does not delete those files if they were saved.
Messages may continue to exist on Facebook’s servers for some time even after being deleted.

So in summary – deleting a chat removes the conversation and messages from your account interface, but traces of it may continue to exist in other locations.

How to Prevent Deleted Conversations from Reappearing

In some cases, deleted Facebook conversations may spontaneously reappear in your message inbox even after being erased. This is due to a glitch and usually happens if the conversation was deleted from a mobile device.

To prevent deleted conversations from coming back, here are some tips:

Delete the conversation from desktop – Deleting chats from the desktop site seems to prevent them from reappearing compared to mobile.
Turn off chat history – If you disable the messaging history setting, erased chats are less likely to return.
Clear your message cache – On mobile, go to Settings > Apps > Facebook > Clear Cache to wipe any stored conversation data.

Log out and log back in – Logging out after deleting chats forces your account to re-sync and overwrite any cached conversation data.

Following these troubleshooting steps should help prevent that annoying issue of deleted conversations mysteriously reappearing in your Facebook message inbox.

Does the Other Person Get a Notification?

When you delete a Facebook conversation from your account, the other people in the chat do not receive any notification that you have done so.

The conversation will simply disappear from their messaging inbox just as it did yours. They will have no indication that you were the one who deleted it.

Even if they had previously enabled message notifications, they will not get a specific alert about you erasing the chat. The conversation will quietly vanish.

So you do not need to worry about the other person knowing you have deleted their conversation. There will be no obvious sign it was you who removed it.

However, if the person goes to look for a particular conversation and finds it missing, they may be able to deduce that you were the one who deleted it. But Facebook itself does not directly notify them of this.

Can You Recover a Deleted Facebook Conversation?

If you regret deleting a Facebook conversation, is it possible to recover it? Unfortunately, once a Facebook chat has been permanently erased, there is no built-in way to retrieve it.

Here are some recovery options and their limitations:

Message inbox – Deleted chats do not reappear in your inbox again unless there is a glitch.
Trash folder – Facebook does not have a trash folder to recover deleted conversations.
Backups – You cannot restore deleted chats from a Facebook backup.

Download your data – Erased chats do not appear when downloading your Facebook information.

So in summary, there is no official method to recover a deleted Facebook conversation from either your account or someone else’s. Once it’s gone, it’s likely gone forever.

Your only hope is if the other person still has the chat archived in their inbox. In that case, they could send it back to you. But otherwise, you cannot retrieve deleted message history on Facebook.

Does Facebook Actually Erase Deleted Conversations?

When you delete a Facebook conversation, it disappears from your account instantly. But is it actually erased from Facebook’s servers?

In reality, Facebook likely retains deleted conversations for some time period – possibly up to 90 days. Reasons include:

Data backup – To recover data in case of disasters.

Legal requirements – To comply with data retention laws.
Forensic investigations – If required by authorities in cases of illegal content.

However, standard users won’t be able to access conversations once deleted. The copies on Facebook’s servers are purely for internal reasons.

So for most purposes, a deleted Facebook chat becomes permanently inaccessible. But the data might continue existing in Facebook’s backups and archives temporarily before being purged.

How Do I Avoid This Situation in the Future?

To avoid having to delete an entire Facebook conversation again in the future, here are some tips:

Be cautious what you share – Don’t send content you may later regret.

Rotate conversations – Start a new chat thread instead of extending one indefinitely.
Export conversations – Use a third party app to regularly back up your chat history.
Turn off messaging – You can disable your Facebook messaging capability entirely.

Unfriend the person – Removing them as a friend will delete your message history together.

Using caution about what you share in message and managing your ongoing conversations can prevent having to mass delete chats. You have full control over your Facebook activity, so be wise about what conversations you engage in.

Conclusion

Deleting a Facebook conversation completely is tricky because it involves both your account and the other person’s account. The safest approach is to delete it from your side, ask the other people to delete it from theirs, and use a third party app if you need to mass delete chats.

While Facebook itself does not have a conversation recovery feature, traces of deleted chats may continue existing in their server backups temporarily. In most cases though, erased conversations will be permanently gone.

By being careful about your messaging activity upfront, you can avoid having to delete entire chat histories down the road. Think twice before sharing something you wouldn’t want permanently associated with your account.

Summary

Here are some key points to remember about deleting Facebook conversations completely:

Delete it from your account then ask others to delete it from theirs
Use a third party app to bulk delete multiple conversations
Turn off chat history to prevent deletions from reappearing

Deleted chats cannot be recovered via Facebook’s native tools
Avoid regretful conversations by thinking carefully before messaging
Facebook likely retains deleted chats temporarily before permanent erasure

Deleting Facebook messages is irreversible, so proceed with caution when erasing entire conversations. Following these tips will ensure you can remove a chat history completely when required.