If you’ve posted a video to Facebook that you later decide you want to remove, it’s easy to delete it from your profile. Here are the steps to remove a video you’ve shared on Facebook:
Why Would You Want to Remove a Facebook Video?
There are a few common reasons you may want to delete a video you’ve posted on Facebook:
- You’ve changed your mind and no longer want the video public
- The video contains personal or private content you don’t want shared anymore
- You posted the video by mistake and meant to share something else
- The video is embarrassing or contains a mistake you want to remove
- The video includes content you don’t have rights or permission to share
- The video shows something you want to keep off your profile for professional reasons
Whatever the reason, removing a video from Facebook is easy to do.
How to Remove a Video from Facebook
Here are step-by-step instructions for deleting a video you’ve posted on Facebook:
- Go to your profile page and click on the “Photos” link in the left sidebar.
- This will open your photos page. Click on the “Albums” link at the top of the page.
- Scroll through your albums until you find the video you want to remove. Click on the album title to open it.
- Locate the video in your album and hover your mouse over it. Click on the “Options” button (the three dots icon) in the top right.
- A dropdown menu will appear. Select “Delete Video” and confirm by clicking “OK” when prompted.
The video will be immediately removed from your Facebook profile. However, there are a few additional things to keep in mind:
- If you only delete the video from your profile, it may still exist in other places where it was shared, like on friends’ pages or in Facebook groups.
- The video file will still be on Facebook’s servers for a short period of time. It can take up to 48 hours for a deleted video to be permanently removed from Facebook’s systems.
- If the video was set to public, other users may have shared or downloaded the video before you deleted it. It’s impossible to delete copies that exist off of your profile.
How to Delete a Video You’re Tagged In
What if someone else has tagged you in a Facebook video you want removed? You can delete videos you’re tagged in too:
- Go to your profile and click “Photos” in the left sidebar.
- Click on the “Photos of You” album.
- Find the video you want to remove and click on it to open the post.
- Hover over the video and click the “Options” button.
- Select “Report Post” from the dropdown menu.
- Choose “I don’t like this post” as the reason for reporting.
- Confirm by clicking “Report Post”.
This will remove the video from your profile. However, it will still exist on the profile of the person who originally shared it. If you want the video deleted entirely, you’ll need to ask the poster to remove it from their profile as well.
How to Delete a Video You Shared From Someone Else
Similarly, if you’ve shared or reposted a video from someone else, you can delete your shared copy of it:
- Go to your profile and click “Photos”.
- Click the “Albums” link and find the video in your timeline or profile album.
- Hover over the video and click “Options”.
- Choose “Remove Tag” to untag yourself.
- Click “Delete Post” to remove your shared post containing the video.
The original video will still exist on the other person’s profile. This will only delete your shared copy that appeared on your own timeline.
How to Delete a Video You Posted on a Facebook Page
If you’ve posted a video to a Facebook Page as a Page admin, you can remove it:
- Go to the Page where you posted the video and click “Photos” in the left menu.
- Click “Albums” and find the video in the Page’s album.
- Hover over the video and click the “Options” (three dots) button.
- Select “Delete Photo/Video” and confirm.
The video will be deleted from the Page immediately. However, just like with profile videos, copies could still exist if other people shared the post.
How to Remove a Video You Posted in a Facebook Group
To remove a video you’ve shared in a Facebook Group:
- Go to the group and select “Photos” in the left sidebar.
- Click “Your Photos” to view your posts.
- Find the video and click the three dots button beside it.
- Choose “Delete Photo/Video” to remove it.
This will delete the video from the group’s albums. But if group members shared your video before you deleted it, those shared copies could still exist.
How to Delete a Video Shared Via Facebook Messenger
If you sent a video privately via Facebook Messenger that you now want to delete:
- Open the Messenger conversation where you shared the video.
- Tap and hold the video thumbnail to select it.
- Tap the trash can icon to delete the video message.
This will remove the video from the Messenger thread. However, if the recipient saved or screenshotted the video, you can’t delete those copies.
Does Deleting a Facebook Video Also Delete Comments?
When you delete a video you posted on Facebook, the comments left on that video will also be removed. However, your friends and followers won’t get notifications that their comments were deleted.
If you posted the video in a group or on a page, the admin of that group/page can choose whether comments are also removed when deleting videos.
Can You Recover a Deleted Facebook Video?
Once you permanently delete a video from Facebook, there is no built-in way to recover it. However, here are some ways you may be able to get a deleted video back:
- If you downloaded the video before deleting it, you still have your saved copy.
- If someone else shared or saved the video, ask them for a copy.
- Check your browser history and any cached copies of the video post page.
- Use a third party tool designed to recover deleted Facebook data.
But keep in mind, if the video has been deleted from Facebook’s servers, there’s no guarantee you can get it back.
Mistakes to Avoid When Deleting Facebook Videos
To avoid unintended consequences when removing Facebook videos, keep these mistakes in mind:
- Accidentally deleting the wrong video: Double check you are deleting the intended video before confirming.
- Forgetting to remove tags: Don’t just delete the video without also removing any tags of people in it.
- Assuming it will delete all copies: Remember, shared versions could still exist even after you delete yours.
- Deleting from the wrong place: Make sure to delete videos directly from the albums where they are posted.
- Deleting posts, not videos: Deleting the post won’t remove the video file itself from Facebook’s servers.
Do Deleted Facebook Videos Impact Your Account?
In most cases, deleting one or two videos from your Facebook profile won’t have any negative effects on your account. However, if you repeatedly post and delete videos, it could seem suspicious and prompt Facebook to investigate your activity.
Possible account impacts of deleting multiple Facebook videos include:
- Being banned from posting new videos for a period of time.
- Having your posts and videos go through approval before being visible.
- Deactivation of your account if deleting content is seen as abusive behavior.
As long as you periodically delete an old video that no longer makes sense to keep public, it likely won’t attract any attention from Facebook moderators.
Can Someone Else See If You Delete a Facebook Video?
When you delete a video from your profile, page, group or feed, other users won’t get any notification that you’ve removed content.
However, people who try to access a deleted video may see an error message that the content is no longer available. And if they had commented on the video, they will notice their comments disappeared along with the deleted video.
Should You Download Your Videos Before Deleting From Facebook?
It’s generally a smart idea to download or back up your videos before removing them from Facebook. This ensures you have a saved copy if you ever want or need to access the video again in the future.
Reasons to download your Facebook videos before deleting include:
- You may change your mind later about wanting to keep the video.
- You’ll have the video if your account is ever deactivated.
- It protects against accidental or unauthorized deletion.
- You’ll still have a copy if Facebook’s servers fail.
- It archives memories and events you want to preserve.
Facebook provides an option to download all your data, including videos, before deleting your account. You can also use third party tools to save copies of videos.
What Happens When You Delete a Video on Facebook?
Here’s a quick summary of what happens when you delete a video on Facebook:
- The video will be immediately removed from your profile, page or group where it was posted.
- Comments on the video will also be deleted.
- It can take up to 48 hours for the video file itself to be deleted from Facebook’s servers.
- Any shared instances of the video will not be deleted and may still exist.
- You will not be notified if other users save, screenshot or re-share your video before you delete it.
- Once removed, there is no way to recover a deleted Facebook video.
Conclusion
Deleting videos you’ve posted on Facebook is straightforward – simply delete them from your albums like any other photo or post. Just keep in mind that other shared versions and downloaded copies may continue to exist even after you remove your original video. So deleting Facebook videos is not a perfect solution if privacy is your main concern. But when you just need to remove a video from your own profile, it only takes a couple clicks to take it down.