Facebook requires users to confirm their accounts for security purposes and to prevent fake accounts. If you don’t confirm your Facebook account within a certain period of time, usually around 14 days, your account will be disabled. Here’s a more detailed look at what happens if you don’t confirm your Facebook account and why account confirmation is required.
Why Facebook Requires Account Confirmation
When you first sign up for a Facebook account, you need to confirm your account through an email or text confirmation code. This confirmation process serves a few key purposes:
- Verifies the email address or phone number provided is valid and owned by the user signing up for the account.
- Ensures a real person with a legitimate identity is creating the account, not a bot or fake identity.
- Helps prevent duplicate or fraudulent accounts by requiring the account creator to have access to the provided email/phone number.
- Adds an extra layer of security to the account creation process beyond just creating a password.
In other words, requiring new users to complete email/text confirmation helps Facebook fight spam, fake accounts, bots, scammers and other bad actors on its platform. It ensures each account is linked to a real identity that Facebook can contact if needed. This improves the overall security and integrity of the Facebook community.
What Happens if You Don’t Confirm Your New Facebook Account
If you don’t complete Facebook’s email or text confirmation process within a certain number of days after creating your account, usually around 14 days, your unconfirmed account will be disabled by Facebook.
This means you will be logged out of the account and unable to access it again until you complete the confirmation process. The account essentially goes dormant but is not deleted.
When your unconfirmed account is disabled, you may see a message from Facebook stating something like “Your account was disabled. To enable your account, please confirm your email.”
You will then need to access the confirmation email or text Facebook sent when you first created the account and follow the instructions to confirm your account. In some cases, Facebook may allow you to request a new confirmation code if you no longer have access to the original one.
Once you successfully confirm your account using the email or text confirmation process, your Facebook access will be restored and your account will function normally again.
How Long Before an Unconfirmed Account is Disabled
Facebook usually gives users around 14 days to complete the new account confirmation process before disabling unconfirmed accounts. However, the exact timing may vary in some cases.
Potential factors that influence the timing include:
- How long it takes for Facebook to detect the unconfirmed account in their monitoring systems.
- How active or inactive the unconfirmed account appears to be.
- Whether any policy violations or suspicious activity is detected from the account.
- How backlogged Facebook may be with disabling unconfirmed accounts.
In most cases though, expect your new Facebook account to get disabled due to lack of confirmation around the 14 day mark. It’s impossible to say the exact day and time it will happen though.
Will My Unconfirmed Account Be Deleted by Facebook?
No, Facebook does not automatically delete unconfirmed accounts after a certain period of time. The account is disabled until you complete the confirmation process, but it is not deleted.
This means once you finally confirm your account with the email or text code, you should be able to access the account again as normal. Any information, photos, posts, friends etc. should still be intact.
Of course, the longer you wait to confirm the account, the higher the risk something could happen to it or that Facebook’s policies could change around account deletions. But based on current policy, disabled accounts are not automatically deleted due to lack of confirmation.
Steps to Confirm Your Facebook Account
If your unconfirmed Facebook account has been disabled, regaining access takes just a couple simple steps:
- Locate the account confirmation email or text message Facebook originally sent when you created the account. This would have contained a 6-digit confirmation code.
- If you no longer have access to the original confirmation message, you can request Facebook to send you a new one. Just click the “No longer have access to these?” link on the account disabled notice screen.
- Enter the 6-digit confirmation code into the Facebook confirmation screen to verify your account.
- Once successfully confirmed, you will be logged back into your account and have full access restored.
Be sure to complete the confirmation process within a few days though, otherwise your new confirmation code may also expire and the whole process will need to be restarted.
Why Didn’t I Get a Confirmation Email or Text from Facebook?
There are a few possible reasons why you may not have received the initial Facebook account confirmation message with the 6-digit code:
- You provided an inaccurate or invalid email address or phone number.
- The confirmation message went to your spam folder rather than your main inbox.
- Technical issues prevented the confirmation message from sending properly.
- You accidentally deleted the confirmation message.
If you cannot find the original confirmation message, try checking spam folders, entering your email/phone number again carefully, or requesting a new confirmation code from Facebook as described above.
How to Prevent Your Facebook Account from Being Disabled
To keep your Facebook account in good standing, be sure to:
- Provide a valid email address or mobile number when creating your account.
- Frequently check your inbox and spam folders for a confirmation message from Facebook after signing up.
- Complete the email/text confirmation process within 14 days of creating your account.
- If your account does become disabled, request a new confirmation code as soon as possible.
- Enter your confirmation code promptly once you receive it from Facebook.
As long as you carefully confirm your new Facebook account within the first two weeks, you shouldn’t run into any issues with it becoming disabled by Facebook.
Can You Delete a Facebook Account That Has Been Disabled?
If your unconfirmed Facebook account gets disabled, you have two main options:
- Confirm the account – By following the confirmation process above, you can reactive your disabled account and regain access.
- Delete the account – If you no longer want the account, you can request to have Facebook delete it completely.
To permanently delete your disabled Facebook account:
- Go to Facebook’s account deletion page and select “I want to permanently delete my account.”
- Enter your account email/password and click “Continue to account deletion.”
- Select “Delete Account” on the confirmation screen.
Once confirmed, Facebook will completely remove your account and associated data from their systems within 90 days.
Can You Recover a Facebook Account After Deleting It?
If you chose to delete your disabled Facebook account, recovering it is very difficult and unlikely.
When an account is permanently deleted, Facebook removes the profile information, photos, posts, friends etc. from their systems. They warn that this data cannot be recovered once the deletion is complete.
You can try creating a new Facebook account using the same name or email address as your deleted account. However, Facebook will treat this as an entirely new account rather than a recovery of your old one.
So unless you have a backup of your old account data, consider a Facebook deletion permanent and not recoverable.
Conclusion
Getting disabled for failing to confirm your new Facebook account can be inconvenient, but is usually easy to reverse. Just be sure to complete the email/text confirmation process within 14 days to avoid your unconfirmed account getting blocked. If it does get disabled, request a new confirmation code from Facebook and enter it right away to restore your account access.
With over 2 billion users, requiring confirmation is crucial for Facebook to maintain trust and safety across its platform. So take those extra steps early on to properly confirm your new account and avoid any issues down the road.