When you deactivate your Facebook account, your profile and page will be hidden until you reactivate your account. Deactivation is different from deleting your account permanently. With deactivation, you can reactivate your account at any time and restore all of your information.
What exactly happens when you deactivate your Facebook account?
Here are the key things that happen when you deactivate your Facebook account:
- Your profile, photos, posts, videos, and everything else you’ve added will be hidden from other people on Facebook. They will no longer be visible on your profile or News Feed.
- You will not be searchable on Facebook. People will not be able to find or view your profile.
- Your Facebook messages and chat conversations will be deactivated. You will not be able to read or send any messages.
- Your reactions and comments on other people’s posts will remain, but your name will be hidden.
- You will not be able to post anything new or react to content.
- Your Facebook page will also be hidden. Fans will not be able to view your page or any of its content.
- You will stop receiving notifications, messages, and emails from Facebook.
- Your Facebook apps will stop working.
- Your info will not show up on friends’ timelines even if you’ve been tagged.
In summary, all your information and activity on Facebook will be hidden from everyone else once you deactivate your account. It will be like you don’t have an account anymore, but everything can be restored when you reactive it.
What happens to your Facebook page specifically?
When you deactivate your personal Facebook profile that is connected to a Facebook page, here is what happens to your Facebook page:
- Your page will be hidden and deactivated along with your personal profile.
- People will not be able to view or access your Facebook page.
- Any new posts you’ve scheduled to publish on your page will not go out.
- Your page fans will not get any updates from your page in their News Feeds.
- You will stop receiving notifications, messages or emails relating to your page.
- You will not be able to see page insights or analytics during deactivation.
- Any apps connected to your page will stop working.
So your Facebook page essentially becomes inaccessible to you and your fans while your account is deactivated. However, all prior content and followers on your page will remain intact to be fully restored when you reactive your account.
What content and info remains visible?
While most of your info and activity is hidden during deactivation, there are some parts of your Facebook presence that will still be visible:
- Your messages and conversations will remain in your friends’ inboxes, but your name will be hidden.
- Comments you’ve made on other people’s posts will stay, but not be attributed to you.
- Your reactions to posts/photos will remain.
- You will stay visible in friends’ friend lists, but your profile will show as “Facebook User”.
- Your name will remain on friends’ Timelines for posts you’ve been tagged in.
- Group memberships will no longer show your name, just “Facebook User”.
So while almost everything tied to your account will be deactivated, some remnants of your Facebook presence will still be visible to others in limited forms.
What happens if you don’t reactivate your account?
If you keep your Facebook account deactivated for an extended period of time, here is what will happen:
- For the first 14 days after deactivating, you can easily reactivate your account and restore all information.
- After 14 days, some data may start being erased from Facebook servers.
- If your account stays deactivated for 30 days, your Facebook page will be permanently deleted.
- If your account stays deactivated for 1 year, your Facebook profile and all data will be permanently deleted.
So if you do not plan to use Facebook again, your account data may eventually be removed from Facebook servers. But you have at least one year before your account is deleted permanently.
Can you delete just your Facebook page?
No, it is not possible to delete only your Facebook page while keeping your personal profile active. Your Facebook page is tied directly to your personal account.
The only way to delete a Facebook page is to delete your entire personal account. This will remove both your profile and your connected pages.
What happens when you delete your Facebook account permanently?
If you decide to permanently delete your Facebook account, here is what happens:
- Your profile, posts, photos, videos, and all other data is erased from Facebook.
- Your Facebook page and all its content will be permanently deleted.
- You will no longer show up in any Facebook features or communications.
- You will not be able to reactivate or restore your account.
- It may take up to 90 days for Facebook to complete the deletion process.
Permanent account deletion is irreversible. You will lose everything tied to your Facebook account and page. You can never get your account or data back after deleting.
Can you download your Facebook data before deactivating?
Yes, before deactivating your Facebook account, you have the option to download an archive of your Facebook data including:
- Your entire profile info
- Your photos and videos
- Your posts and status updates
- Your messages and chat conversations
- Your timeline and activity log
- Your lists of friends and followers
Downloading this data lets you have a copy of your Facebook content before deactivating your account. However, you cannot download data from your Facebook page before deactivating.
What happens to your Instagram account connected to Facebook?
If you have linked your Instagram account to your Facebook account, here is what happens when you deactivate Facebook:
- Your Instagram account will remain active and unaffected.
- You will stay logged in to Instagram and retain access.
- All your Instagram content and followers will remain intact.
- Your Instagram will not become private or restricted in any way.
So deactivating your Facebook account does not affect your Instagram account in any way, even if the two are linked. Your Instagram presence remains entirely active and public.
Can you continue using Messenger after deactivation?
No, Facebook Messenger is directly integrated with your Facebook account. So when you deactivate your Facebook account:
- You will be logged out of Messenger automatically.
- You will not be able to send or receive Messenger messages.
- Your Messenger contacts will no longer see your account.
- Your Messenger groups will show you as “Facebook User”.
To continue using Messenger, you will have to reactive your Facebook account. Messenger requires an active Facebook profile to work.
What happens if you only deactivate Facebook temporarily?
If you plan to deactivate Facebook only temporarily for a short break, here is what you can expect when reactivating your account later:
- Your profile, posts, followers, and all information will be fully restored.
- Your Facebook page and its content will be visible and active again.
- You can continue posting, commenting and using Facebook normally.
- You may need to reset some settings like privacy settings.
As long as you reactivate within 14 days, everything will be restored as it was before deactivating your account. It will be like your account was never deactivated.
Conclusion
Deactivating your Facebook account hides your profile and page temporarily while retaining all your information. Your content remains but becomes inaccessible to others. You can easily reactive your account within 14 days to restore everything. After an extended deactivation period, your data may be deleted permanently. But deactivation gives you the flexibility to take a break from Facebook while holding your place, as long as you return within two weeks. Just remember that your Facebook page will be deactivated along with your profile.