I recently reported on how you can create a legit, legal additional Facebook profile. These profiles are separate from your main profile, but are managed through your same Meta account. You can easily switch between these profiles in the app, or on the website. No data or posts (and not even settings) leak from one profile to another. Your friends from the one profile don’t you that the other exists (if you don’t give yourself away). This is nice to explore new sides of yourself, but you may not need or want such a secondary profile forever. In this article, you will learn how to easy deleting your additional, private Facebook profile through the iOS Facebook app is!
Why Delete your Additional, Private Facebook Profile
If you created a second profile, you had a specific reason in mind at the time. Maybe you wanted to explore a new side on yourself. Maybe you wanted to interact with a community that was interesting at that time, but didn’t suit your personal brand and identity. No matter what the reason, it may not be valid anymore now. And even if you need a second profile/identity for different purposes, you shouldn’t mix them.
One of the main rules for online safety and privacy is that you shouldn’t unnecessarily mix contexts. Resources from one context (contacts/friends/family) don’t need to know everything you do online. It can also make you an easier target for hackers. Many phishing attacks succeed because hackers learn more about you than you would have guessed, and pop up in areas of your life that surprise you. Don’t fall victim to these analysis tactics! As discussed in my previous articles about deleting your unused instant messenger accounts (like Signal, Telegram, or TeleGuard), stale online data can quickly move into the next online data leak. Stay safe and delete unused accounts if you don’t need them!
With these reasons given for why you should delete your (unused) additional, private Facebook account, let’s go into how exactly you can do this. I will showcase this at the example of the iOS Facebook app below.
How to Delete your Additonal Profile from the Facebook iOS App
Facebook allows you to delete your additional profiles (you can have four at any time) through its iOS app. They don’t make this process particularly easy to find so I’m walking you through it step by step here. The below very likely applies to the Android app as well, although with slight differences in UI possibly.
To get started deleting your account, open your profile settings and go to the Account Centre. For that, tap on the down button next to your name in the settings screen and choose “Go to Accounts Centre“. From there, scroll down and tap “Personal details“. You will be presented with the center screen below, showing the data of the account you want to delete. Tap “Account ownership and control“.
Here, Facebook lets know choose between “Memorialisation” (what happens to your account when you die) and “Deactivation and deletion“. While the former is important for things like preventing impersonation, we choose the latter.
Justifying Profile Deletion
Inside that option, the below screens are shown. Select the account you want to delete (be sure it’s the right one). Facebook again asks you if you want to deactivate or delete your account. Select the second option: “Delete additional Facebook profile” and tap “Continue“. Next you are asked why you want to delete the account. This exists for two reasons:
- Meta wants to know why you want to delete the account – didn’t it work for you? Do you have concerns? Can they somehow do better? This is a genuine ask for feedback.
- Meta wants you to keep your account – The more time you spend on Facebook the more they earn. So every account counts for them. They will try to convince you to stay and provide help for any issues you may have faced.
The least time consuming option here is likely “I spend too much time on Facebook“, which is probably true for most users anyway. Tap that and “Continue“. Confirm with “Continue” one more time (ignore the notifications hint). You’re very close to deleting your additional, private Facebook profile.
The app now educates you about what happens when you delete your additional Facebook profile. You can still choose to deactivate your profile instead (which allows you to keep e.g., your Messenger access with this identity). You can also download your profile data before deletion. Scroll all the way down and tap “Continue” again.
Confirmation and Delayed Deletion
You now need to enter the password of your main Facebook account. Once you confirmed this, you get one last time to tap delete your profile. After you confirmed “Delete Profile“, your profile is actually scheduled for deletion.
That’s right, Facebook won’t delete your profile right away. It will be hidden away from other users and will stay in a dormant state for 30 days. If during this time you log into that profile (or switch to it in Account Centre), you will be asked if you want to cancel te scheduled deletion. Just don’t interact with that profile anymore (it will also not appear in the main profile switcher anymore) and it will be deleted eventually.
So deleting your additonal profile isn’t simple, but straight forward if you know where to tap. In total, it takes 6 times of confirmation to delete your profile, and one time entering your password. Remember, Meta wants you to stay. But with the above guide you should be able to easily delete your additional identity from Facebook.
Conclusion
You now know what deleting your additional private Facebook profile takes. You know how to get thet process started and have an overview of the steps it takes. Getting rid of your additional profile isn’t easily pointed out in the Facebook app for a reason, but doing it is not hard. Always remember to delete your old profiles if you don’t use them anymore. Be sure to also delete any old Signal, Telegram, or TeleGuard accounts in case you don’t use them anymore to prevent impersonation issues there, too.
If you enjoyed this article and want to share your thoughts or experiences, comment below to get the conversation started!