Now more than ever, it’s important to curate what pops up on your social media feeds. Here’s how to delete Facebook posts from your Timeline one by one or in bulk.
Facebook is all too keen to remind you of the past. Remember that concert you went to three years ago? That person you friended nine years ago? That photo you snapped on vacation? No worries; Facebook will make sure you never forget.
But now more than ever, it’s important to curate what pops up on your social media feeds, lest a potential employer or date stumble upon an ill-advised photo, comment, or like.
If you’re sick of cringing every time you log into Facebook, it might be time to rid your account of aging memes and reminders of your 2008-era frosted tips phase. You don’t have to nuke your entire account, though. Here’s a more civilized solution for social media cleanup.
Review Your Facebook Profile
First, it may be informative to see what your profile looks like to people who aren’t on your friends list. Go to your Facebook profile and click the View As “eye” icon, which will display your profile as it looks to someone who is not a friend. You can do the same thing on mobile by navigating to your profile, tapping the ellipsis and selecting View As.
Delete a Facebook Post
If you see only one or two posts you want to delete, Facebook makes it easy to axe them one at a time. To do this on desktop or mobile, go to your profile, click the ellipsis icon, and select Activity Log. This will show you every action you, or another user, has taken on your Timeline, including reactions, shares, comments, tags, and posts. Tap Filter (desktop) or Filters (mobile) to select which kinds of posts you want to see. When you come across something you want to remove, tap or click the ellipsis to delete or remove a reaction or tag.
Hide a Post From Your Timeline
It’s possible to limit the visibility of old photos and posts by making them private instead of deleting them entirely. From your Timeline, click the ellipsis next to the post you want to hide, then select Hide from Timeline in the drop-down menu.
To only hide the post from certain people, select the ellipsis button and then Edit audience (desktop) or Edit privacy (mobile), where you can select which groups of people or individuals can see your post. Here, you can also set it to Only me, so only you can see it.
Limit Past Posts
Facebook also has a tool to hide public Timeline posts en masse. To do this, navigate to Settings > Privacy > Limit Past Posts. After clicking the Limit Past Posts button, a warning will pop up advising that all your public posts will be converted to Friends only. If that’s okay, click Limit Past Posts again and your public posts will only be visible to those on your friends list.
If you want to perform this action on mobile, you’ll have to use the Privacy Checkup tool by going to Settings & Privacy > Privacy Shortcuts, then tap Review a few important privacy settings under the Privacy section. Tap Who can see what you share and proceed through the checkup until you see Future Posts and Limit Past Posts. You can make future posts visible to anyone, friends only, or just you. Or choose specific people who can see or not see your posts. Tap Limit to automatically make past posts viewable to only your friends.
Archive or Trash Old Posts in Bulk
Facebook just rolled out the option to archive or delete old posts in bulk. For now it’s only available on mobile and Facebook Lite. Navigate to your Activity Log and tap Manage Activity up top and then Your Posts in the pop-up at the bottom of the screen. Tap Filters to sort by category, date, or specific people. Then tap the box next to the posts you want to hide, and select Archive or Trash at the bottom of the screen.
To delete entire years from Facebook fast on desktop, you’ll need to download a browser extension like Social Book Post Manager for Chrome. These extensions aren’t forgiving and can delete years of history instantly with a click of a button, so make sure anything you want to save is safely archived before hitting delete.
Download Your Facebook Data
To download a copy of your entire Facebook Timeline, go to Settings > Your Facebook Information > Download Your Information on desktop. If you’re on mobile, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Download Your Information. Choose what should and should not be included, and click Create Files to download your Facebook information to your computer.
There are different ways to delete your Facebook posts. Depending on what you’d like to delete and from which device is going to vary.
You have the option to filter your post and delete one at a time or use a Browser Extension to delete several at a time.
First, we’ll begin with mobile.
Removing Facebook Posts On Your Mobile Device
The steps you follow depend on which operating system you are using.
iPhone or iPad
- Tap on the three lines in the lower left-hand corner of the Facebook App
- Tap on your name at the top
- Tap on the three dots to the right of the “Add Story” button
- Tap “Activity Log” from this menu
- In the top right-hand corner of the Activity Log you can filter posts by Year and Category. Select Category and filter to “Posts”
- Once the filtered options appear tap the three dots next to the post you’d like to delet
- Tap “Delete” and confirm
You will also have the option to edit privacy or hide from timeline on this menu. Deleting your posts is a permanent action so choosing to hide posts may be a better option.
Android Device
- From the Facebook application tap the three lines in the right-hand corner
- Tap on your name at the top
- Next to the blue “Add to Story) button there is a grey button with three dots; tap it
- Scroll down to Manage Posts
- In the top left corner you can tap “Filters”
- Select the date, posted by, and tagged options to filter your posts
- On the right of each post is a bubble, tap that
- Tap the trash can in the lower center of the screen
Once confirmed your Facebook post will be deleted.
Delete Facebook Posts in Bulk From Browser
If you’d like to delete all of your Facebook posts you will need to use a web browser and an extension. Depending on your needs it may be easier to delete your Facebook account and start a new one.
For this tutorial, we’re going to focus on Social Book Post Manager as our extension of choice. This will make the whole deletion process rather streamlined and definitely far quicker for those who have many years worth of posts to remove.
Social Book Post Manager Extension
Before you delete all of your Facebook posts you may want to complete a backup. As the items deleted will be gone forever, the following steps will ensure you can recover them if need be.
In order to create a backup:
- Head over to your General Account Settings screen.
- While you have this screen pulled up, there will be a link titled “Download a copy of your Facebook data” at the bottom.
- Click on the Download a copy link and follow the prompts. Facebook will begin creating a backup of all your data that will be available for download once complete. Once the download is ready, Facebook will send out an email to your registered email address notifying you of its completion and availability.
Once you have your data backup:
- Install the Social Book Post Manager extension
- Go to Facebook, and go to your Activity Log . The Activity Log can be accessed by clicking on the down arrow to the right of the question mark icon in the upper-right portion of the Facebook navigation header. Open it and locate Activity Log from the drop-down menu.
- The Activity Log link will take you to a page that displays all of your Facebook activity. You will see all the friends that you’ve added as well as all the posts and comments that you’ve both created and liked. In the Filter section on the left-hand side, select the filter you wish to delete from, in this case, click “Posts”.
- Now open up the Social Book Post Manager extension by clicking on the icon at the top-right of your Chrome browser.
- Once the extension is opened, you’ll be presented with a list of filters that you can use to delete posts on Facebook.
The filters will determine which posts are to be removed and you can even filter them by specific years, months, and even those containing certain strings. A “Prescan on Page” option is available to you if you wish to use it. This will cause the extension to prompt you of which posts will be removed prior to your confirmation. If you accept the chosen posts for deletion, you can click to confirm and watch those posts disappear. However, there have been some reports that when utilizing the “Prescan on Page” option with heavily populated activity logs may cause complications. - Once all of the posts you’ve chosen to delete have been selected, click the OK button to close the alert, review the activity log, and if satisfied with the selection, click on the Confirm to delete button located at the top of the page.
If you’re not happy with the currently selected posts targeted for removal, you can refresh the page (I prefer tapping F5 myself) and see the activity log repopulated as it was previously.
Recovering Deleted Posts
If you’ve deleted Facebook posts and wish to retrieve them there are some options to try. As above; if you’ve created a backup before deleting everything you should be able to restore.
To view your backed up posts you can go to the the Facebook information page after logging in and tap “Access Your Information.” Then you can select each category (such as posts) that you’d like to view.
If you did not complete a backup there are a few things you can try:
If you or a Facebook friend has email notifications turned on you may find your deleted post there. By searching through your email for the date/time and content of the post it may have archived.
If the post you deleted was something you’ve shared from another timeline you can always go back to that timeline and re-share the post.
Facebook, as a social network, is a bit crazy. You’re interacting with hundreds of people at the same time; your main connection being that you’ve probably met them at least once. Unless you have your page locked down, everyone from your “psychic” aunt to your high school buddies are free to weigh in on everything you say.
Perhaps you’ve posted something and realized that it wasn’t what you should be shouting to everyone in your extended contact list, or maybe you just want to remove some bad photos from when you thought bleached blonde hair with a pink fringe was the height of fashion. Whatever the reason, here’s how to remove a post from your Facebook page.
Facebook is really consistent across all devices, so the same method works on the web and mobile apps. Head to Facebook and find the post you want to remove. Click or tap on the downward facing arrow in the top right corner of the post.
Select Delete from the menu that appears.
Finally, click or tap Delete again in the confirmation dialogue.
The post will now be removed from your Timeline as well as your friends’ Newsfeeds. Even if the post has been shared by your friends; the linked post on their page will be unavailable to their friends going forward.
Remember, this doesn’t protect you from copy and pasting, screenshots, or any other way people can record posts; once you post it online, there’s a chance it will be recorded somewhere.
- You can delete any post on Facebook that you created yourself.
- It’s easy to delete a post by choosing “Delete” from the three-dot menu on the Facebook app or your web browser.
- You can hide posts made by other people so they won’t appear in your Facebook feed, but you cannot delete them.
You wouldn’t be a citizen of the 21st century if you had never posted something on social media that you later regretted.
But no matter your reason for wanting to remove a Facebook post — it’s inaccurate, embarrassing, unflattering, something you wouldn’t want an employer to see, or any of a hundred other reasons — you can permanently delete a post you’ve made on Facebook with just a tap or a click.
How to delete a Facebook post on your phone
1. Open the Facebook app.
2. Go to your timeline by tapping the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines on the bottom right) and tap your name.
3. Find the post you want to delete and tap the three dots on the upper right of the post.
4. Tap “Delete.” Facebook will then ask you to confirm that this is really what you want to do — tap “Delete Post” to confirm.
How to delete a Facebook post on your computer
1. Go to Facebook in your web browser.
2. Go to your timeline by clicking your name at the top of the window, just to the right of Facebook’s search box.
3. Find the post you want to delete and tap the three dots on the upper right of the post.
4. Tap “Delete.” Facebook will confirm that this is really what you want to do. Tap “Delete” to permanently remove it.
How to hide Facebook posts created by others
Of course, you can only delete posts you have created yourself — you don’t have the power to delete something that was posted to Facebook by someone else.
But if you don’t like a post that you’re tagged or mentioned in, you could ask the person who created it to edit or delete it. Alternately, you have two other options:
- You can hide it from your timeline. This isn’t the same as deleting the post — and in fact, it may still appear in other people’s timelines — but you can keep it from showing up in your own. To do that, click or tap the three dots on the upper right of the post and choose “Hide from timeline.”
- If you’re tagged in the post, you can remove the tag. This will prevent it from appearing in your timeline and from searches that include posts with your tag. To do that, click or tap the three dots on the upper right of the post and choose “Remove tag.”
Facebook is a great place to share information, photos, and videos with friends and family. However, sometimes users need to remove a specific post, photo, or video. To proceed, make your selection from the list below and follow the instructions.
- How to delete a post
- How to delete a photo
- How to delete a photo from a post
- How to delete a video
How to delete a post
- Log into Facebook and browse to the post you’d like to delete.
- Move your mouse cursor over the post and click in the upper-right corner.
- Select Delete from the drop-down menu that appears.
- On the confirmation prompt, click the button.
How to delete a photo
Deleting a photo from your album also deletes the post it is tied to.
- Open Facebook and click the link to your profile at the top of the screen.
- On your profile page, in the top section, click Photos.
- Move your mouse cursor over the photo you’d like to delete and click the button.
- Select Delete This Photo from the drop-down menu that appears.
- On the confirmation prompt, click the button.
How to delete a photo from a post
- Log into Facebook and browse to the post that contains the photo you’d like to delete.
- Move your mouse cursor over the post and click in the upper-right corner.
- Select Edit Post from the drop-down menu that appears.
- Move your mouse cursor over the picture. Click the X button in the upper-right corner of the picture, then click the Save button.
How to delete a video
- Open Facebook and click the link to your profile at the top of the screen.
- On your profile page, in the top section, click More.
- At the top of the drop-down menu that appears, select Videos.
- Move your mouse cursor over the video you’d like to delete, click the button, and select Delete video.
- In the prompt that appears, click the button.
The app’s new ‘Manage Activity’ feature gives users better control over their content.
Jun 9, 2020, 2:26 pm*
Ever wish you could quickly and easily delete all those Facebook posts from your past? Have a job interview coming up and want to make all your personal pictures disappear?
Well, now Facebook is offering a way to do that.
Facebook has introduced a new feature called “Manage Activity” designed to help you sift through old content and—if you want—delete old Facebook posts.
But what exactly is Manage Activity and how does it work?
What is Manage Activity?
Manage Activity finally allows you to archive or delete content—including pictures and posts—in a bulk action. Previously, you’d have to delete posts and photos individually.
The feature, which makes controlling your digital footprint significantly easier, is currently available on the company’s mobile app and for those using Facebook Lite, a separate app.
The feature will be available for desktop users at a future date, the company said.
So where can you find Manage Activity and how do you use it? After making sure your phone is running the latest version of the Facebook app, accessing the new function is just a few clicks away.
How to delete old Facebook posts with Manage Activity
To access Manage Activity, first select your profile photo from the home screen. Once you have been taken to your profile, click on the three horizontal dots below your profile picture to access your profile settings. From there, select your Activity Log.
Next, simply select the Manage Activity option at the top of the screen.
Facebook
A small menu should pop up at the bottom of the screen.
Click on the “Your Posts” option in order to see a list of your photos, videos, and more.
Facebook
A list should now appear containing posts you made from the latest to oldest. Each post will have a checkbox next to them to allow you to quickly select all the content you wish to remove or archive.
But what if you have years worth of Facebook content? Do you have to endlessly scroll to access older data?
Manage Activity addresses this issue by letting you filter your posts. To do so, select the “Filters” option near the top-left of the screen.
You should then be presented with three options: category, date, and people. There may be more filter options coming in the future, according to the Washington Post.
The three options allow you to filter old content based on that criteria.
By selecting category, you can view anything from just photos and videos, or posts made to Facebook from third-party apps.
As expected, selecting the date option grabs content based on a start date and end date provided by the user.
The people selection will give you the option to search from your friends list before being presented with content linked to them. For example, if you tagged your friend in a post about a concert you attended, such posts will show up.
Once you’ve decided which posts you want to get rid of, Facebook’s new tool gives you two options: the ability to archive them (if you want to look at the posts again) or to delete them.
You can find all the posts you’ve you’ve chosen to store away by selecting the “Archive” button.
Similarly, the trash option at the top of the menu will show you which posts you recently deleted.
Facebook will keep posts in the trash for 30 days before being deleted. You’ll be able to access the trash and restore or clear out all your posts within that time frame.
The new tool may be a little late for people who have been yearning to clean up their Facebook profile, but it is certainly easier than deleting things one by one.
Here’s how to use the new feature, available for app users and coming soon to web browsers
by Marc Saltzman, AARP, June 22, 2020 | Comments: 0
Wachirawit Iemlerkchai / Alamy Stock Photo
En español | Whether you have decided to quit Facebook once and for all or you simply want to take down old posts you regret publishing, the world’s largest social media site hasn’t made it easy to properly remove content — until now.
Previously, Facebook was under fire for making its process convoluted if you wanted to take down a photo, comment or like. And those who wanted to delete their account altogether might unknowingly leave a digital footprint, such as a message sent to someone still active on the platform.
Thankfully, a new Facebook feature, called Manage Activity, simplifies the deletion of posted content, both in bulk and individually, all in one place.
This includes the option to privately archive your posts, to be kept for your eyes only and not completely removed from Facebook. So you could, say, save a post you wrote in 2008 that you still find funny — like a haircut gone wrong and your friends’ hilarious reactions to it — but that you don’t want a potential employer to see.
Facebook is the most popular social media platform worldwide by far; YouTube is the second. In March, Facebook had an average of 1.73 billion daily users around the globe, according to the company. That’s when much of the world began sheltering in place to avoid coronavirus infections.
As of May, nearly a quarter of Facebook’s 232.7 million users in the United States were 55 and older, according to NapoleonCat, a social media management system based in suburban Warsaw, Poland. Another 15 percent were ages 45 to 54.
So if, like much of the world, you have a Facebook account, read on to learn how to use Manage Activity and delete or save posts that you no longer want to share.
Save 25% when you join AARP and enroll in Automatic Renewal for first year. Get instant access to discounts, programs, services, and the information you need to benefit every area of your life.
How to get started
At the time of this writing, Facebook said it is rolling out its Manage Activity feature to users of its mobile app. But those who access Facebook on a web browser will have it available “soon”; the company doesn’t specify a date.
Until then, these step-by-step instructions are for those using a smartphone or tablet.
1. Open the Facebook app.
2. At the bottom of the screen, tap the blue tab that says Go to Activity Log.
If you don’t see it, tap the three horizontal lines at the top right of the app. Select Settings & Privacy | Settings | Activity Log under Your Facebook Information.
3. At the top of the Activity Log screen you should see options for Filters, Archive and Trash.
4. Tap the Filters tab to view and manage your posts in bulk and filter them to help you sort and find what you’re looking for. This way you can find posts with a certain date range, specific people or items such as photos or videos.
5. You’ll see options pop up from the bottom of your screen, where you can tap Category, Date or Friends.
If you tap Category, a new menu will appear with options for all posts; text updates, check-ins, notes and more; photos and videos; and posts from other apps.
If you tap Photos and Videos, you will see the posts by date (newest on top), and you can select posts one by one by ticking the little box or selecting All.
6. Once you make a selection, choose to Archive or Delete.
• Archive This option is for Facebook content you no longer want others to see but that you want to keep for yourself.
• Delete Use this feature to move posts you no longer want into the trash. The trash will stay there for 30 days before being deleted unless you choose to manually delete or restore the posts before then.
If you want to review your decisions, tap the Archive or Delete tab, at the top of the screen. Tap one of the posts and you will have a couple of additional options, such as changing from Archive to Delete or vice versa; Restore the post to reverse your decision and to View the specific post.
To return to previous menu options, tap the arrow back button, at the top left of the screen.
Other privacy features to check into
A video walkthrough of some of these Manage Activity options is available here.
Facebook says its Manage Activity feature is its most recent offering to make it easier for account holders to manage their experience on its platform.
It builds upon other new tools: Off-Facebook Activity allows you to clear the information Facebook receives from apps and websites you visit outside of the platform. Privacy Checkup helps you control who can see your profile information, what you share and how others can use your information.
Marc Saltzman has been a freelance technology journalist for 25 years. His podcast, Tech It Out, aims to break down geek speak into street speak.
Facebook is finally providing a solution for users eager to get rid of several older posts.
The social network announced Tuesday that it’s adding an option to let users delete multiple posts at the same time. The feature rolls out on mobile devices first before landing on desktop and Facebook Lite in the future.
“Manage Activity” will be available by accessing the activity log on your Facebook profile. From there, you can check off multiple posts for archiving.
The archiving option removes posts from your feed but allows you to keep them private. There is also a trash option to delete posts completely. The posts stay in trash for 30 days before permanently disappearing.
Users can also sort posts by date, or for posts with specific people, Facebook said.
Managing your posts on Facebook. (Photo: Screenshot)
“Whether you’re entering the job market after college or moving on from an old relationship, we know things change in people’s lives, and we want to make it easy for you to curate your presence on Facebook to more accurately reflect who you are today,” said the company in a statement.
Previously, Facebook had made it more difficult for users to get rid of several posts quickly. Users had to click on each post individually and select Delete to have them removed.
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.
Now more than ever, it’s important to curate what pops up on your social media feeds. Here’s how to delete Facebook posts from your Timeline one by one or in bulk.
Facebook is all too keen to remind you of the past. Remember that concert you went to three years ago? That person you friended nine years ago? That photo you snapped on vacation? No worries; Facebook will make sure you never forget.
But now more than ever, it’s important to curate what pops up on your social media feeds, lest a potential employer or date stumble upon an ill-advised photo, comment, or like.
If you’re sick of cringing every time you log into Facebook, it might be time to rid your account of aging memes and reminders of your 2008-era frosted tips phase. You don’t have to nuke your entire account, though. Here’s a more civilized solution for social media cleanup.
Review Your Facebook Profile
First, it may be informative to see what your profile looks like to people who aren’t on your friends list. Go to your Facebook profile and click the View As “eye” icon, which will display your profile as it looks to someone who is not a friend. You can do the same thing on mobile by navigating to your profile, tapping the ellipsis and selecting View As.
Delete a Facebook Post
If you see only one or two posts you want to delete, Facebook makes it easy to axe them one at a time. To do this on desktop or mobile, go to your profile, click the ellipsis icon, and select Activity Log. This will show you every action you, or another user, has taken on your Timeline, including reactions, shares, comments, tags, and posts. Tap Filter (desktop) or Filters (mobile) to select which kinds of posts you want to see. When you come across something you want to remove, tap or click the ellipsis to delete or remove a reaction or tag.
Hide a Post From Your Timeline
It’s possible to limit the visibility of old photos and posts by making them private instead of deleting them entirely. From your Timeline, click the ellipsis next to the post you want to hide, then select Hide from Timeline in the drop-down menu.
To only hide the post from certain people, select the ellipsis button and then Edit audience (desktop) or Edit privacy (mobile), where you can select which groups of people or individuals can see your post. Here, you can also set it to Only me, so only you can see it.
Limit Past Posts
Facebook also has a tool to hide public Timeline posts en masse. To do this, navigate to Settings > Privacy > Limit Past Posts. After clicking the Limit Past Posts button, a warning will pop up advising that all your public posts will be converted to Friends only. If that’s okay, click Limit Past Posts again and your public posts will only be visible to those on your friends list.
If you want to perform this action on mobile, you’ll have to use the Privacy Checkup tool by going to Settings & Privacy > Privacy Shortcuts, then tap Review a few important privacy settings under the Privacy section. Tap Who can see what you share and proceed through the checkup until you see Future Posts and Limit Past Posts. You can make future posts visible to anyone, friends only, or just you. Or choose specific people who can see or not see your posts. Tap Limit to automatically make past posts viewable to only your friends.
Archive or Trash Old Posts in Bulk
Facebook just rolled out the option to archive or delete old posts in bulk. For now it’s only available on mobile and Facebook Lite. Navigate to your Activity Log and tap Manage Activity up top and then Your Posts in the pop-up at the bottom of the screen. Tap Filters to sort by category, date, or specific people. Then tap the box next to the posts you want to hide, and select Archive or Trash at the bottom of the screen.
To delete entire years from Facebook fast on desktop, you’ll need to download a browser extension like Social Book Post Manager for Chrome. These extensions aren’t forgiving and can delete years of history instantly with a click of a button, so make sure anything you want to save is safely archived before hitting delete.
Download Your Facebook Data
To download a copy of your entire Facebook Timeline, go to Settings > Your Facebook Information > Download Your Information on desktop. If you’re on mobile, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Download Your Information. Choose what should and should not be included, and click Create Files to download your Facebook information to your computer.
You may find yourself rethinking something you shared on Facebook and wanting to remove it. Perhaps, as you update your timeline, you want to remove some past updates as your circle of friends grows or your life changes. Or maybe you commented on someone’s status update and you wish you’d been a little more eloquent.
Although you can delete comments (yours as well as those from others on your updates), think first about your reasons for doing so. Social media is about sharing and accessibility. It’s about discourse and presenting all sides of a story or an issue.
Ideally, that discourse will be respectful, but sometimes it gets out of hand. No one likes to have his or her voice (or, in this case, comment) removed, but sometimes that action is best to keep the peace. On the other hand, if you remove a comment (either yours or someone else’s), be prepared for the possibility of being called out for censoring the conversation.
Your timeline is your space, and you decide what is appropriate for that space. It’s important to explain your stance to your circle of friends so they understand your point of view. Remember, though, that when you post content to Facebook, you’re inviting people to interact with you and share their opinions. If you remove comments you disagree with, others may not feel welcome to comment on your updates.
If you administrate a business page, removing comments becomes an even bigger issue. Some businesses remove inflammatory or unflattering comments, but that can be a mistake. Your customers expect your business page to be a place where they can interact with you — both positively and negatively. If you whitewash your Facebook business page, allowing good comments and deleting anything questionable, your followers and fans will rebel.
If you find that you really do need to edit a status update or remove a status update or comment, follow these instructions:
Find the status update or comment on your timeline (or go to your timeline and click the Activity Log button).
Click the arrow in the top-left corner and select edit or delete.
Edit or delete a comment as follows:
To remove your own comment: Click the pencil icon and choose Edit or Delete.
To remove a comment from someone else: Click the X.
When you delete a post or comment, it’s permanently deleted. You can’t get it back. If you don’t want to permanently delete a post, you can always change its share settings or hide it from your timeline instead.
