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I deleted my Facebook to the best of my ability about a week ago. Fun facts: * They switch around button colors to trick you into undoing your actions * They

by nxc18 9y ago

I deleted my Facebook to the best of my ability about a week ago. Fun facts: * They switch around button colors to trick you into undoing your actions * They are very eager to log you back in if you, for example, try to access help. This reactivates your account. * You cannot delete your account on Messenger. They removed the option. Deleting your Facebook profile does not delete your messenger account * Their doc for deleting your messenger account lies/is out of date. * There is no shortage of dark patterns in their account delete process. I ended up manually deleting all my content, unliking everything, and deleting all my posts. More fun facts: they don't show you all of your content. If you go back and try to clean up your account, do it multiple times. Keep doing it until Facebook can't find anything more to show you. I assume this is a technical optimization, but it means that there is no reliable to see everything you've posted (from the web UI).

amelius 9y ago
> If you go back and try to clean up your account, do it multiple times. Keep doing it until Facebook can't find anything more to show you. I assume this is a technical optimization, but it means that there is no reliable to see everything you've posted (from the web UI). I'm surprised nobody has written a (thirdparty) browser plugin for that task yet.
- rabboRubble 9y ago
  There already is. A Chrome extension called Social Book Post Manager.
amaccuish 9y ago
It was when I clicked cancel because they switched the darker blue colour meaning affirmative on to the cancel button that I knew I was making the right call. Just sneaky. "Delete my account" (dark blue), "Cancel" (light blue). "OK" (light blue; i.e. yes delete my account), "Cancel" (dark blue)
flyinghamster 9y ago
I'm surprised there wasn't a step that involved a locked file cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."
- labster 9y ago
  Instead of deactivation confirmation message, dialog box contained bobcat. One star.
- DrScump 9y ago
  For those unfamiliar with this classic reference: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/40705-but-the-plans-were-on-display-on-display-i-eventually https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/40705-but-the-plans-were-on...
Fnoord 9y ago
Do you know of a way to automatically delete all my likes and posts? I'd like to not delete my Facebook account because my Spotify account is linked to it.
- techsupporter 9y ago
  Spotify will happily unlink your Spotify account from Facebook and has gotten a lot better (and faster) about it in recent days. Several posts on /r/spotify have experience: https://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/search?q=facebook&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all https://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/search?q=facebook&restrict_...
  - c_r_w 9y ago
    I deleted all of my Facebook data about a year ago and I actually had to create a new Spotify account to disconnect it from Facebook. Glad to hear they are improving this process.
  - Fnoord 9y ago
    Believe me I tried, it doesn't work in my specific case because the account was initialised via Facebook. They gotta make a new account and copy over my old data. That works, and the Spotify helpdesk is excellent. Problem is, I use Premium via a voucher from my ISP. My ISP no longer gives these vouchers, and its claimed. So for a new account, I cannot get Premium for "free". I should feel lucky my ISP hasn't disabled the existing vouchers (the main branch of the ISP did).
- rabboRubble 9y ago
  Try this Chrome extension, Social Book Post Manager. Appears to do exactly that.
  - Fnoord 9y ago
    Thank you very much, that's exactly what I was looking for (though I'm trying to use Mozilla Firefox). Works very well for this purpose but you gotta recheck and verify.
moonka 9y ago
Also, I found I can't delete anything I posted from before sometime in 2008. I just get an error when I try to.
zedgoat 9y ago
For messenger, at least if you're registered just in messenger with a phone number, you can "delete" it by re-installing the app and attempting to re-register with the same number. When it prompts you to use your existing account, say it's not you and then choose a new name. This seems to reset your contacts and history. No idea what it looks like on the back end, assuming facebook is still rolling history associated with the number. There used to also be a pathway to promote your messenger account to a full facebook account and then delete it that way, but it's been a while so not sure if that's still possible. Not sure if you can pull of similar against email based accounts though.
JKCalhoun 9y ago
More dark patterns: when I tried to delete my account, they claimed my password was incorrect. After trying and failing to delete my account for over a week, a tiny comment I saw on a YouTube video turned out to be gold: "if your password has upper and lower case characters, you must enter them all in lower-case or you will be told your password is incorrect." That were correct. (Account now deleted.)
- ino 9y ago
  That means that they either store the password in plain text, or store an extra hash of the lowercase with the only purpose to mislead and trick people. People who work there are con artists.
  - hhfcvh 9y ago
    Given their attitude to their users, probably plain text.
- narutouzumaki 9y ago
  Wow, is that true? How do they justify it /even get away with that?
awiesenhofer 9y ago
> I ended up manually deleting all my content, unliking everything, and deleting all my posts. Sounds like its worth waiting a month or two for when they fully implemented GPDR. That probably makes this way easier. (At least for EU residents) Kudos to your hard work and perseverance though!

by nxc18 9y ago

amelius 9y ago

> If you go back and try to clean up your account, do it multiple times. Keep doing it until Facebook can't find anything more to show you. I assume this is a technical optimization, but it means that there is no reliable to see everything you've posted (from the web UI). I'm surprised nobody has written a (thirdparty) browser plugin for that task yet.

rabboRubble 9y ago
There already is. A Chrome extension called Social Book Post Manager.

amaccuish 9y ago

It was when I clicked cancel because they switched the darker blue colour meaning affirmative on to the cancel button that I knew I was making the right call. Just sneaky. "Delete my account" (dark blue), "Cancel" (light blue). "OK" (light blue; i.e. yes delete my account), "Cancel" (dark blue)

flyinghamster 9y ago

I'm surprised there wasn't a step that involved a locked file cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."

labster 9y ago
Instead of deactivation confirmation message, dialog box contained bobcat. One star.
DrScump 9y ago
For those unfamiliar with this classic reference: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/40705-but-the-plans-were-on-display-on-display-i-eventually https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/40705-but-the-plans-were-on...

Fnoord 9y ago

Do you know of a way to automatically delete all my likes and posts? I'd like to not delete my Facebook account because my Spotify account is linked to it.

techsupporter 9y ago
Spotify will happily unlink your Spotify account from Facebook and has gotten a lot better (and faster) about it in recent days. Several posts on /r/spotify have experience: https://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/search?q=facebook&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all https://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/search?q=facebook&restrict_...
- c_r_w 9y ago
  I deleted all of my Facebook data about a year ago and I actually had to create a new Spotify account to disconnect it from Facebook. Glad to hear they are improving this process.
- Fnoord 9y ago
  Believe me I tried, it doesn't work in my specific case because the account was initialised via Facebook. They gotta make a new account and copy over my old data. That works, and the Spotify helpdesk is excellent. Problem is, I use Premium via a voucher from my ISP. My ISP no longer gives these vouchers, and its claimed. So for a new account, I cannot get Premium for "free". I should feel lucky my ISP hasn't disabled the existing vouchers (the main branch of the ISP did).
rabboRubble 9y ago
Try this Chrome extension, Social Book Post Manager. Appears to do exactly that.
- Fnoord 9y ago
  Thank you very much, that's exactly what I was looking for (though I'm trying to use Mozilla Firefox). Works very well for this purpose but you gotta recheck and verify.

moonka 9y ago

Also, I found I can't delete anything I posted from before sometime in 2008. I just get an error when I try to.

zedgoat 9y ago

For messenger, at least if you're registered just in messenger with a phone number, you can "delete" it by re-installing the app and attempting to re-register with the same number. When it prompts you to use your existing account, say it's not you and then choose a new name. This seems to reset your contacts and history. No idea what it looks like on the back end, assuming facebook is still rolling history associated with the number. There used to also be a pathway to promote your messenger account to a full facebook account and then delete it that way, but it's been a while so not sure if that's still possible. Not sure if you can pull of similar against email based accounts though.

JKCalhoun 9y ago

More dark patterns: when I tried to delete my account, they claimed my password was incorrect. After trying and failing to delete my account for over a week, a tiny comment I saw on a YouTube video turned out to be gold: "if your password has upper and lower case characters, you must enter them all in lower-case or you will be told your password is incorrect." That were correct. (Account now deleted.)

ino 9y ago
That means that they either store the password in plain text, or store an extra hash of the lowercase with the only purpose to mislead and trick people. People who work there are con artists.
- hhfcvh 9y ago
  Given their attitude to their users, probably plain text.
narutouzumaki 9y ago
Wow, is that true? How do they justify it /even get away with that?

awiesenhofer 9y ago

> I ended up manually deleting all my content, unliking everything, and deleting all my posts. Sounds like its worth waiting a month or two for when they fully implemented GPDR. That probably makes this way easier. (At least for EU residents) Kudos to your hard work and perseverance though!