Taking care of your digital footprint is mandatory on the internet these days. Having a Facebook account that you haven’t used for a long time but still exists on the internet is annoying and unnecessary. You may want to delete it permanently and remove all your old data from the internet.
Facebook requires you to enter your account password in order to delete it. However, you don’t remember it, nor did you write it down anywhere. Fortunately, there are proven ways to permanently delete your old Facebook account without a password.
Let’s dive into troubleshooting.
Reset your password
The easiest way to regain access to your old Facebook account to delete it is to reset your password. The Facebook home screen offers several options when you click on the “Forgot your password” link.
Creating a new account password is simple as long as you know the account’s email address. The phone number associated with the account will also work. If you are lucky enough to still have this information, here are the steps to reset your password:
- Click on the “Forgot your password” link on the Facebook login page.
- Enter the email address or mobile phone number associated with the account.
- Click on “Search”.
- Click “Continue” to send the login code to the email or phone number you entered.
- You will receive the code to your email or phone number. Enter the code and click “Continue”.
- Enter a new password and click “Continue”.
You have now reset your password and regained access to your account. Now go to the account deletion part of the task:
- Sign in to your account.
- Click on the profile icon in the upper right corner of the Facebook panel.
- Go to “Settings and privacy”.
- Go to “Settings” and then “Privacy”.
- Select “Your Facebook Information”.
- Select “Deactivation and deletion” and click “View” on the right.
- Select “Delete Account” and follow the steps.
- Click “Continue to delete account”.
- Enter the password and complete the removal.
What to do if you don’t have login details
In this case, regaining access to the account may be a little more difficult, but it is not impossible. If you can’t remember the email address associated with your account, Facebook will provide hints to help you guess. For example, the email address you associated with the old version may appear as k****[email protected] These suggestions can help you flash your memory and reset your password.
You can also find your account using the link https://www.facebook.com/login/identify. If you search by name, you may not appear in the results. If this is your case, click “I’m not on the list”, enter the friend’s name and proceed to the next search.
Report the account as fake
Following the steps to regain access to your old account and properly delete it may not be easy. However, there is an unorthodox shortcut to doing this. When you report your old account as fake, you can quickly delete it. Since the concept of digital footprint naturally contributes to the birth of many fake accounts, the deletion of fake accounts is expected in the Facebook metaverse.
Here are the steps to report your account as fake:
- Visit your old account profile.
- Click on the three dots in the bottom right of the cover photo.
- Select “Find support or report”.
- Select “Pretend to be someone” and then select “Me”.
You can tell more people to report the account if it doesn’t work the first time. There is a higher chance that Facebook will recognize the account as fake and delete it if there are multiple messages.
Contact the Facebook Help Center
Going directly to Facebook customer support is the route to take if all else fails. Follow these steps to delete your Facebook account permanently without password and without waiting 14 days.
- Go to the Facebook Help Center.
- Follow the instructions and write a request to Facebook support to delete your old account.
- Facebook allows account deletion only after providing the above information and access to the account. It doesn’t allow external parties to access accounts for security reasons, which is reasonable.
There is no direct path
You may want to delete your old Facebook account for several reasons. Not having the necessary information to remove it complicates this task, but there are ways around it.
Deleting an old Facebook account without a password is easy if you have some information about it. If you don’t have any of the information you used to create your account, there’s bad news: your old account will probably stay there forever.
How did you manage to delete your Facebook account without password? Tell us in the comments section below!