Facebook is one of the best social platforms to connect with friends, family, co-workers, employees, and members of the community. However, we all will agree that we spend an enormous amount of time scrolling down the feed without the track of time. It is such an addictive social platform, therefore, most people delete or deactivate their accounts to get some time off of it. But we all should agree that to lead a healthy life, deactivating or deleting any social account is not the solution. We should rather build healthy habits to lead a healthy and successful life. With that being said, if you want to recover your deleted Facebook account, here is the best guide to help you learn how to recover a deleted Facebook account.
Difference Between Deactivating and Deleting Your Facebook Account
Before we learn to retrieve a deleted Facebook account, we should know the difference between deactivating and deleting a Facebook account.
There are people who are confused between deleting a Facebook account or deactivating a Facebook account. If you are one of them, here is the difference between deactivating or deleting a Facebook account.
Deactivating Facebook Account
When you deactivate your Facebook account, it is temporarily disabled. Besides, deactivation is a reversible process that means that can easily open your account again any time you want. However, Facebook hides your account and no one can search your account once you deactivate it.
Your messages will still be in your contacts’ messenger inboxes and your comments on posts will still be visible. And you can still access your messenger account even if you have deactivated your Facebook account. Because your data is still out there.
Deleting Facebook Account
However, if you delete your Facebook account, it is permanently deleted. So, your data is permanently lost. Therefore, nobody can access your account. However, your messages are not deleted even if you delete your account.
Once you decide to delete your account, you get a chance to change your mind within 30 days. Besides, Facebook holds your data for about 90 days on its server. After the time period is completed, your account and data are permanently erased.
Moreover, you will not be able to use any other apps and software that you have signed up with your Facebook account.
How to Recover a Deactivated Facebook Account
As we mentioned earlier, you can easily recover a deactivated Facebook account. But you have to know your login information including your username (email or contact number that you used to create your account in the first place) and password.
So, if you have deactivated your account and you want to reactivate it, you can follow the steps below to get your account back.
- Open the “Facebook” app or go to the official “Facebook” website.
- Enter your “user name and password”.
- Then, click on “Login”.
Once you login into your account, your account will automatically be reactivated.
How to Recover a Deleted Facebook Account Before 30 Days
We mentioned above that even if you delete your Facebook account permanently, you can still access your account. Because Facebook gives a fixed time period before actually erasing all your data and deleting your account. So, you can still recover your account within 30 days.
Before you had only 2 weeks or 14 days to change your mind and recover your account. But the increasing number of people who requested to get their account back made Facebook extend the time period to 30 days.
Therefore, even if you delete your account, you can still recover it within 30 days. To do so, follow the following steps.
- Launch the Facebook app on your phone or go to the official Facebook website.
- Enter your login information including your email or contact number and password.
- Then, select “Login”.
- Next, you will be taken to a reminder that tells you whether you are sure that you want to cancel the deletion. So, click on “Cancel Deletion”.
Once you click on “Cancel Deletion”, your account will be reactivated back.
How to Recover a Deleted Facebook Account Using Trusted Contacts
If you ever decide to delete your account, you can choose any of your friends to be your “trusted contact” to be on the safer side. In case you decide to reactivate your deleted account, you can easily do so.
When you make someone your trusted contact, they get a unique link that contains a code. You can use the code to recover your deleted Facebook account. So, if you change your mind, you can ask them to send the code and login back into your Facebook account.
How to Add Trusted Contacts
If you do not know how to make a trusted contact, you can follow the steps below.
- Open your Facebook account and click on the drop-down menu at the top of the screen.
- Then, select “Settings and Privacy”.
3. Next, select “Security and Login” and scroll down to “Choose 3 to 5 friends to contact if you get locked out”.
4. Click on “Edit” and select “Choose Friends”.
5. Select “Choose Trusted Contact” on the pop-up.
6. Then, choose at least three friends and click on “Confirm”.
Once you click confirm, your selected friends get a notification. Then, once you are locked out, you can choose to get help from them.
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