How to Delete Deactivated Friends from Facebook

We all have strange friends on Facebook. Some regularly post obnoxious stuff, while others don’t use Facebook at all. Worse still, some bombard you with game invites. Eventually, we want to unfriend these characters. Unfriending a person is easy, but what if the person has deactivated their account? How do you unfriend them?

Well, there is a way to remove deactivated profiles. You will need the Facebook website to do this because you can’t delete these profiles from the mobile apps.

Before we get into the action, let’s take a step back and understand what happens when someone deactivates their account.

What Happens with the Deactivated Facebook Account

Deactivating a Facebook profile temporarily hides it from other users. The deactivated profile, including photos and other content, remains on Facebook. None of the data is deleted and will reappear if the profile is reactivated.

Unfriend Deactivated Profiles

To remove deactivated profiles from your Facebook account, visit the Friends section. Find and identify the ghost profiles you want to remove, then unfriend them. Here are the detailed steps.

1. Open Facebook Friends Section

Visiting the Friends section is crucial to view someone’s Facebook profile, as it cannot be accessed through the search function alone. The Friends section can be found in the following ways:

Method 1: From Your Profile

To review the text and make it more concise and impactful, we can eliminate redundant words and simplify the phrasing while maintaining the original meaning.

“Open Facebook and go to your profile by clicking your profile picture icon in the top bar. Then click Friends below your cover photo.”

Method 2: From the Home Page

On the Facebook website, click on Friend lists in the left sidebar. Then, click See All Friends at the top.

Method 3: Use Direct Link

Open the link to go directly to the Friends section.

2. Find and Identify Deactivated Profiles

Now that you can see all your Facebook friends, it’s time to find and identify deactivated profiles.

How to Identify Deactivated Accounts

Deactivated profiles cannot be accessed through search, as mentioned earlier. So under Friends, you will have to look for certain clues.

For starters, deactivated profiles do not have a profile picture. Instead, they have the default Facebook silhouette. However, not every profile with a silhouette picture indicates deactivation. Some people may have removed their profile picture.

Another way to identify deactivated profiles is to check the total number of mutual friends next to their name. If the profile has the default Facebook image and no mutual friends, it means the account has been deactivated.

Lastly, the easiest way to know is to click on the profile with the default Facebook image. If the profile is available, you will be taken to it. However, if it has been deactivated, you will get the pop-up saying that the account has been deactivated.

Look for Deactivated Accounts

Once you know how to find deactivated accounts, you can start looking for them. There are two cases to consider: finding a specific Facebook friend who has deactivated their account or finding all deactivated profiles.

In the first case, if you know who you want to unfriend, such as an ex, you can use the search box. Simply type their name in the ‘Search for your friends’ box on the Friends page.

To find multiple deactivated profiles at once, repeat the above method. Type A-Z alphabets in the search query one by one and look for deactivated profiles. You can also scroll through your friends list to find such profiles. Unfortunately, there is no simple way to achieve this.

3. Remove Deactivated Friends

Finally, when you locate the deactivated profile, click the Friends option next to their name and choose Unfriend from the menu.

Click on the name under Friends to open a pop-up. Click Unfriend.

What Happens When You Unfriend Deactivated Friends

When you deactivate a friend’s profile, it will be removed from your list. You won’t have access to their private posts, stories, or the ability to interact with them. If you want to regain those privileges, you’ll need to re-add them as a friend.

Should You Remove Deactivated Friends?

I would advise against deactivating your Facebook profile unless you’re willing to end your friendship with someone. Deactivating your profile is only a temporary action, as the other person’s account still exists. Therefore, when they reactivate their profile, you will no longer be friends with them.

How are the silent profiles in the Friends section bothering you? Unless they really bother you, the answer is no.

Time to Bid Goodbye or Not

Here’s how you can remove ghost profiles from your account. However, if you choose to keep them on your friends list, there are alternative ways to stop interacting with them. You can hide, unfollow, or put them in a restricted list. Luckily, these features won’t unfriend you or notify them, so you can live happily without deleting them.

Next: Want to block someone on Facebook but unsure of the repercussions? Read the post to learn what happens after blocking and unblocking someone on Facebook.