Social Media · Windows
Temporarily Deactivate a Facebook Account
Source-checked About 10 minutes
Answer
In Accounts Center, open Personal details > Account ownership and control > Deactivation or deletion, choose the profile, select Deactivate, and confirm.
Choose deactivation, not deletion
Deactivation is intended to be temporary; deletion starts a separate removal process. Before continuing, confirm the exact Facebook profile, download information you need, and review connected services that rely on Facebook Login.
Protect Pages you alone control
Check every Page for which your profile is the only person with full control. Give another trusted person appropriate control first if the Page must remain active, and verify they have accepted before deactivating.
Open Accounts Center
In Facebook Settings, open Accounts Center > Personal details > Account ownership and control > Deactivation or deletion. Meta may place Accounts Center in a different menu position, but the selected profile is what determines the result.
Select the correct profile
Choose the Facebook account or profile you intend to pause, select Deactivate account, and continue. Read each consequence shown for Messenger, Pages, groups, login access, and visibility instead of assuming all associated services stop.
Confirm the temporary change
Enter the password or complete the security check requested by Facebook, choose a reason if required, review reactivation options, and confirm deactivation.
Verify from a signed-out session
Sign out on another browser or use a private window to check that the intended profile is unavailable. Do not repeatedly sign back in merely to test, because logging in can reactivate the account.
Reactivate deliberately
When ready, sign in to Facebook again with the same account and complete any security prompts. After reactivation, review Page access, Messenger, privacy, and connected-app settings rather than assuming every prior setting remained unchanged.
Video walkthrough
If it does not work
- If the option is missing, confirm you selected the Facebook profile rather than an Instagram profile in Accounts Center and use Meta's current deactivation article. If you cannot sign in or pass security checks, recover the account first; do not pay a third party or share authentication codes to deactivate it.
Sources and verification
Checked against official documentation on . Scope: Windows.
Follow the linked first-party guidance if labels differ after a platform or app update.