How to delete Facebook WITHOUT losing all your friends and photos

WANT to delete your Facebook account, but scared of permanently losing all the friends, photos and videos you've gained over the years?

This article explains how to do this, covering how to download your friends and photos, and how to delete your Facebook account once and for all.

3

Downloading your friend and photo information

3

Facebook gives you the option of downloading all the data it has collected on you over the years.

However, you may not necessarily have a strong emotional attachment to your marketplace activity or payment history, so here's how to download only your friends, photos and videos.

1. Log into Facebook on your computer and go to
2. Click
3. Click
4. Scroll down slightly and click Deselect all
5. Click Photos and videos, so that a tick appears in the small box on its right
6. Click Friends, so that a tick appears in the small box on its right
7. Click Create File, which downloads your data

Having done this, you'll then see a box appear above the "Your information" subheading which says, "Your file is being processed."

It will take Facebook anything from a few minutes to an hour to make your file downloadable (depending on how much data you have).

Once it's ready, you can download it by clicking the "Available files" tab and then clicking "Download."

If it takes a while for the file to become downloadable, you can try reloading the "Download your information" page again.

Deleting your Facebook account permanently

Next, you can permanently delete your Facebook account by following this path: Settings > Your Facebook Information > Delete Your Account and Information > Delete My Account

Alternatively, you can reach the "Delete My Account" page directly by clicking this .

There, you then need to enter your password, click Continue and then click Delete Account.

This deletes your account permanently, although you need to wait 30 days before the permanent deletion will actually be completed.

And a word of warning: if you log into Facebook at any point during this 30 day-period, the deletion process will be cancelled, and you'll have to start it all over again.

Also, if you'd prefer to take a temporary break from Facebook, you should deactivate rather than delete your account.

MOST READ IN TECH

JUICY APPLE

Is Apple plotting a huge FREEBIE? Fans speculate after company's cryptic post

GAME ON!

Gamers have hours left to claim a 'real masterpiece' title worth £35 for free

SWITCH OFF

Two beloved channels REPLACED on Sky and Virgin Media today in TV guide shake-up

SUNSATIONAL

Nasa spacecraft protected by 8ft heat shield makes closest-ever pass of the Sun

Why are people deleting Facebook?

3

The #DeleteFacebook campaign has been picking up steam ever since November 2016, when reports alleged that the social network had been used on a large scale in order to influence the outcome of the US presidential election.

The situation has been made worse in the UK by similar suspicions that the Russian government used Facebook to spread disinformation around the time of the snap general election of June 2017 and the Brexit referendum of 2016.

And at the end of September, fears over the security of Facebook users' private data were stoked further when the social network suffered a massive hack, in which three coding bugs allowed hackers to breach 50 million accounts.

Have you deleted your Facebook account? Thinking about it? Share your experiences in the comments below!

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.