Facebook How-To Guide 2026: Change Name, Delete Account, Lock Profile, See History and More

Facebook has changed a lot since most of us first signed up. The menus have moved, settings live in new places, and Meta's Accounts Center now controls things that used to be buried deep in Privacy Settings. If you've been searching for how to do something on Facebook in 2026 and keep hitting outdated guides, this is the one you need. We've covered the most searched Facebook how-to questions all in one place — updated for the current interface.

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How to Change Your Name on Facebook (2026)

Facebook now routes all name changes through the Accounts Center. Here's how to do it:

On Desktop:

1. Click your profile picture in the top right corner
2. Go to Settings & Privacy → Settings
3. Click Accounts Center in the left menu
4. Click Profiles and select your Facebook account
5. Tap your name to edit it
6. Enter your new name, click Review change
7. Select your preferred display format and click Save changes

On Mobile (Android & iPhone):

1. Tap the menu icon (three lines)
2. Go to Settings & Privacy → Settings
3. Tap Accounts Center → Profiles
4. Select your Facebook profile
5. Tap your name, enter the new name, tap Review change then Save

Important things to know:

• Facebook limits name changes to once every 60 days
• You must use your real name — fake names or business names on personal profiles can get your account flagged
• If the change fails on mobile, try from a desktop browser instead
• Your profile name, username, and Page name are three different things — changing one doesn't change the others

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How to Delete Your Facebook Account Permanently (2026)

Deleting your Facebook account is permanent after 30 days. Before you do it, download your data and update any apps that use Facebook Login.

On Desktop:

1. Click your profile picture → Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Click Accounts Center in the left menu
3. Go to Personal details → Account ownership and control → Deactivation or deletion
4. Select your Facebook account
5. Choose Delete account and click Continue
6. Enter your password and confirm
7. Click Delete account — your 30-day grace period begins immediately

On Mobile:

1. Tap the menu icon → Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Tap Accounts Center → Personal details
3. Tap Account ownership and control → Deactivation or deletion
4. Select your Facebook account
5. Choose Delete account and follow the prompts

What you need to know:

• You have 30 days to change your mind — just log back in to cancel
• After 30 days, Facebook takes up to 90 more days to remove all backup data
• Deleting Facebook does not delete Instagram — they are separate accounts
• Deleting Facebook does remove Messenger access
• Messages you sent to others will still be visible on their end

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How to Deactivate Facebook (Temporarily Pause Your Account)

Deactivation hides your profile without deleting anything. You can come back any time.

On Desktop:

1. Click your profile picture → Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Click Accounts Center
3. Go to Personal details → Account ownership and control → Deactivation or deletion
4. Select your Facebook account
5. Choose Deactivate account and follow the prompts

On Mobile:

1. Tap menu → Settings & Privacy → Settings → Accounts Center
2. Tap Personal details → Account ownership and control
3. Tap Deactivation or deletion → Deactivate account

What happens when you deactivate:

• Your profile disappears from search and feeds
• Friends can still see your name in old messages
• You can keep using Messenger even while deactivated
• Reactivate any time by simply logging back in

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How to Lock Your Facebook Profile (2026)

Profile lock prevents people who aren't your friends from seeing your full profile, photos, or posts. It's available in all regions now.

On Mobile:

1. Go to your profile page
2. Tap the three-dot menu (…) below your cover photo
3. Tap Lock Profile
4. Tap Lock Your Profile to confirm

On Desktop:

1. Go to your profile
2. Click the three-dot menu below your cover photo
3. Select Lock Profile
4. Confirm

What locking does:

• Non-friends see only a limited view of your profile
• Your full-size profile photo and cover photo are hidden from non-friends
• Your posts and photos are hidden from non-friends
• Stories are only visible to friends

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How to See Your Facebook History and Activity Log (2026)

Your Activity Log shows everything you've done on Facebook — posts, likes, comments, searches.

On Desktop:

1. Click your profile picture to go to your profile
2. Click the three-dot menu below your cover photo
3. Select Activity log
4. Filter by category — Posts, Likes, Comments, Search history, etc.

On Mobile:

1. Tap your profile picture to go to your profile
2. Tap the three-dot menu
3. Tap Activity log
4. Use the filters at the top to find specific activity

To see your Search History specifically:

• In Activity Log, tap or click Filters
• Select Search history
• You can delete individual searches or clear all

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How to Change Your Facebook Password (2026)

On Desktop:

1. Click your profile picture → Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Click Security and login in the left menu
3. Under Login, click Change password
4. Enter your current password, then your new password twice
5. Click Save changes

On Mobile:

1. Tap menu → Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Tap Password and security
3. Tap Change password
4. Enter current and new password, tap Save changes

If you've forgotten your password:

• Go to facebook.com and click Forgotten password?
• Enter your email or phone number
• Follow the reset instructions sent to your email or phone

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How to Make Your Facebook Profile Public or Private (2026)

To control who sees your posts:

1. Click your profile picture → Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Click Privacy in the left menu
3. Under Your activity, click Who can see your future posts?
4. Choose Public, Friends, Friends except, or Only me

To change the audience on past posts all at once:

1. Go to Settings → Privacy
2. Scroll to Your activity
3. Click Limit the audience for old posts on your timeline
4. Click Limit past posts — this sets all previous Public posts to Friends only

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How to Delete Past Posts on Facebook (2026)

You can delete posts individually or manage them in bulk through Activity Log.

Delete a single post:

1. Find the post on your timeline
2. Click or tap the three-dot menu in the top right of the post
3. Select Delete post and confirm

Delete multiple posts at once:

1. Go to your profile → click the three-dot menu → Activity log
2. Filter by Posts
3. Select the posts you want to remove using the checkbox
4. Click Delete to remove them all at once

To hide a post without deleting:

• Click the three-dot menu on any post
• Select Hide from profile — the post stays but won't show on your timeline

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How to Remove a Subscriber on Facebook (2026)

Subscribers are people who follow your public posts without being friends.

To turn off followers entirely:

1. Go to Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Click Privacy → Public posts
3. Under Who can follow me, change from Public to Friends
4. This removes all followers who aren't your friends

To block a specific person:

1. Go to their profile
2. Click the three-dot menu
3. Select Block — this removes them as a follower and prevents future contact

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How to Change Your Facebook Language (2026)

On Desktop:

1. Click your profile picture → Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Click Language and region in the left menu
3. Under Facebook language, click Edit
4. Select your preferred language from the dropdown
5. Click Save changes

On Mobile:

1. Tap menu → Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Scroll down to Language
3. Tap Language and select your preferred option

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How to Download Your Facebook Data (2026)

Before deleting your account — or just to have a backup — download everything Facebook has stored about you.

On Desktop:

1. Click your profile picture → Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Click Your Facebook information in the left menu
3. Click Download your information
4. Select the date range, format (HTML or JSON), and what to include
5. Click Request a download — Facebook emails you when it's ready

On Mobile:

1. Tap menu → Settings & Privacy → Settings
2. Tap Your Facebook information → Download your information
3. Select your preferences and tap Create file

The download includes your posts, photos, messages, friend list, search history, ads data, and more.

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Quick Reference: Where Everything Lives in Facebook 2026

What you want to do	Where to find it
Change name	Accounts Center → Profiles
Delete account	Accounts Center → Personal details → Account ownership
Deactivate account	Accounts Center → Personal details → Account ownership
Change password	Settings → Security and login
Lock profile	Your profile → three-dot menu
See activity/history	Your profile → three-dot menu → Activity log
Change privacy settings	Settings → Privacy
Change language	Settings → Language and region
Download your data	Settings → Your Facebook information
Remove subscribers	Settings → Privacy → Public posts

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Facebook's interface keeps evolving but the core actions remain the same — they just keep moving them deeper into menus. Bookmark this page and you'll always know where to look.

Sociolatte has been covering Facebook and social media since 2009. Published April 22, 2026.