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How to delete your Facebook search history
Many of us prioritize our privacy by setting our Facebook profiles to private. However, that might not be enough to guard our online footprint. Every search you make on Facebook, whether it’s the one you made a while ago to find the username of your secret crush or to locate a private group, is automatically logged and stored by the platform. While this feature can be useful for quickly revisiting past searches, it can also pose a privacy concern, especially if someone gains access to your account or if you’re sharing a device. In this article, we’ll guide you through the steps to delete your search history on Facebook, ensuring your privacy is maintained.
QUICK ANSWER
To delete your search history on Facebook:
On mobile, go to the search bar --> Tap on the three dots (⋯) next to the to profile --> select Delete. Alternatively, to clear all your searches at once, tap See all in the search bar --> then choose Clear all.
On desktop, locate the search bar --> click the X icon next to each search. As another option, click Edit --> choose Clear searches to remove all of them.
JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS
How to delete Facebook search history on mobile
- Open Facebook and locate the search bar icon at the top (🔍).
- To delete a specific profile from your search history, click the three dots (⋯) button next to the profile you want to remove and then select Delete.
- To clear your entire search history at once, tap See all within the search bar, then click Clear All, and confirm by clicking CLEAR ALL again.
How to delete Facebook search history on desktop
- On your Facebook home page, click on the search bar icon (🔍) and your history list will be displayed.
- You can either delete each search individually by clicking the X icon located to the right of the search entry, or clear all searches by clicking Edit and selecting Clear Searches from the detailed history list that appears.
View others’ profiles anonymously without Facebook recording it
You might be wondering how to prevent Facebook from recording your searches. Here’s a tip for searching and browsing profiles without leaving a trace. While this technique might not work for everyone, we were able to find and view our own profile anonymously using this method. It’s important to note that while this approach lets you view certain details and photos of a profile, it doesn’t provide complete access. If you try to delve deeper, you’ll find that Facebook will prompt you to sign in. So, you can use this method by following these steps:
- Open an incognito window in your browser (The shortcut for most browsers is Ctrl+Shift+N).
- In the search bar, type Facebook [Profile’s Name].
- Click on the first link that appears, and from there, you can browse through the profile.
FAQs
Searches may still appear for various reasons, such as browser cache or Facebook app data retention. To resolve this, you can attempt to clear your device’s cache or clear the Facebook app cache by navigating to Settings –> Apps and notifications –> See all apps –> Facebook –> Storage and cache –> Clear cache. Alternatively, you can log out of Facebook and then log back in.
According to the Facebook Help Center, your activity log is only visible to you, and no one else can see it.
There is no way to completely prevent Facebook from tracking your search history, but you can try using a privacy-focused browser extension, or you can turn off Facebook’s personalized ad settings to make it more difficult to track you.