Imagine searching for a friend’s profile on Facebook to message them or see their posts, and the next thing you know, you aren’t Facebook friends anymore! You immediately wonder if they’ve removed you or if you unfriended them by accident.
You are not alone if you’ve noticed your friends suddenly disappear from your Facebook friend list. Many users have been experiencing this issue lately, making them curious, confused, and annoyed. But why does it happen? Does Facebook Delete Friends just like that?
Well, no, it doesn’t. There are many reasons for that which we will explore in this article and answer your question: does Facebook randomly delete friends? Let’s find out why friends suddenly disappear from Facebook’s friend list and why they remove friends without them knowing.
Does Facebook Delete Friends?
When your Facebook friends disappear and reappear, it’s natural to think that maybe Facebook removes friends out of the blue intentionally. That’s untrue because it doesn’t and cannot do that.
The simplest explanation is that perhaps there’s a glitch or a bug in the app, or the Facebook algorithm has messed up, which is why your friends are disappearing from your friend list. Let’s explore why that happens and why Facebook friends disappear and reappear.
Facebook Deleting Friends Glitch 2023
As mentioned above, a glitch in the app is one of the most obvious reasons for this issue. Social media platforms often fall prey to such bugs, and technical teams can take a while to resolve them. Unfortunately, these bugs and glitches are unavoidable and can cause user frustration and disappointment.
The same happened with Facebook earlier this year when users were suddenly losing friends from their friend list, leading to questions, concerns, and confusion. Online discussion forums like Reddit and Quora were abuzz with this concern. So many Facebook users realized that it wasn’t just them. It was happening to a lot of people.
If Facebook has removed your friends without knowing, you might have to add them back to restore your friendship. Once deleted, they don’t automatically reappear in your friend list, and you need to send them a friend request. That’s the only solution to fix this issue.
You Unintentionally Removed Them
Besides technical glitches, numerous other explanations exist for why you cannot find a specific friend on your Facebook friend list.
Is it possible that you unintentionally and accidentally removed them? This common occurrence can happen to anyone, and there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. When making a clean sweep on Facebook, you often unfriend someone accidentally while removing others.
Or, perhaps, you removed them when mindlessly scrolling through Facebook while half-asleep. Again, sending them a friend request and adding them back is the only solution.
The Friend Removed You
Another reason Facebook removes friends is not because of something you did but because they removed you intentionally or by accident. No telling whether they did it accidentally or on purpose unless you ask them about it.
If it’s the latter, you can do nothing about it, and it’s best to move on. But, in the former case, they’ll probably add you back, or you can send them a friend request from your end, too.
The Friend Deactivated or Deleted their Account
Another explanation for ‘Does Facebook automatically delete friends’ is that the friend may have deactivated or deleted their account, so you can no longer find them in your Facebook friend list. In this case, however, you don’t need to send them a friend request again to add them back, for they’ll automatically reappear in your friend list once they reactivate their account.
This is only true when someone has temporarily deactivated their Facebook account. If they delete it permanently, they obviously can’t bring the same account back and will have to create a new one.
The Friend’s Account Has Been Suspended
Like any other social media platform, Facebook also follows certain community guidelines and policies, and if you go against them, it may result in account suspension or deletion. So, suppose you cannot find a particular friend in your friend list and are wondering why Facebook friends disappear and reappear. In that case, it’s plausible that they violated Facebook’s community guidelines.
In case of suspension, Facebook usually suspends user accounts for a limited period and notifies the user too. So, the best thing to do here is wait until Facebook restores your friend’s account.
Your Account Was Hacked or Compromised
Like any other social media platform, Facebook is not immune to being hacked by online hackers and unknown users. Your Facebook account may have been hacked or compromised, which resulted in you losing a significant number of your friend list or possibly all of them.
In this case, the only thing you can do is send individual friend requests to all those people, but before doing that, you must increase the privacy and protection of your Facebook account. A few things you can do here are:
- Change your current password immediately, and choose a hard one.
- Never use the same password for Facebook and other social media platforms, websites, or apps.
- Never share your login information with anyone, including your close friends or family.
- Online scammers and hackers often create fake Facebook links or websites, so if you use Facebook on a Web browser, always check the website’s URL.
- Set up two-factor authentication for your Facebook account, adding another layer of security and protection, significantly minimizing the risk of your account being hacked or compromised.
Facebook App Cache
This is quite unlikely, but still, possibly the reason why Facebook might be removing friends from your friend list.
You can easily clear the app cache on Facebook by following a few simple steps:
- Click the main menu icon in the bottom-right corner.
- Go to Settings & Privacy and choose Settings.
- Go to Profile Settings, Browser, and tap ‘Clear’ to delete your browsing data.
- Delete the Facebook app from your phone and then reinstall it, which is a necessary step to clear the Facebook app cache on your device.
- Enter your login details to sign in, and that’s about it.
Once you’ve cleared the cache, go through your Facebook friend list to see if the person’s account profile appears in the list.
FAQs
Does Facebook randomly delete friends?
No, Facebook never randomly deletes friends from any user’s friend list. If you are losing friends on Facebook just like that, there can be multiple reasons, such as technical glitches, bugs in the app, your friend deleted or deactivated their account, or your account was hacked, to list a few.
Does Facebook notify people if you unfriend them?
No, Facebook doesn’t notify users if you unfriend or remove them.
If I re-friend someone on Facebook after unfriending them, will they find out?
Yes, they will. While unfriending someone doesn’t notify them, re-friending them does. To re-friend someone on Facebook, you need to send them a friend request which will appear in their notifications as ‘Person X sent you a friend request.’
Is Facebook removing friends without them knowing?
No, that’s not true. However, there was a ‘Facebook deleting friends glitch’ earlier this year, which caused a lot of confusion and chaos among users. There was a technical glitch in Facebook’s system that was causing people to lose friends from their friend lists.
Conclusion
We hope this article has answered your question: does Facebook delete friends? You can now be at peace knowing that Facebook doesn’t automatically delete or remove friends. If it’s happening with you, it could be due to the reasons mentioned above in the article ranging from app malfunction, hacked or compromised account, account suspension, deletion, or deactivation.
This post first appeared on Top 10 Effective Marketing Strategies For Gen Z Consumers, please read the originial post: here
