Delete all Facebook posts with Manage activity

To delete all Facebook posts, or as many of them as you like, without deleting your account, use Facebook's own tool for it: Manage activity, in your activity log. It lets you pick posts by year or by who's tagged, then move them to the archive, where only you can see them, or to the trash, where they're deleted after 30 days. This guide covers where to find it, the difference between the two, and what to save before you start.

Yes, which sets Facebook apart from X and YouTube, where you delete one at a time. In Manage activity you select one or more posts, photos and videos at a time and choose what happens to them. You have two choices:

• Move to archive: the post stays on Facebook, but only you can see it. Restore it later and it goes back to the audience it had before.
• Move to trash: the post is hidden from everyone but you and deleted 30 days later, unless you restore it first or delete it sooner.

Meta says that, right now, Manage activity works only in the Facebook app for Android or iPhone, and in Facebook Lite. On a computer you can archive or trash posts one at a time instead, from each post's menu.

1. In the Facebook app, tap your profile picture in the top left to open your profile.
2. Tap the Options button below your profile picture, then Activity Log.
3. Scroll down and tap Manage Your Posts. That's where your photos, videos, text and status updates are.

Manage activity only lists what it's able to move, so if an item from your activity log is missing, it's one Facebook doesn't let you archive or trash from here.

Years of posts are easier to clear a stretch at a time. Tap Filters at the top of Manage Your Posts and narrow the list by:

• Date, for a start and an end, such as everything before you changed jobs.
• People, for the posts you were tagged in with someone.
• Categories, for one kind of activity at a time.

Then select the posts you want gone, tap Move to trash and confirm. A working order: one year per pass, oldest first, then the same filter again to check it's empty.

If you're not sure, archive. An archived post is visible only to you, and nothing is lost: restoring it puts it back for the same audience as before. In Manage activity, select the posts and tap Move to archive.

To restore one in the app, open your activity log and tap Archive at the top, tick the post and tap Restore. On a computer, click your profile picture in the top right, then Settings & Privacy, then Activity Log, and in the menu on the left, Archive, then Post Archive. From a post you archived there, choose Restore to profile.

Archived posts can still go to the trash later: in Archive, tick them and tap Trash, then Move to Trash.

Moving a post to the trash doesn't delete it straight away. For 30 days it waits there, visible only to you, and you can restore it to where you first posted it, move it to your archive, or delete it for good before the 30 days are up. After 30 days it's deleted and can't be restored.

1. Open your activity log and tap Trash at the top.
2. Tick the posts, and tap Restore to bring them back, or Delete to remove them now.
3. Confirm.

Meta notes that until it's deleted, what sits in your trash is still covered by its terms and privacy policy.

Your activity log manages only some of what you've done on Facebook, and not everything in it can be archived or trashed from Manage activity. Your Facebook Stories, and your messages on Facebook and in Messenger, are archived from their own places instead.

Deleted posts can't come back after the 30 days, so keep a copy first. Facebook's Export your information tool saves what you've shared, your activity and what Facebook collects, to your device or to another service. Choose only the kinds of information you want, since high-quality videos make the files larger.

You'll find it in Accounts Center or in Meta Account settings, depending on which one your account has moved to: on a computer, click your profile picture in the top right, then Settings & privacy, then Settings. If you'd rather keep a simple list of the posts you're removing, our guide to keeping a copy of what you see on a page shows how to get one into a spreadsheet.

If you connected an app to clear your Facebook, remove its access when you're done. On a computer, click your profile picture in the top right, then Settings & privacy, then Settings, and Apps and websites in the menu on the left. Click Remove next to the app, and Remove again to confirm. If you gave one your password, change it as well.

Clearing other sites too? See how to delete all tweets on X, delete all your YouTube comments and delete all your Reddit comments.

Tabless is a browser extension that builds what you ask for from the sites you allow; nothing is typed or submitted without your OK. It isn't open yet.

We're building it so you can ask for a view of your own posts, say everything you shared in 2015 that mentions your old school, to find the ones you want gone. It's designed so a row's button can run the click you'd make on that post, after your OK, one row at a time, with daily limits for each site. It's for your own account, and the site's own rules still apply.

Yes. Manage Your Posts lists the photos and videos you shared alongside your text posts and status updates, and they go to the archive or the trash the same way. Anything Manage activity can't move doesn't show up there.

No. An archived post is visible only to you. If you restore it, it goes back to the audience you chose before you archived it.

Not yet. Tabless isn't open, and finding the posts you want gone is one of the jobs we're building it for. Join the waitlist, and we'll let you know when you can try Tabless.