Find out how to delete Facebook content! Facebook’s new Timeline has been rolling out for some users. Many of those users enabled the Facebook Timeline as a developer and now cannot disable the “feature”. The new Timeline feels creepy as it displays status updates, wall posts, and pictures from years ago.
Luckily, there is an automated way to delete Facebook content; it doesn’t remove the timeline but it could prevent privacy issues!
Why delete Facebook content?
Back in September Facebook announced several changes to their platform, once of which was a completely redesigned profile page called Facebook Timeline. Facebook Timeline was meant to be a chronological view of your activity on Facebook, or as Facebook would prefer, your life. Sadly, as I pointed out in my previous article on how to disable Facebook Timeline, the new Timeline feels half-baked and sadly you cannot disable Facebook Timeline once it’s enabled. Beyond that it’s just SUPER creepy that someone can so easily scroll back through old updates, photos, etc. I don’t remember what I was doing in 2007 or what I was posting then… do you? Even if you don’t have the new Timeline enabled, you might want to delete old Facebook content because you’re job hunting, dating someone new, or any other reason you might have.
How to delete Facebook content
As luck would have it you and I are not the only people who’d like to clean up old Facebook content. Yes, you COULD close your account but unlike Google+, Facebook refuses to let go of your contact information. So if you close your account you’d be starting from square one.
Michael Devine was looking for a job and decided he didn’t like the fact that Facebook exposed so much information and decided to do something about it. So he wrote an Android app called Exfoliate that “automates the removal of old, forgotten, content from Facebook(tm)”. That app isn’t free, but neither is your time. The app costs $2.99 and can save you a ton of time if you were or are a heavy Facebook user. With Exfoliate you don’t have to delete Facebook content by hand.
* After you’re done here check out my article on how you can automate Exfoliate to delete Facebook content and run it on your PC to leave your phone free to do phone things!
UPDATE: Read my article on how Facebook tracking will deepen with the release of Facebook Messenger!
Using Exfoliate to delete Facebook content
Exfoliate is simple enough to use. Download the app from the Android Market and install it on your phone. On your wall, Exfoliate can remove any post, comment, like, or photo, whether made by you or by others, older than a time you specify. Exfoliate can remove your own posts, comments, likes, and photos, from your friends’ walls too. You can specify in what increments you want it to remove Facebook content: 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, etc.
Exfoliate is easy to use. Here are the three simple steps:
- Set your preferences. Indicate the age of the items you wish removed, from where (your wall and/or friends’ walls) you want the items removed, and the type(s) of items you want removed (posts, comments, likes, photos).
- Log in to your Facebook account using Exfoliate.
- Start the automatic cleaning process.
Yes, it’s that simple.. .but it’s not without flaws. Exfoliate takes a long time to run… some of this is based on Facebook limiting API requests. You’ll certainly want to be on WIFI, and certainly want your phone plugged in. Depending on just how much data you have on Facebook it could take anywhere from a few hours to several DAYS to delete your Facebook content. Cleaning your posts, comments, and likes off of your friends’ walls is what takes the largest share of the time. Luckily, the application is created in a way that you can suspend it from running, and simply restart it to allow it to continue to remove your Facebook content. If you’re on your home WIFI or a network you trust, disable the HTTPS as this will speed things up a lot.
Be aware that once you tell Exfoliate to delete your Facebook content there is no turning back. I’d suggest exporting your Facebook data first. Facebook allows you to download some of your data; things like photos or videos you’ve shared on Facebook, your Wall posts, and your messages and chat conversations (visit your settings page and there is a download button at the bottom of the page). Once that’s done fire up Exfoliate and let it do it’s work.
Check back soon and I’ll be posting how to run Exfoliate from your PC so that you don’t have to keep your phone pre-occupied with removing Facebook content!
* After you’re done here check out my article on how you can automate Exfoliate to delete Facebook content and run it on your PC to leave your phone free to do phone things!
UPDATE: Read my article on how Facebook tracking will deepen with the release of Facebook Messenger!
Hi Paul,
I think that one of the most appreciated “functions” of Facebook is the personal archive the it builds while we use it.
Anyway I imagine that the target of this application are the “privacy maniacs” and the “broken hearts”.
Love the idea just hope it comes out for iPhone or even a Mac application!!
Rumor has it that an iOS version is in the works!
Most Fb users end up playing games, and if you’ve ever played any of the zynga ones you are likely to have thousands of useless posts, comments etc.
Thanks for the info
I think Timeline is a really neat way of creating your autobiography. Use the privacy controls to filter what you want to keep private and what you want made public. Sure, the settings aren’t the most intuitive, but is it really that hard?
I don’t understand why so many consider the new Timeline feature ‘creepy’. Unless Fb users are so ashamed of, or embarrassed about their Facebook activity? If so, perhaps it’s time to look at self-improvement or maybe it’s time they get off Facebook.
VJ, if FB had consistent privacy controls I might agree, but they don’t.
Facebook is going to be a personal web site, not only a social network.
IMHO FB is going to be a content management system not easier than the others, but simply daily used from thousands of people.
If you want i poste something on this on my Blog.
http://www.antoniopatti.it/facebook-content-management-systemification/
this needs to be a desktop app, for those of us who still don’t have an smartphone.
timeline is a disgusting invasion of privacy and I will be closing my account. facebook has taken things too far, the cons outweigh the benefits and this is goodbye. moving on to better things. unlike other facebook losers, I value my privacy and choose not to post up pictures and wall posts and therefore with timeline my profile will look like a sad case. stuff em, why should i care. goodbye fb.
http://www.coveryoface.com/ This actually helps your facebook timeline
Agree with Steve and Fitoschido – Facebook IS an invasion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can’t find exfoliate anymore
I deleted the time line app off facebook.
I have used facebook since Collage and I really need my old facebook profile back to normal can you remove timeline off of my profile and needs to removed this week and can you remove my time line the next morning please. My Folks want it removed off of facebook. it buggered up my posts and etce, that included videos and pictures people can’t my pictures unless the time is removed and people can see my pictures again and my wall also I mame a mistake also can remove my friends as well his Name is Patrick D’Cruz time line is a totall bad effect for me/Patrick we like our time lines off our facebook. and I like them gone and we like our profiles back way it was. no time lines we hate time lines they sick and it is a totall bad effect for us
thanks
Doug.
Doug, how in the blue hell did you get into a ‘collage?’
It’s posts like that that , persuades people to keep returning to a fantastic resource like this site. Much obliged .
time line sucks……can anyone tell me how i can get back to the normal?????
I would love to rave about Exfoliate, but it seems to have a “glitch” when it comes to cleaning my wall/timeline I can’t get around. No matter what settings I use (and I have tried them all) it has left a big chunk of 2010 and 2009 status updates and posts on my timeline. Got rid of early 2012, got rid of all of 2011 and then seem to leave behind chunks of 10 and 09. I check and those posts are there, I run Exfoliate again even saying “get rid of everything starting now” it takes only about 15 seconds to run (because it did that major wipe already) and says it’s all set… leaving those same posts. Help!
It’s my understanding that Exfoliate no longer works.
It’s creepy how FB has made it notoriously difficult to delete ANYTHING…
People who think it’s a cool summation of their lives – how often are you looking at that content? Anything older than a few days is relatively irrelevent, so you have to ask, what good is that old content?
It’s only use is to mine it and sell it to marketing firms. That is it. It should be wildly disturbing to you…. but whatever. I am no privacy maniac, either…. I don’t even think privacy exists anymore. But the unethical tinge to what FB does is flat out ammoral and wrong.
Good article. I will be directing my customers here.
Thanks for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a entertainment account it. Look advanced to far added agreeable from you! By the way, how can we communicate?
Exfoliate no longer works.
Download is done, i found an alternative link but the app no longer works.
Word is, Facebook wrote in code to stop it, what assholes.
That wouldn’t surprise me. Now that they are public, the only thing that matters, in lieu of a failing ad model, is the content generated by users that can be benchmarked, processed, and sold to agencies.
I realize that FB should be more like 4chan, and I started deleting all my old content…. IE a couple days after a post I will delete it. For users, there doesn’t really need to be any memory on FB. It could operate like 4chan, and just let old posts fall away, but it’s not in their biz model.
I killed my old FB account w/ timeline, and started a new one that hasn’t been moved to timeline yet. It’s a better experience, and now I am not leaving data. My previous account was scrubbed when exfoliate still worked.
I am rambling for no other reason than hating FB. ha
FUCK OFF TIMELINE!!!!
This works: http://marciobm.com/post/30122176870/how-to-completely-clear-purge-delete-all-posts-from
Check out http://www.yapzapp.com
Looks like it’s about to launch and is server-based.
Jim… any “service” that allows this is VERY likely to be in violation of the ToS for Facebook and won’t last long.
Paul,
That’s why scripts are our best bet, they’ll last till Facebook change something on the page structure, making the script fail. I used that one I suggested a few comments ago (http://marciobm.com/post/30122176870/how-to-completely-clear-purge-delete-all-posts-from) and it worked, I deleted my entire Facebook timeline, but it gives you choices, so you can delete likes or posts, if you like.
hey paul i cant find Exfoliate … any new ones ?
For those who’ve asked I tracked down an old copy of Exfoliate. I DOUBT that it works anymore and have not tried it myself but here ya go: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/230361/com.worb.android.exfoliate-a9489ae1642b724984f85f9ab72ca96d.apk.gz