You probably have a lot of digital baggage. Think back to 2012. Maybe you were posting cryptic song lyrics or grainy photos of a brunch that, in hindsight, looked pretty unappetizing. Now, you're looking for a fresh start. You want to know how to delete all posts from Facebook at once because clicking "delete" on 2,500 individual status updates is a special kind of hell nobody has time for.
Facebook doesn't exactly make this easy. They want your data. They want your memories. They want you to stay tethered to the platform by the sheer weight of your own history. But the tools exist, even if they're buried under three layers of settings menus.
The Manage Activity trick they don't advertise
Most people look for a "Delete Everything" button on their profile page. It isn't there. Instead, you have to dive into the Activity Log. This is the nerve center of your Facebook existence.
On the mobile app—which is honestly the best way to do this—you tap the three dots near your profile edit button. From there, hit Activity Log and then Manage Your Posts. This is where the magic happens. You’ll see a little checkbox labeled "All."
It’s tempting to think you’re one click away from freedom. Not quite. Facebook usually caps these bulk actions. If you have 10,000 posts, checking "All" might only select the most recent 40 or 50. You have to scroll. Scroll more. Keep scrolling until the archive loads, then hit that checkbox again. It's a bit of a dance between you and the server.
Once you hit "Trash," those posts aren't gone-gone. Not yet. They sit in a digital purgatory for 30 days. This is Facebook’s "are you sure?" safety net. If you’re truly done, you have to go into the Trash folder within the Activity Log and manually empty it. Only then is the data actually scrubbed from your public profile.
Why third-party extensions are a gamble
You might have heard of browser extensions like "Social Book Post Manager." For years, these were the gold standard for anyone trying to figure out how to delete all posts from Facebook at once. They worked by mimicking human clicks, automating the tedious process of clicking "delete" over and over again while you went to make a sandwich.
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But things changed.
Facebook’s code is a moving target. They update their CSS classes and UI elements constantly. An extension that worked on Tuesday might be broken by Wednesday morning. Even worse, handing over your login credentials or session tokens to a random Chrome extension is a massive security risk. You’re basically giving a stranger the keys to your digital life.
I’ve seen people lose their entire accounts—not because they deleted their posts, but because the extension they used was flagged as "suspicious automation" by Facebook’s security bots. The account gets locked. The recovery process is a nightmare. Honestly, sticking to the native tools is slower, but it won't get you banned.
The nuclear option: Deactivation vs. Deletion
If the goal is to just make everything disappear, sometimes people confuse deleting posts with deleting the account. There’s a big difference.
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Deactivating is like putting your house in a witness protection program. It’s still there, but the lights are off and the windows are boarded up. People can’t find you. Your posts vanish from their timelines. But the moment you log back in to use Spotify or check a Marketplace listing, the whole house lights up again.
Deleting the account is the only way to truly ensure the data is purged from Facebook’s servers eventually. But even then, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) notes in their Terms of Service that it can take up to 90 days to remove everything from their backup systems. And if you’ve sent messages to friends? Those stay in their inboxes. You can’t delete your way out of someone else’s history.
Filters are your best friend
Maybe you don't actually want to delete everything. Maybe you just want to erase the "University Years" or that one specific relationship that ended badly.
Inside the Manage Activity tool, there’s a filter icon. Use it. You can sort by:
- Categories: Just photos, just status updates, or just posts from other apps.
- Date ranges: This is the big one. You can set a start and end date.
- People: If you want to scrub mentions of a specific person.
This is way more surgical. It prevents the "Delete Regret" that happens when you realize you accidentally nuked the only photos you had of a late grandparent or a childhood pet.
What about the "Archive" feature?
Before you go scorched earth, consider archiving. Archiving moves your posts to a folder that only you can see. It effectively achieves the same goal as deleting—nobody else can see your cringey 2009 posts—but you keep the data.
It’s the middle ground for people who have trust issues with the cloud but aren't ready to let go of the memories. You can archive in bulk using the exact same steps as the delete method in the Activity Log. Just hit "Archive" instead of "Trash."
Dealing with the technical lag
When you try to how to delete all posts from Facebook at once, the site will probably lag. It might even crash. You’re asking a database to perform thousands of deletions simultaneously.
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If the "Select All" button seems to be doing nothing, try doing it in year-sized chunks. Start with 2010. Move to 2011. It’s less strain on the browser and less likely to trigger a "rate limit" error. Facebook’s systems are designed to prevent bots from scraping or destroying data, so when you act like a bot by deleting 5,000 things in a second, the system gets twitchy.
Actionable Next Steps
- Download your information first. Go to Settings > Your Facebook Information > Download Your Information. Get a copy of everything. You might not want it now, but you might want it in ten years.
- Use the Mobile App. The "Manage Activity" interface is significantly more stable and user-friendly on iOS and Android than it is on the desktop site.
- Check your "Posts You're Tagged In." Deleting your own posts doesn't remove the photos your Aunt Linda tagged you in. You have to go to "Activity You're Tagged In" and remove the tags manually or hide them from your profile.
- Clear the Trash. Remember that the Trash folder is not empty until you manually clear it, or until 30 days have passed. If you need it gone now, you have to do that second step.
- Review Third-Party Apps. While you're in the cleaning mood, go to your Apps and Websites settings and remove all those old quizzes and games that still have access to your profile data. Scrubbing posts is only half the battle for privacy.
Taking control of your digital footprint is a bit of a chore, but it's worth it for the peace of mind. Just take it slow, use the built-in filters, and make sure you've got a backup before you hit that final confirmation button.