You can remove friends from your Facebook account at any time using these instructions, and the good news is that your friend won’t be notified that you’ve removed them.

Question: Most of my friends on Facebook are awesome, but there are a couple that I don’t want to follow any longer, and one who tends to post offensive comments. How can I remove them as my friend, and will they know I’ve removed them?

Answer: You can remove friends from your Facebook account at any time using the instructions below, and the good news is that your friend won’t be notified that you’ve removed them (and neither will your other friends).

Here’s how to unfriend or remove someone from your Facebook account:

Step 1: Find your friend

The easiest way to find your friend on Facebook is to click “Friends” on the Facebook menu at the top of your screen, and then click “All Friends”.

Updated September, 2014: In the current version of Facebook, you can find your friends listed under your profile page.

There you can look through all of your friends, and can also search for your friend by first and last name.

Step 2: Remove your friend

Once you’ve found your friend and are viewing their profile, scroll down the page and look in the left side bar for a link titled “Remove from Friends” (or just “Friends” in the current version).

Click this link, and you’ll be asked to confirm that you really want to remove this person as a Facebook friend.

Facebook won’t send them an email notification, and your decision to remove them as a friend will go unnoticed (unless they try to view your profile or contact you, in which case they’ll see the “Add as a Friend” link and realize that they’re no longer your friend).

That’s all it takes to unfriend someone on Facebook, and if you change your mind then it’s easy to add them again as a friend.

26 Comments

  1. Carol

    Hi Ricky, I have actually
    Hi Ricky, I have actually removed a friend, but how come i still receive email (birthday alerts of that friend removed)?

  2. Anonymous

    Question – when you unfriend
    When you “unfriend” someone on Facebook, do the status updates you’ve already posted get sucked out of their news feeds, or do they remain even after you’ve deleted them as friends?

    Also, a related question – if I remove a status update from my profile, is it removed from everyone’s news feeds, or have I only deleted it from my page?

  3. Anonymous

    Why can’t I connect to the
    Why can’t I connect to the facebook with my iPod touch?
    i got the internet but it wont let me add fb

  4. Anonymous

    How do you re-add a friend
    How do you re-add a friend after removing them?

    • Anonymous

      As far as I know, in order
      As far as I know, in order to add them back, you have to re-add them through the add button on their profile, so technically they will figure that you’ve removed them previously…

      • Anonymous

        I’ve just noticed that
        I’ve just noticed that within a half hour period, somebody removed me from their list, as was evident by their wall being replaced by the ‘add friend’ button and all that. however, they seem to have re-added me shortly after removing me. and I did not receive a request for them to add me?

        is this a glitch due to latency between servers synching?

        • Annoyed

          i have removed pple from my
          i have removed pple from my list and i actually see some of them reappearing in my list after awhile. i assume it’s because they’ve re-added me, this despite the fact that i did not make a request to add nor did i receive one. i think it’s a damn bug!

  5. Anonymous

    how do i see when ive added someone on facebook
    i am trying to find out when ive added friends on facebook, cant work out how to do it, please help !!!

  6. Anonymous

    unfriending someone
    Hi Rick,

    can you please tell me how o unfirnd someone on facebook iphone? i can’t find that option.
    many thanks,
    ella

  7. Anonymous

    blocking
    How do I block someone that I know is on face book, but every time I put their name in the block selection it never pulls up his face. Please help

    • Anonymous

      If u know they r on fb but
      If u know they r on fb but can’t find them then they may have already blocked u. In future u canblock by going into account settings and privacy

  8. Rajneesh

    Pending Requests remove
    how i remove my pending friends request from facebook and how i check who is not yet accept my friend request.

    waiting for your reply

    take care
    bye

  9. Nate

    iPhone question
    How can I unfriend someone useing an iPhone 3G with the Facebook app? I’ve got a friend from high school that’s posting so much ridiculous crap on my wall that it’s getting very annoying. However I can’t seem to find the “defriend” button on my iPhone anywhere on the Facebook app. Please help!

  10. Richard

    But if you removed someone
    But if you removed someone from your buddy list, won’t you then not show up in their buddy list? That would be one way they would know that you removed them or they wouldn’t see any of your posts anymore once you removed them.

  11. Anonymous

    how do I delete someone from search on my facebook page
    how do i delete someone from a search on my facebbok page. they are not friends.

  12. Anonymous

    I have deleted some friends,
    I have deleted some friends, but they still show up on my friends list. When I try to delete them again, it says they are not friends. Why is their pic and name still on my friends list? And they still show up on my cell phone contacts list and it says I can’t delete them because I must remove them from my Facebook friends list, which is where the contacts are being pulled from. But I have deleted them! Arrrg.

  13. Anonymous

    facebook
    i ve unfriend someone ages ago but he still can see my post and pics

  14. Anonymous

    Deleting friends
    Hi, if you are to delete a friend from Facebook is it possible that you may then show up on thier ‘people you may know’ pop up?

  15. Anonymous

    If I delete a friend will
    If I delete a friend will the emails we’ve exchanged on facebook be deleted too? If someone could get back to me asap that would be great!
    Thanks

  16. Anonymous

    Unfriend..
    My husband had to unfriend someone due to vulgar comments.. but we noticed his posts (the old friend) are still on my husbands page.. did we not unfriend correctly?

  17. Anonymous

    how to remove a unfriended frineds picture from my friends list
    I have facebook i recently went threw all the unknown people and to get rid of people i did not want to chat with and i delelted them all and it came up with deactived. But now i have a person on my list that shows his name in black i went to click to delete and it will not come off that person deactived my name and i de friend him but his name is still on my profile and hsi name is in black i can not remove it what can i do?

  18. Doras

    How can I unfriend someone
    How can I unfriend someone on Facebook on my iphone3g

  19. Dora

    Remove friend from Facebook
    When I scroll dow friend profile ther isn’t any in unfriend what can I do now it is my Appel iPhone 3G that I am trying to unfriend

  20. Anonymous

    I unfriended someone
    I unfriended someone yesterday and I wanted to message them the reason but today when I search for them they do not show up and mutual friends that have tagged this person their name is no longer highlighted and even their fiance that has their name in the profile it won’t let you click on their name anymore- almost like they deleted their account but I know that is not the case? Any suggestions on why their name is no longer highlighted/clickable? thanks!

  21. Anonymous

    Removing messages from my Facebook pg
    I am desperate; I cannot find any instructions on how to remove some messages that someone sent to me. I was able to remove people who sent them, (no longer on friend list), but the crazy gobbledegook is still on the page. It is a mentally unstable person who makes no sense.
    is there a way I can remove their messages already up on my site? I work on a Mac.

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