You set up a Facebook Dating profile out of curiosity, and now you want it gone, or at least the Dating shortcut out of your menu. To delete the profile, open the Facebook app on your phone, go to Menu > Dating, tap Profile, then Settings, and tap Delete Profile under Account. Your main Facebook account stays. Hiding the shortcut is a separate menu change, and pausing may be an option too.
Pause, Delete or Just Hide the Shortcut?
Before you tap anything, work out which of these you’re after. Picking the right one first saves you from deleting matches you meant to keep, or keeping a profile you meant to delete.
| Your goal | What to do | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Stop dating for good and clear your data | Delete your Dating profile | Profile, answers, likes, matches and conversations are deleted |
| Step away for a while | Look for a break or pause option in Dating settings | Only in some app versions; read the on-screen description before you confirm |
| Never used Dating, just want it out of sight | Hide the Dating shortcut in the Facebook menu | Nothing is deleted, because there’s nothing to delete |
| Leave Facebook entirely | Delete your Facebook account | The Dating profile is deleted along with it |
Meta lists Facebook Dating as part of the Facebook app for Android and iPhone, so use your phone for everything below except deleting your whole account.
Delete Your Facebook Dating Profile
Deleting is permanent for what’s inside Dating, so save anything you want first. If there’s a conversation with a phone number, address or plan you’ll need later, write it down or take a screenshot before you start. Then follow the steps in Meta’s help article on how to delete your Facebook Dating profile:
- Open the Facebook app on your iPhone or Android phone.
- Tap the Menu in the top left. If you don’t see it there, check the bottom bar or your profile picture; app layouts differ.
- Tap Dating. If it isn’t in your shortcuts, tap See more or search the menu for “Dating.”
- Tap Profile in the top right of the Dating screen.
- Tap Settings.
- Below Account, tap Delete Profile.
- Tap Delete Profile again to confirm.
To check that it worked, reopen Dating. Your old profile, matches and conversations should no longer appear, and the app may offer to set up a new profile instead.
What Deleting Removes and What It Doesn’t
Meta’s help article spells out the effects, and a few of them surprise people:
- Removed: your Dating profile, your answers to profile questions, your likes, your matches and your conversations.
- Not removed from the other person: deleting your conversations doesn’t delete them from the other person’s inbox. Anything you’ve sent a match can still be on their side.
- Your Facebook account stays. You can delete your Dating profile without deleting your Facebook account, so your regular profile, friends and posts aren’t part of the deletion.
- A 7-day wait to come back. After you delete, you can’t create a new Dating profile for 7 days.
Here’s how that plays out. Teodoro deletes his Dating profile on a Sunday after meeting someone he wants to date exclusively. His matches disappear from his app, but a match he’d chatted with can still scroll back through the messages Teodoro sent. If things don’t work out, the soonest he can start a new profile is the following Sunday, and he’d be starting from scratch: no old answers, likes or matches come back.
Take a Break Instead of Deleting
If you only want to stop being shown to new people for a while, check for a pause option before you delete. Meta’s delete article doesn’t describe one, but some versions of the app have offered a “Take a break” option in Dating settings that hides your profile while keeping it. To look for it:
- Open Menu > Dating > Profile > Settings, the same path as above.
- Look in the Account area, near Delete Profile, for an option to take a break or pause.
- If you find it, read the on-screen description of what stays visible before you confirm.
If your app has no such option, the choices are to leave the profile as it is and simply stop opening Dating, or delete it.
Hide the Dating Shortcut From Your Menu
Plenty of people never made a Dating profile at all; they just don’t want a Dating shortcut sitting in their menu. Deleting won’t help here because there’s no profile to delete. Facebook’s menu usually lets you manage shortcuts, though the exact controls depend on your app version, and this couldn’t be confirmed on a Meta help page for this update. Try these, in order:
- Open the Facebook Menu and press and hold the Dating shortcut. If a menu pops up with an option to hide or remove it, choose that.
- If not, look for an edit or customize option at the top or bottom of the shortcuts list, then turn off or remove Dating there.
- If Dating appears in the bottom tab bar, go to Settings & privacy > Settings and search for “tab bar” or “shortcuts” to see whether your app has a setting for which tabs show.
Hiding the shortcut doesn’t delete anything. If you do have a Dating profile, it’s still active even when the shortcut is gone, so delete it first if that’s what you want.
Stop Dating Notifications
Deleting your Dating profile ends match and message activity, so the alerts tied to it should stop. If you’re keeping the profile but want quieter evenings, look in two places:
- Inside Facebook: Settings & privacy > Settings > Notifications, and look for a Dating entry. Dating settings may also have their own notification options.
- On the phone: your phone’s notification settings for the Facebook app control banners and sounds for everything Facebook sends, not just Dating.
If You Can’t Find Dating in the App
- You’re on a computer. Meta describes Dating as a feature of the Facebook app for Android and iPhone, so open the app instead of facebook.com.
- It’s buried in the menu. Tap See more, or use the search at the top of the menu.
- The app is out of date. Update Facebook from the App Store or Google Play.
- Dating may not be offered to you. Availability can depend on your age and where you live, so some accounts never see it. In that case there’s no Dating profile to remove.
Facebook Dating Removal Questions
Does deleting my Facebook account delete Dating too?
Yes. Meta says deleting your Facebook account also deletes your Dating profile. If that’s your plan, here’s how to permanently delete your Facebook account. Deactivating is a different, usually reversible step; if you want a break from Facebook but still need chats, see how to deactivate Facebook but keep Messenger.
Can I get my matches back after deleting?
No. Deleting removes your matches and conversations, and a new profile (allowed after 7 days) starts empty. If you think you might return soon, look for the break option first.
I have two Facebook profiles. Do I delete Dating on each?
Check each profile you use in the app, since a Dating profile may be linked to the specific profile you set it up on. If you’d rather remove the extra profile entirely, see how to delete a second profile on Facebook.
Will hiding Dating also make my main profile more private?
No. Hiding the shortcut or deleting Dating doesn’t change your main profile’s privacy settings. To limit what strangers see on your regular profile, follow the steps to make your Facebook account private.
Decide between pausing and deleting first, save any conversations you need, and then the removal itself takes only a minute in the Facebook app.
Matthew Burleigh is the founder, head writer, and editor of Solve Your Tech, which he launched in 2012. He has written technology tutorials since 2008 and worked in IT since 2003, including small-business support, IT management, and consulting. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Arizona State University.
Matthew writes practical guides for Windows, iPhone and iPad, Microsoft Office, Outlook, Google apps, and Android. Solve Your Tech’s guides are checked step by step against the device or app maker’s own documentation and tested on his own devices whenever he has the hardware or software, with clear steps, sources, and update dates.
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