Tell if Someone Has Blocked You or Deactivated Their Account on Facebook

Has one of your Facebook friends seemingly dropped off the face of the earth? Are you unable to find your friend or send messages to him or her? One of two situations are likely to blame: your friend has either disabled his or her profile or blocked you, which prevents you from seeing things you post on their timeline, starting conversations with them, and adding them as a friend. How do you tell whether your friend has purposely severed contact with you or simply left Facebook entirely? See Step 1 below to get started!

Steps

Message History

1. Open your inbox. With this method, we'll determine whether or not we've been blocked by looking for clues in Facebook's built-in messaging service. To begin, open your Facebook inbox. After logging in, click the small icon in the top right of the window that resembles two speech bubbles. Click "See All" to access your inbox.
   • If you've recently communicated with this person, your conversation may be at or near the top of the drop-down menu that displays when you click on the messaging icon. In this case, you can click on your conversation to bring it up in a small chat box at the bottom of the window.
   • Note that this method requires you to have had a past conversation with your friend. If you haven't exchanged messages with the person in question over Facebook, you won't have a conversation history in which to look for clues.
2. Find a past conversation with the friend in question. When you've accessed your inbox, you'll want to find any past correspondence you've had with this friend. This can be a private one-on-one message or a group message that they replied to - all that's important is that they sent a message of their own as part of the conversation. Conversations that they read but did not reply to are unfortunately of no use.
   • If you can't find a conversation with your friend by scrolling through the list of conversations at the left of the inbox, you may want to try using the search bar at the top left to search your message history for your friend's name or other keywords.
3. Look for a "default" profile picture and/or an un-clickable profile link. Every entry in your conversation history should have the poster's name and profile picture at the top of it. Look at one of your friend's entries - the condition of his or her name and profile picture can tell you whether you've been blocked or whether this person's profile has been deleted.
   • If your friend's profile picture is still visible, but his or her name is greyed out and cannot be clicked to access his or her profile, you have likely been blocked.
   • If, on the other hand, your friend's name isn't clickable, but his or her profile picture is set to the "default" Facebook picture (androgynous white silhouette against light blue backdrop), s/he has probably deleted his or her profile. The only alternative - that s/he blocked you and deleted his or her profile picture - is very unlikely.
     • If your friend's messages bear the name "Facebook User", rather than his or her actual name, s/he has definitely deleted his or her profile.

Search Engine

1. Verify that you cannot find your friend's profile on Facebook. This method uses your preferred online search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc.) to look for your friend's profile outside of Facebook. If you can find it outside of Facebook but not within Facebook, you'll know you've been blocked. Before starting, make sure your friend's profile can't be found on Facebook. Try searching their name in the search bar at the top of your profile and tagging them in your posts - if you can't seem to locate their profile or you get a "Sorry, this page isn't available" error screen when you click on a link to your profile, this is evidence that you've either been blocked or that your friend has disabled their profile - one or the other - so, proceed to the next steps.
   • Also, keep in mind that Facebook users occasionally change their names - usually just for laughs. If your friend has done this, you may not be able to find them with their real name, so try checking an old conversation in your inbox - if they've changed their name, this will be reflected here.
2. Log out of Facebook. Next, log out of your account. Click the downward-pointing arrow at the top right of your profile to display a drop-down window with several option. Click "Log Out" to log out of your account.
   • It's important to be logged out of your account because if you've been blocked and you stay logged in, you won't be able to view your friend's profile even if you can manage to find it with a search engine
3. Perform a search for the Facebook profile of the individual. Now that you're logged out, go to Google (or the search engine of your choice) and search for your friend's profile. You'll probably want to use a search query like "(Your friend's name) Facebook" or something similar.
   • If you're getting ambiguous results, try including personal information like where the friend lived or went to school as keywords in your search. For instance, for a friend who grew up in Albuquerque and went to Yale, you might use a search query like "Jane Doe Facebook Albuquerque Yale" to narrow down your results.
4. Try to find your friend's profile. Given the fact that any person on Facebook is likely to share his or her name with several (if not thousands) of other users, it can be tricky to find your friend's profile while logged out. Do your best, using relevant keywords to narrow down your results. Based on the outcome of your search, it's usually fairly easy to tell whether you've been blocked:
   • If you can find your friend's profile on Google while logged out and it appears to be active and functioning, but you can't find them on Facebook when you are logged in, they've probably blocked you.
   • If, on the other hand, you can't find your friend's profile on Facebook while logged in and you can't find it on Google while logged out or you find what appears to be a deactivated or broken link to their account on Google, they've probably removed their profile.

Reporting a Conversation

1. Find an old Facebook conversation with your friend. This method uses the ability to report spam or abuse on Facebook's messaging service to determine whether or not you've been blocked in a roundabout way. To begin, access your inbox and find an old conversation you've had with your friend. If you don't have any conversations with this friend, you won't be able to report your conversation, so you're better off with another method.
   • Though you're unlikely to create any serious repercussions for your friend by reporting him or her for spam (especially if s/he has done nothing wrong), doing so is rather disingenuous and could create further tensions with a person who's deliberately blocked you, so use this method with caution.
   • You'll want to use one-on-one conversations with the friend you suspect of blocking you, rather than group conversations that the user was a part of, for this method.
2. Report the user. When you're viewing your old conversation, click the "Actions" tab at the top of the window. Select "Report Spam or Abuse". Select the third option in the pop-up window, "Report conversation participant(s) for harassing..." and click the Okay button.
   • Again, it bears mentioning that reporting someone can easily be perceived as aggressive or petty, so avoid using this method for people with who you have a valued relationship.
3. Look for "Blocked" on the next window. After you report this person, a confirmation window will pop up displaying his or her name, picture, and the words "Blocked" or "Report".
   • If you see "Blocked" next to your friend's name, you've been blocked.
   • If you see "Report" next to your friend's name, your friend has probably deleted his or her profile.
   • Again, note that with this method, you run the risk, however small, of opening your friend's account up to disciplinary action from Facebook, so use it only as a last resort.

Tips

• If you look at your past messages from the friend in question, instead of their usual name and profile picture, you will see the Facebook default icon and the name Facebook User - this could mean that they have either deactivated their account or blocked you.

Warnings

• When people deactivate their account, their name will be replaced with "Facebook User."
  • Look for previous conversations via messages or wall posts. If their name shows up as Facebook User, you can tell if they've blocked you or deactivated.
• People often temporarily deactivate their account if it is getting in the way of more important things.
• Get someone's phone number so you can talk outside of Facebook if they decide to deactivate their account.
• Deactivating one's account means that their account will come back as normal next time they log in.

Things You'll Need

• Facebook account

Sources and Citations

See also

• Use Facebook for Business Networking
• Unlike a Facebook Page (Using Facebook Like Button)
• Buy a Used Car on Facebook Marketplace
• Post on Facebook Messenger from Your Camera Roll on Android
• Turn Off Audio of a Facebook Story on Android
• Use the Facebook Camera on Android
• Send Direct Images on Facebook on Android
• Turn Off Audio of a Facebook Story on iPhone or iPad
• Find a User's Email Address on Facebook on iPhone or iPad
• Opt Out of Sharing Your Account Info with Facebook on WhatsApp on Android

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