Four Ways to Recover Your Facebook Account
Facebook account recovery is tricky, especially if you have not set up any backup recovery options. Please keep in mind that many of the options below take time and patience. That said, many people have succeeded, even if nothing seemed to work at all.
1. Are You Still Logged Into Facebook Somewhere?
Before you try to recover your account, check whether you are still logged into Facebook on any of your devices. This could be another browser or browser profile on your computer, your Facebook Android or iOS app, or a mobile browser, for example, your tablet or Kindle.
If you can still access Facebook anywhere, you might be able to “recover” your Facebook password without a confirmation reset code; though what you’ll actually do is create a new password.
2. Try the Default Facebook Account Recovery Options
To proceed with this option, find your profile on your Facebook friend’s friend list, open it, and click the … on or below your profile image (in the mobile app, the three-dot menu will show up below the image), then select Find Support or Report Profile.
From the next menu, select the appropriate option, in this case, I Can’t Access My Account and click Next.
In the final step, click Recover this account, which will log you out of the account you’re using, to start the account recovery.
This method will lead you to the same Reset Your Password window described under Option 2. The recovery is based on the email address/es you added to your account.
3. Did Your Contact Information Change?
Often, it’s not possible to recover a Facebook account using the options above. Maybe you have lost access to the email address(es) and phone number(s) you once added to your profile. Or maybe a hacker changed this information. In that case, Facebook allows you to specify a new email address or phone number, which it will use to contact you about recovering your account.
To start this process, click the link No longer have access to these? in the bottom-left of the reset password page (see above) to start the Facebook account recovery process. Facebook will ask you for a new email address or phone number so that it can get in touch with you to help you recover your account. Click Continue to proceed.
If you have set up Trusted Contacts, you can ask the social network to help you recover your Facebook account in the next step. You’ll need to remember at least one full name of your Trusted Contacts to reveal all of them. Note that you only need three codes to recover your Facebook account.
If you didn’t set up Trusted Contacts, you might be given the option to answer one of your security questions and reset your password on the spot. As an additional precaution, this comes with a 24-hour waiting period before you can access your account.
Otherwise, you might have to wait until Facebook gets in touch to verify your identity. Be patient.
4. Was Your Facebook Account Hacked to Send Out Spam?
In the event that your account was hacked and is posting spam while you can no longer access it, you should report your Facebook account as compromised.
This will actually start a similar process to the one outlined above. While you will use the same information to identify your account, in the following step you will be able to use either a current or old Facebook password to recover your account.
This is useful in case a hacker changed your password, but it may also come in handy if you forget your new password.
Find more security-related tips on the Account Security page in the Facebook Help Center.
Note: If you’re the victim of Facebook malware, read our article detailing how to prevent and remove Facebook malware.
