Facebook Lets Users Delete Old Posts in Bulk

Facebook users can now manage their previous activity more efficiently by deleting or archiving old posts in bulk.

It’s not always ideal to leave content on a personal profile that doesn’t reflect where a person is at in their life today.

In an effort to mitigate any issues that may arise from old Facebook posts, the company is launching the new ‘Manage Activity’ feature.

“Whether you’re entering the job market after college or moving on from an old relationship, we know things change in people’s lives, and we want to make it easy for you to curate your presence on Facebook to more accurately reflect who you are today.

That’s why we’re launching Manage Activity to help you archive or trash old posts, all in one place.”

Managing Posts in Bulk

Facebook’s Manage Activity feature lets users view and manage multiple posts at once.

To access this feature simply navigate to your profile on Facebook’s mobile app, tap ‘Go to Activity Log,’ and then tap ‘Manage Activity.’

Then you will see this screen where you can select posts to manage:

Previously, if users wanted to clean up the content on their Facebook profile, they would have to adjust the settings of each post one at a time.

Manage Activity has built-in filters to help users sort and find what they’re looking for even faster.

For example, users can filter posts that include specific people or posts within a specific date range.

When it comes to managing the posts, users can either archive them or send them to the trash.

Archiving Posts

Facebook is taking a page directly from Instagram with the ability to archive old posts.

Archiving posts allows users to hide posts from others while still keeping it up for themselves to see. It’s a way of removing posts without deleting them entirely.

“The archive feature is for content you no longer want others to see on Facebook, but that you still want to keep for yourself.

For example, you could archive a post you made when you were in high school that you still find amusing but that you’d rather not be seen by anyone else on Facebook.”

Instagram has long offered the ability to archive posts, this is the first time Facebook has offered such a feature.

Archiving posts also gives users the option to add archived content back to their feed if they decide to show it again.

In contrast, deleting a post is a permanent measure which ensures it will no longer exist on a person’s profile.

Grace Period for Deleted Posts

When the Manage Activity feature is used to send posts to the trash, there’s a 30-day grace period to restore posts before they’re deleted permanently.

So if you’re on the fence about whether certain posts should be deleted or not, you can move them to the trash and still have 30 days to think about it.

Alternatively, you can manually delete posts if you’re certain you want them to be gone for good.

Launching Now on Mobile

Manage Activity will launch first on mobile, and will be available on desktop and Facebook Lite in the future.

New functionality will continue to be developed for this tool to ensure it meets people’s needs to manage their presence on Facebook.

Source: Facebook Newsroom