How to See Who Unfollowed You on Facebook
Updated: Oct. 25, 2021
The question is, do you want to know?
With so many political posts and inflammatory debates taking up social feeds, the urge to unfollow or unfriend certain Facebook friends isn’t all that uncommon, or even surprising. And you better believe others have the same feeling towards you. But that statement alone is enough to have you wondering how to see who unfollowed you on Facebook, even in light of the recent news that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been prioritizing company growth over user privacy. This is another one of those Facebook hacks you’ll wish you knew sooner.
Unfriend vs. Unfollow
The first question we have to answer, is what’s the difference between being unfriended and unfollowed—or the truly terrifying, being blocked? Unfriending someone completely separates your accounts. They won’t be found on any friend list and nothing from their feed will show up on yours. Depending on your privacy settings, it can also mean that they can’t directly message you but must request to send you a message instead. Unfollowing is a lot more subtle. You will remain on their friend list, but nothing they post will end up in your feed. They can still message you and you will still appear on their friend list. Whether the sender shows up on your friend list or not, be sure you know how to protect yourself from Facebook Messenger scams.
How to see who unfollowed you on Facebook manually
There are two ways to check if someone has unfriended or unfollowed you. The first is pretty straightforward: manually. Search your own friend list for a person you suspect has unfriended you, and if they don’t appear there, your suspicions may be correct. Of course, this person may have deactivated or deleted their Facebook account as well, so it may be best to avoid jumping to conclusions.
To check if someone has unfollowed you, Michael Vaughan, Digital Marketing Specialist at Emerald Digital shared a great trick with Reader’s Digest. “To check out your current followers go to the “More” tab located on your profile page and click on ‘Followers’,” Vaughan said. “If someone who’s still on your ‘Friends’ list is missing, it means they’ve unfollowed you.”
As for looking for who blocked you, search for your friend on the Facebook search tool, and if they don’t appear at all, it’s possible they’ve completely blocked you.
How to see who unfollowed you on Facebook automatically
It can be a lot of work to manually check your “Friends” and “Followers” lists. Unless you regularly monitor the friend count on your profile, you have no way of knowing when someone hits that “Unfriend” button. Luckily, a much easier way to find out how to see who unfollowed you on Facebook exists.
Enter Who Deleted Me, a Google Chrome and Firefox extension that checks your profile so you don’t have to. When you login with your Facebook account, the program saves your current friends list, then it rechecks the list whenever you click on the app and lets you know if there are any changes, i.e. when someone unfriends you. It has the added benefit that it also makes a distinction between those people and friends who just deactivated their accounts. Sarah Evans, owner of Sevans Strategy & Sevans Digital PR, recommended this extension, with the caution that the application is still in beta testing, meaning there are some kinks to work out. “You’re allowing a third-party access to all of your Facebook contacts, so it’s something to be mindful of,” Evans said.
If you want to delete just part of your social media presence without cutting off all your friends and acquaintances, use this guide to deleting your Facebook photos.
One thing the program (also available as an app) doesn’t do is let you know why people unfriended you. If you post too much or have done one of these 6 things you should never do on Facebook, that could very well be a factor, and you may want to reconsider your current social media habits. Or they could just be rude who aren’t worth your time.
Next, find out how to tell if someone blocked you on Instagram and what a Facebook secret conversation is.
