How to Delete Older Wall Posts From Facebook Even Though You Can’t See the Edit Button
*** UPDATE (Oct 21, 2009) – This is a really outdated post (written 1 year ago). You may want to check out my other post on How To Delete All Facebook Groups And Wall Posts From Facebook Using Imacros ***
When I first wrote this article, only the 10 most recent posts were editable. But a few hours later, every post was editable! I suspect it’s just something Facebook is working out for the profiles. So, either be patient and wait until Facebook gets to your profile, OR follow the trick below.
If you’re frustrated that you can’t delete older wall posts because the “edit” button for story options doesn’t appear for you to delete your post, you’re not alone. Someone posted a similar question in Facebook’s Help Center last month, and the problem still hasn’t been fully fixed by the Facebook team.
A lot of you are worrying that without the story edit button, you’d have to be deleting your posts every few days or they become permanent. I found out today that it’s not true. You can delete your older posts, but there’s a trick to it. I’ll walk you through it.
Before you begin, I suggest you open up Firefox. The delete function doesn’t seem to work in Google Chrome.
Try this first
There can only be 10 editable posts (these can be wall posts, comments on photos, notes, events, etc.) in your mini-feed. Count down from the very first post to the 10th post. When you hover on the side of the 10th post, the edit button should appear. But when you hit the 11th post, the “edit” button should not appear. Before you think – damn it I can’t delete my older posts! – delete the 10th post. Then see if you can delete the 11th post. If not, REFRESH the page and try again. You should now see the “edit” button appear for the 11th post.
This method is not perfect. You can’t just delete random wall posts from any date. You have to go in order from the top, making sure there are only 10 posts at a time that you’re keeping. But there’s an easier way.
Easier way to delete posts
Right under the status bar, and before your posts, there is a heading: All Posts, Posts by <your name>, Posts by Others, Settings.
Click on Posts by <your name>. That way the 10 editable posts include all of yours, and not your friends’ wall posts. From my experience, you can only delete about 2-4 posts at a time, and then you’d have to refresh the page, and do it again. I recommend Firefox because you can delete more posts before having to refresh, whereas with IE, after 1-2 posts, you’d have to hit the refresh button. It’s just much faster with Firefox.
Did this work for you? I’d love to hear your feedback. Please comment and share your experience.