Facebook Is Deleting Additional Profiles: Your Game Plan Before December 14
If you created an additional personal profile (up to four) with a nickname under your main Facebook personal profile/account, Meta will permanently delete it after December 14, 2026. Your main personal profile and all your public/business Pages are safe!
When I shared this news on my Facebook Page, it drew close to 400 comments in a day and now has close to 700 comments and over 800 shares. Many comments are variations of the same worried question: How does this affect me? Business owners feared losing their Pages. People with two logins wondered if they were next. Group admins, Marketplace sellers and people who’d stored years of photos on a second profile all wanted to know what to do.
This blog post is now my answer to all of those comments in one place. You’ll learn what Meta actually announced, how to tell in about 30 seconds whether you’re affected, and exactly what to do before the deadline.
What Meta actually announced
On November 12, 2026, Meta added an update to its original 2023 announcement of multiple personal profiles. The key points:
- What’s going away: “Additional Facebook profiles, the secondary profiles people could create alongside their main one.” People have referred to these as “sub-profiles” or “nickname profiles.”
- The deadline: Any additional sub-profiles “will be permanently removed after December 14, 2026.”
- What’s safe: “Your main Facebook profile and Pages will not be affected.” Your main profile is the first one you created when you signed up for a Facebook account.
- Who’s being told: Meta is notifying everyone with one or more of these additional sub-profiles by email and, where applicable, by in-app notification and a notice in Feed.
- Why the removal? Meta says these profiles “added complexity” and made it harder to deliver a consistent experience, so it’s “simplifying to one profile.”
This didn’t come out of nowhere. Earlier this year, Meta quietly stopped letting anyone create new additional profiles. Its Help Center page has said for months that you can no longer create them. The deletion is the second step.
The individual notices also carry a warning that the public announcement leaves out: if a Facebook group is managed only by additional profiles, it will have no admins once they’re deleted, and the group will be paused.
Additional profile vs. separate account vs. Page
Most of the panic comes from mixing up three different things. Only one of them is being deleted.
| Additional profile (“sub-profile”) | Separate account | Facebook Page | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it was made | Created inside your main account, from your profile menu, sometime since 2022–2023 | A whole new sign-up with a different email or phone number | Created from your profile as a business, brand, creator or public figure presence |
| Login | Same login as your main personal profile | Its own login | Managed from your main personal profile |
| Connections | Friends only | Friends (plus followers in professional mode) | Followers |
| Deleted after Dec 14? | Yes | Not by this change | No |
| Allowed by Meta’s rules? | Yes, until now | No. Meta has never allowed more than one personal account per person | Yes |
A note on separate accounts. Several people in my comments said, “I have two accounts with different emails, so I’m fine.” (One person even shared she has 20 active Facebook accounts. Whoa.) Even so, this change does not target those types of additional/extra accounts with separate logins.
BUT, please note that Facebook’s terms have always required ONE personal account per person, going right back to 2004. Meta can disable a duplicate account at any time. If that’s your setup, this is a good moment to review and consolidate if you possibly can.
Nonetheless, even though there’s always a slight risk in operating different Facebook accounts (separate login type of accounts), you might be fine as this is an approach a lot of people have taken over the years. I have not personally heard of people’s extra accounts being proactively removed/deactivated by Facebook en masse.
And Instagram? Nothing changes there. Instagram has always allowed multiple accounts, and it still does.
Is this you? A 30-second check
Ask yourself these three questions, in this order.
- Did Meta notify you? Meta says it’s notifying everyone with an additional profile. Check your Facebook notifications, your Feed, and the email tied to your account, including spam. If there’s no notice anywhere, you very likely don’t have one of these types of additional personal profiles tied to your main account.
- Does it show only followers, or friends? A Page has only followers, and Pages are safe. An additional profile (“sub-profile”) under your main profile can only have friends. However, if you’ve enabled “Professional Mode” on your main personal profile, then your profile will show followers, which includes friends.
- How did you create it? If you made the new profile while logged in to your main profile, and you’ve always switched to it without a separate login, it’s an additional profile (“sub-profile”). (Meta has since removed the option to create one, so you won’t see it in your menu today.) If you logged out and signed up fresh with a different email or phone number, it’s a separate account, and this December 14th change doesn’t delete it.
Be careful with the “toggle test.” Some people are saying that if you can switch at the top of your screen without logging out, it’s a sub-profile. That’s a helpful clue, but it isn’t proof. Pages also show up in that same switcher, and so do separate accounts you’ve saved on your phone. Use the three questions above instead.
Still unsure? Go to Settings, then Accounts Center, and look at the profiles listed there. Additional profiles appear alongside your main profile.
Your game plan before December 14, 2026
If you do have an additional profile, work through the list that fits how you use it. Don’t leave this until December 13. Exports can take hours, and admin invitations have to be accepted.
Everyone with an additional profile
- Switch to the additional profile and use Export your information* (the button in Meta’s notice, or Settings > Accounts Center > Your information and permissions). Save the file somewhere outside Facebook.
- Note any friends on that profile you want to keep, and send them friend requests from your main profile. There’s no tool to move friends across.
- Post a goodbye on the profile telling people where to find you next.
*A note on exporting: According to Meta, you can download any information that is on your sub-profile. Where it says ‘Go to main profile to export info, or learn more’, you can switch to get started, and you should be directed to your Accounts Center, where you can download your information and send it to Google, Dropbox or other storage place. When you use Export a copy of your Facebook information, Facebook generates a package of your data (such as HTML or JSON files of posts, photos, and videos). This archive is meant for your own records, backup, or moving to an external service. It is not formatted as an import/migration package that a Business Page can read and ingest. So, sadly, you won’t be able to re-upload the exported information to a Page or to your main personal profile.
If you admin or moderate groups from it
- Add your main profile, or a Page (if allowed in groups), as a member of each group.
- Make that main profile or Page an admin, and accept the invitation.
- Check that every group still has at least one admin who is not one of these additional profile (“sub-profiles”). A group with no admins left will be paused.
For business owners with a team: ask your community managers and moderators whether they use an additional profile. My own community manager of many years, Adaire Palmer, has moderated my main Facebook Page @marismith and my Social Scoop Facebook group from a branded sub-profile for the past three years. We’re now moving her moderation back to my separate “Team Mari” Facebook business Page, which I set up in 2011 exclusively for the very purpose of moderating my main Facebook Page and Group. This was our method from 2011 up through 2023 when Adaire created her ‘Adaire Team Mari Smith’ sub-profile.
At this stage, we do not yet know whether any posts or comments made by sub-profiles will just vanish… or stay, with the name changed to ‘Facebook User’ and no longer clickable. I highly doubt the posts/comments will morph to your main account as that would essentially defeat the purpose of why Facebook allowed these additional profiles in the first place.
If you sell on Marketplace from a sub-profile
- Finish or close any active listings and conversations.
- Screenshot your seller ratings. Ratings can’t be transferred.
- Restart selling from your main profile, or set up a Page if selling is a real business for you.
If you use a sub-profile for a business, brand, client, band or mascot
- Create a Facebook Page for it, if you don’t already have one. Pages are built for public, business and brand use, and they aren’t affected. You can have an unlimited number of Pages.
- Re-upload your best photos and videos to the Page from your export. There’s no import tool, so this is manual.
- Invite your audience to follow the new Page before the profile disappears.
If you use a sub-profile for privacy or safety
Some people set up a second profile because of their job, like teachers and nurses, or to stay hidden from someone who is a danger to them. This kind of concern is real, and it’s most unfortunate that Facebook is now taking away, in essence, a safety tool that these folks came to rely on.
What to do:
- Lock down your main profile’s privacy: limit who can see your posts, friends list and personal details, and who can find you by email or phone.
- Disable Professional Mode if you did have it enabled. (Tap the 3 dots > tap Turn off pro mode).
- Consider a public/business Page for anything public-facing, such as selling or a hobby. Pages don’t show the name of the person who runs them.
- If your safety is at risk, use Facebook’s privacy checkup and block tools, and reach out to local support services. Your safety matters more than any platform.
Your questions, answered
Next, I will tackle some of the most popular questions on my Facebook post – most of which I managed to answer inline, but I wanted to present them here on this blog post for your easy access:
Will my business Page be deleted? No. Meta says Pages are not affected. That includes business, brand, band, creator and pet Pages. Remember, Pages only have followers, not friends. If in doubt, that’s a reasonable check.
I have two accounts with different emails. Am I affected? Not by this change. BUT, please just know that having more than one personal account has always broken Facebook’s rules, and you run the risk of Meta disabling duplicates at any time.
Can I make my additional profile my main one? Meta hasn’t offered a way to swap them. Your main profile is the one you first signed up with, and it stays.
Can I turn my additional profile into a Page? No conversion option has been announced and I highly doubt Facebook would put resources into this feature, sadly. You’ll need to create a Page and rebuild your audience there before the deadline.
Can I move my friends, photos or messages to my main profile? Not automatically. Export everything first. Then re-friend people from your main profile and re-upload what matters. Any DMs via your additional profile will also be deleted, so save any you need. Screenshot or copy/paste into a doc.
What about the groups I’m in as a member? Your main profile’s group memberships aren’t affected. Groups you joined only as your sub-profile will lose that membership. Rejoin with your main profile.
I didn’t get a notice. Am I safe? Most likely. BUT it’s easy to miss notifications. Meta says it’s notifying everyone with an additional profile. Still, run the 30-second check above to be sure.
Is this a scam? No. Meta announced it officially in its Newsroom. That said, scammers love a deadline. Only act on notices inside Facebook itself or on Meta’s own sites, and never enter your password through a link in an email you’re unsure of.
The bigger picture
Meta gave us this feature in 2023 and is taking it back three years later. People who built communities, businesses and safe spaces on these profiles have every right to feel frustrated.
It’s also a reminder I’ve shared for nearly two decades: you don’t own anything you build on rented land. Your Page, your profile, your group and your followers all live on Meta’s terms. The relationships you nurture there are yours to carry forward, onto your email list, into private non-Meta communities, your website, and into real conversations.
So export what matters, move your admins, and tell your people where to find you. Your sub-profile(s) will disappear after December 14 but the connections you made there don’t have to.
Got questions not addressed here?
Reach out to me in the DMs on my Facebook Page. That’s probably the best way. Or, if you’re not already a member of my Social Scoop Facebook Group, come join us there to connect with your peers and gain priority access to me and my team.
P.S. Do you get my weekly Social Scoop email newsletter? Learn more and join us here. Each week, I write a simple message to help break down the most relevant Facebook, Instagram, social media, tech, and Meta AI topics pertaining to marketers. I don’t overwhelm you with a zillion details, UI changes, buttons and dials that you don’t really need to know. (You can get all that from other sources, if you wish. Ha!)
Sources
- Meta Newsroom: You Can Now Have Multiple Personal Profiles on Facebook (update of November 12, 2026)
- Facebook Help Center: About additional Facebook profiles
- Facebook Help Center: Groups without admins
