Did you ever have an “oops” moment when you accidentally deleted a Facebook comment without reading it? Now you have no idea what it was all about. You had probably written a well-thought or a fun remark, but now it’s gone. Fortunately, Facebook allows you to recover the data for all your activities, including your Facebook comments, and that, too, in a few steps. In this article, we will show you the distinction between hiding and deleting comments. Also, how to retrieve a Facebook comment even if you have mistakenly deleted it. Without waiting further, let’s dig in.
Difference Between Deleting and Hiding Comments on Facebook
When Facebook users get a negative comment they want to get rid of, they normally have two options. It’s either to delete the comment or hide it. But what happens when you take one of these actions? Let’s examine that:
- When you delete a Facebook comment, the platform erases it from everyone’s view. Once that happens, you or any other Facebook user can no longer see or interact with that comment. In fact, even the Facebook user who commented on your post won’t be able to see the deleted comment anymore. Usually, they won’t even get a notification when you remove their comments from your post.
- When you hide a Facebook comment, it won’t be hidden from the person who typed the comment and their friends. No one else can see the comment. This prevents the person from getting angry at your actions.
Why Do People Remove Comments on Facebook?
Here are some negative comments people (post/group owner or commenter themselves) usually delete from Facebook:
- Rude or vulgar words.
- Comment from people who are only commenting to abuse or bully you. In so doing, these people usually try to destroy your public or brand image with false information.
- Comments that were reported by other Facebook users.
- Spam comments that flood your posts or page, and overshadow the main topic of the post or don’t relate to it.
These are some circumstances when you should delete the negative comments from your posts. But sometimes, we might accidentally delete a useful or good comment in a rush or during a chain of action. What are the consequences of deleting comments from Facebook, intentionally or accidentally? We will show you in the next section.
What Happens When Someone Erases a Comment?
When you erase a Facebook comment, it only gets removed from every users’ views, including yours. However, that deleted comment will remain in Facebook’s database. That’s because Facebook stores every single activity there, including the comments people left on the platform. As a result, as long as you haven’t deleted the comment too long ago, you can still retrieve them.
Recover Comments You Deleted from Facebook
We already explained what lets you recover your deleted Facebook comments after deletion. Don’t forget this is only feasible if not a lot of time has passed. Here’s how you can restore the comments you erased from Facebook:
- Open your web browser and log into your Facebook account.
- Now, in the top-right corner, click on the “downward-facing arrow” option to expand the menu
- Click on the “Settings & Privacy” option.
- Click on the “Settings” option.
- Once the “Settings” menu opens, click on the “Your Facebook Information” option on the left panel.
- Click on the “Download Your Information” on the right panel to get a copy of your Facebook activity.
- On the “Request a Download” tab, set the appropriate date range under the “Select file options” section. You must select a date range when the deleted comments were still available in your Facebook account.
- Under the “Select Information to download” section, click on the “Deselect all” option and then click on the checkbox of the “Comments and reactions” option.
- At the bottom of the menu, click the “Request a download” button.
- Go to the top of the menu again and click on the “Available Files” tab. Here, you will see that Facebook is working on your request to collect all your comments and reactions within the set date range. You can either wait for the file to be ready or leave for now. Facebook will notify you once the information collection is complete.
- Once the file is ready, click on the “Download” button to start downloading the file. Make sure you download the file as soon as possible. Otherwise, it might expire, and you have to go through the same process all over again.
- Facebook will ask you to re-enter your password. Once you type it, click the “Confirm” button. The file will be downloaded as a .zip file. Open the .html file inside and navigate to the Comments section in your browser.
