Facebook Search History – How to View and Clear Searches

Other than the usual search through your friend list, Facebook search is a good and easy alternative way of trying to find individuals, groups, or any other searchable items. With the passage of time, Facebook has metamorphosed into a search engine of sorts from its basic function of enabling users to search for other individuals and pages.

Now, Facebookers can enter their search queries on a search bar just like in popular engines such as Google and Bing. Note that the list that shows when you are typing a query on the Facebook bar is not your search history but a collection of predictions or guesses about your actual search terms. This list is based on previous popular searches and is referred to as search predictions and suggestions. In contrast, clicking on the search bar without entering any item yields a list of your earlier search results.

After searching, all your searches are saved in the Activity Log section of Facebook. As in other search engines, Facebook uses data from users’ search history to maximize user experience. You can easily view (it is visible to you alone) and/or delete one or all your Facebook searches by visiting the Activity Log on your Windows or Mac PC as well as on Android and ios phones. Facebookers have the option of searching for individuals, groups, photos, videos, apps, posts, places, links, Pages, groups, apps, events, and links, among others.

 

How to Clear Facebook activity

 

• Open the page with your News Feed, and tap the look up bar at the top (left) of the screen.

• Tap “Edit” located close in the upper right corner of the look up result page opened.

• Tap “Clear Searches.”

• Finally,  Tap “Confirm” to clear your search activity.

 

What appears in Facebook search results?

Results on Facebook are determined solely by your activities on Facebook activity. Such activities include

• Things that are visible to you on Facebook such as stuff your friends share with you
• Friends’ posts
• Every place you are tagged or similar places
• Things that appeal to you such as interests you mention on your profile or pages you follow
• Groups you belong to
• Events you like or events that arouse your interest
• Your earlier searches
• Your News Feed interactions

Facebook community activity can also determine search results. Examples include

• Popularity of content that forms part of a search term
• How recent a post is

A user may also see search results from persons that are not his/her friends simply because he/she forms part of the audience for a post.

 

How to search on Facebook

• Click on the Facebook search bar
• Type your query and select from the results

You may notice search predictions as you type. If you observe your search terms among the predictions, then just click on it rather than waste time on further typing.

If you want to filter your results, the following simple steps will help:

• Enter your query into the search bar or select from the search prediction list
• Click on a filter (eg apps, groups, etc) to narrow down your search

To make your search very convenient Facebook also supports keyword searching. When you search with keywords you’ll noticeresults that you can subsequently filter.

You can also click on an item among the list of search predictions to view all the options for that item.

 

How to clear Facebook search suggestions

According to the Facebook community’s help team (https://web.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10156971672573213&_rdc=1&_rdr), “Deleting search suggestions on Facebook is currently not an option.”

 

 

However, it is possible to delete search suggestions on an android device. This is discussed below:

• Launch the Facebook app on your smartphone and tap on the search bar
• On the new page, you’ll notice some search suggestions based on your previous searches
• Tap on the “Edit” button on top of the page
• On Tapping the edit button, your search history becomes visible
• To clear all your search history, tap on “Clear Searches”
• On Tapping “Clear Searches”, you’ll be asked to confirm if you actually want to delete your search history
• Finally, Tap on “Confirm” to delete
• On deletion, search suggestions will disappear from your search bar

 

How to delete recent searches on messenger

Deleting searches is presently not possible for Desktop computers. It is however available for the smartphones below:

Android

To delete all your recent searches at the same time:

• tap the search bar in Messenger Chats.
• Tap “Edit”
• Tap “Clear All” close to “Recent Searches”

To delete one individual:

• Tap the search bar in Messenger Chats.
• Under “Recent Searches,” tap the delete button Xbeside the individual

 

iPhone

To delete all your recent searches simultaneously:

• Tap the search bar in Messenger Chats.
• Tap “Edit”
• Tap “Clear All”close to “Recent Searches”

To delete one individual:

• Tap the search bar in Messenger Chats

Under Recent Searches, tap the delete button X beside the individual

 

iPad

To delete all your recent searches simultaneously:

• Tap the search bar in Messenger Chats.
• Tap “Edit”
• Tap “Clear All”close to “Recent Searches”

To delete one individual:

• Tap on the search bar in Messenger Chats
• Under “Recent Searches” tap the delete button X beside the individual

 

How to delete search history on the Facebook search bar

On a desktop computer:

• Click on the search bar on top of your Facebook page
• Click on “Edit” also atop your page
• Click on “Clear Searches” close to Search History

However, your searches may still remain visible after observing the above protocol. If such is the case, just log out and log in again and you’ll observe that the search history is no more.

Below is another way to delete your search history through your activity log.

To delete one item:

• Click on(the account icon) on the top right of your Facebook page.
• Click on “Settings & Privacy”.

• Click on “Activity Log” and then on “Filter”
• Scroll to “Search History”click on the circle to select it as an option then click on Save Changes.

• In the menu, select the item you want to delete and then click on the circle with three dots and finally click on “Delete” to remove the item.

To delete all search items:

• Click in the top right of the page
• Choose “Settings & Privacy”and select “Activity Log”
• Click on “Filter”
• Scroll down and choose “Search History” and then click on “Save Changes”

• Finally, click on “Clear Searches”

On a smartphone:

• Launch your phone’s Facebook app
• Go to the icon depicted with three horizontal lines
• Locate “Activity Log” on the list and click on it and then tap on “Filter”
• Locate  “Search” on the list and tap on it
• You’ll then notice it on your screen.
• To delete just one search item, tap on the cross button for that and then tap on “Remove”
• To remove your entire search history, tap on “Clear Searches” and on “Confirm”

 

How do I get my search history back on Facebook

Presently, it is not officially possible to recover deleted Facebook items. Clearing your searches from the activity log will also delete them from other places e.g from the drop-down list of recent searches in your Facebook search bar.

It is thus advised that users should be very sure they want to delete their searches history.ç

 

How to delete autofill in Facebook search

Facebook can be used for several purposes, including to find new friends. However, using the Facebook form to find new friends frequently will lead to excess clutter in the form.

Due to this, your previous search terms will tend to autofill the search box whenever you attempt to enter search details into it. To remove past form data from your Find friends form, you have to wipe out this clutter using your browser. Some browsers below offer examples of how to execute this process

Chrome

• Click on “Settings” in the menu bar go to “Tools”
• Select “Clear browsing data” and “Clear saved Autofill form data”
• Select your preferred time range for history clean-up from the menu
• Select any other forms of history you intend to delete
• Lastly, click on “Clear browsing data” to delete your form data.

Internet Explorer

• Click on “Tools” in the menu bar
• Hover your cursor around “Safety” and then click on “Delete browsing history”
• Choose the “Form data” box and any other history form you wish to delete
• Click on “Delete” to clear your form data

Firefox

• Click on the “Firefox” button atop the window
• Hover around “History” on the menu and then click on “Clear Recent History”
• Click on “Details” and all available history options will appear

 

• Ensure that “Form & Search History” is selected
• Select the boxes for any other history types you into to delete
• Click on the drop-down menu close to select a time range
• Finally, click on “Clear Now” to delete your form data

 

 

How to View and Delete Facebook search history on Computer

Facebook activity is restricted to the user only and cannot be made public. However not deleting your personal history may cause huge embarrassment especially when someone gets hold of your Facebook account.

 

 

You can view and delete any entry by following steps

1. Click the gear shaped object in upper-right corner of the interface.
2. Open the activity log (as shown in the screenshot attached).
3. Click on “more” tab to view the interface with full options.
4. Then, Click on the “search”

5. Click “clear searches” to permanently delete your search history (as shown in the picture attached).

Final interface should look like the screenshot attached below confirming that the history has been deleted successfully.

 

How to Clear Facebook Searches on IOS

Your activity log on Facebook show a list of all the people and pages you look for, liked, commented and reacted to on Facebook. Bear in mind, nobody else has access to your activity log but you.

In Facebook, whenever you type and look for something, it will recollect what you looked for- in your personal data. In any case, you can access, find, view and clear your activity whenever you want to. Our guide will show to you how to accomplish that.

(These screen captures were caught in the Facebook application on iOS).

• Open the page with your News Feed, and tap the look up bar at the top (left) of the screen.

• Tap “Edit” located close in the upper right of the look up result page opened.

• Now Tap “Clear Searches.”

• Finally,  Tap “Confirm” to clear your inquiry activity.

And you’re done. It was that easy!