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I hope today is a great day for you.
I hope every day is a great day for you.
But that’s not going to happen. We all have bad days sometimes, days we’d rather forget.
All of us will have the worst day of our life at some point.
The last thing we need is Facebook reminding us of our bad days.
Now we can take steps to prevent Facebook from reminding us of painful memories. In just a few minutes we can block reminders from Facebook of the things we’d prefer to forget.
Facebook On This Day
In March Facebook launched On This Day, a reminder of what you posted on Facebook in the past. If you’re a Facebook user, you’ve probably seen On This Day pop up in your News Feed, reminding you of past posts.
The ideal is that these reminders bring a smile to your face and you eagerly share On This Day posts with your friends on Facebook.
But that doesn’t always happen.
Some reminders of past events are ones you simply don’t want to see. The loss of a loved one or cherish pet, a break up or divorce, or other tragedy may make for a sorrowful anniversary each year.
On This Day Filters
Now you can use filters to tell Facebook when and whom you don’t want to be reminded of in On This Day posts. You don’t have to avoid Facebook on sad dates, you can eliminate unhappy reminders.
To set your Facebook On This Day filters, go to:
Click the Preferences gear icon in the right corner of the header.
You’ll see a pop-up window that lets you choose dates and people you’d rather not see reminders for.
People
You can tell Facebook which of your Facebook friends you’d rather not see in your On This Day reminders.
Click on the People tab and you’ll see a pop-up window where you can enter their names.
When you’re finished adding names, click Save.
Facebook will filter On This Day reminders that have those people tagged in a post or picture.
[tip] You can also unfriend or block anyone on Facebook you’d rather not see in your News Feed.
=> See, Fix Your Flooded Facebook Feed (Without Unfriending Anyone)
[/tip]
Dates
You can select individual dates or a time period so those won’t show On This Day reminders.
Click the Date link to select dates you don’t want reminders of.
After you select the dates, click Done, then click Save. You will not see reminders for that day in On This Day on Facebook.
Note that the dates you enter are specific to the year. So if there is a date you don’t want to be reminded of for any year in the past you’ll have to enter each year individually. For example, January 1, 2014; January 1, 2013; January 1, 2012; etc.
Year in Review
No word yet on whether Facebook will use this information to filter its annual Year in Review. Facebook could avoid people having many unpleasant memories if it took a clue from On This Day filters.
Chances are if you don’t want to be reminded of someone On This Day, you won’t want to be reminded of them in your Facebook Year in Review.
Blocking On This Day Completely
You can turn On This Day off completely to get no reminders of past events.
Go to the On This Day page
Click Notifications and then click Off.
To Block or Not to Block?
You may not want to block On This Day posts with painful memories. These posts may highlight to you how far you’ve come since that bad event. You can also be reminded of how your Facebook friends offered support to you during your dark times.
The good news is that Facebook gives you the choice of whether or not to block dates and people. You can make your choice, then change your mind later if you want.
Your Thoughts
Have you enjoyed your On This Day reminders? Are you glad Facebook has introduced filters for On This Day? Are there days and people you’d prefer to forget?
Share your thought in the Comments section below.
* Storm image (edited) courtesy of Jerry Worster via Flickr and Creative Commons
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Thanks Carolyn for sharing the details of the On this Day feature of Facebook. Facebook’s continuous changes does keep us on our toes. It is always helpful to have an explanation for understanding. Thanks for all your interesting posts!
Hi Cathy, You’re welcome. I do think this update is an important one for people. I don’t know if you’ve ever been reminded of a painful memory on Facebook but it really can take your breath away.
By using these filters we can avoid being reminded of unpleasant memories and enjoy the good ones from On This Day.
Hi Carolyn,
This is a good idea. I haven’t had many bad reminders, but I can see how it might happen in the future. Just about everyone is on Facebook these days and it’s possible for us to lose people from our lives and not want to be constantly reminded of it. I
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I rather block a person I do not wish to see or wishes to forget.
People you wish to forget may notice if you unfriend them.
I think it is better to block them so they can never see any
of your status updates. They may just think that
you already deactivated your account.
Hi Gilbert, Yes, when you block a person you don’t have the potential of being caught unfriending them but you don’t have to see their posts in your News Feed.
That is one way to make Facebook better for you.
Hey Carolyn,
Well I definitely like this addition although right now I think I’m good with reminders.
I think the deaths might be the hardest but trust me, I’m going to remember them without Facebook’s help.
The more recent they are probably the harder they are to see so I really can appreciate that they’re giving us this option to not be reminded with “in your face” messages and pictures that might stir up even more sad emotions.
Learned something new again today so thank you Carolyn, You’re the best for keeping us updated with the latest and greatest things out there.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, I have had quite a few friends on Facebook pass away and it is unsettling to get reminders of them. Sometimes families keep the Facebook accounts going in their loved one’s memory but getting those posts in On This Day can be upsetting.
Or not. Maybe those posts would bring back fond memories. Facebook lets you decide what you want to block.
Thanks so much for your kind words, Adrienne. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Hi Carolyn,
I can see this feature as being super helpful. Although I love most of my Facebook memories there are moments and days that are best left in the past, outside of my awareness. Knowing that I can release on these days and I won\’t be reminded of them sure as heck works for me.
On the whole I really do dig my Facebook memories. Neat to see where I\’ve been at what times as even I forget with all of my globe trotting these days.
Thanks so much for sharing with us.
Ryan
Wow it’s really cool feature so instead of blocking someone i can filter that one for particular day.
Thanks for sharing this with us with a well compilled post 🙂
HI Akash, I’m glad you enjoyed this article. I hope you only have happy memories from now on!
Hi Carolyn
We all have Ups and Downs in our life and we always share them on Facebook with our friends and relatives.
When Facebook remind us such memories and If those memories are good then it make us happy But If they are bad then It make us feel really bad so It is most important to filter those painful memories so that we can say happy every time.
Your tutorial is so unique and helpful. It will help me to filter my old memories on Facebook.
Thanks for sharing this great piece of content. 😀
Happy Blogging 😉
Hi Chetan, You’re right, why go on Facebook to get sad? Few people want to relive unhappy memories and now you can avoid that. Just take a few minutes to filter dates and/or people from On This Day to avoid unpleasant reminders.
Thanks so much for your kind words and for leaving a comment, Chetan.
I have followed this explanatory, step-by-step guide to chalk out unwanted facebook memories. thanks for sharing. It really helped me.
Keep up the good work.
This is fine except it does not work. I put in a date range of October 19, 2008 – October 19, 2015 (desperately trying to turn this horrible “feature” off) and a memory from 3 years ago just popped into my feed. I set this filter 2-3 days ago.
Facebook either does not test their code or does not care about this. Please make them allow us to fully turn this dumb annoying feature off.
FYI the memory was of my dead dog- exactly what I’m trying to avoid unless I want to look at it myself.
Hi Tony, I’m so sorry this happened to you and for the loss of your dog.
I’m thinking the reason that Facebook didn’t filter On This Day for you is because the date range was too long.
You can turn On This Day off.
Go to the On This Day link: https://www.facebook.com/onthisday/
Click Notifications and then click Off.
That may be a better fix for you. I will update this article to include that information for others who want to turn off On This Day completely.
That does not work. I have tried it. They show the memories anyway. Conveniently broken way to turn the feature off.