The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes
Is your Facebook account becoming a mess? Does your Timeline have embarrassing photos, inappropriate tags, awkward posts? Is your Facebook cluttered with game requests? Have you given permission to dozens of Facebook apps you don’t use anymore?
Your Facebook account may have posts, tags or photos you need to delete. Your Timeline may also be filled with game requests from friends who are eager to have you join them in playing their latest game. You also might have given permission to apps you no longer use but have access to your account. The more apps that have access to your Facebook account, the more chances you have of being hacked.
You could spend hours going through your Facebook account manually, trying to clean it up, but here are some tools, tips and tricks to get the job done in a matter of minutes.
Deleting Embarrassing Facebook Photos, Tags and Posts
It happens. You may have the most respectful, well-behaved friends in the world, but inevitably a rogue post, picture, or tag is posted that may be less than flattering or downright embarrassing. You can have your Facebook privacy settings locked down to Friends Only but don’t be fooled. If even Mark Zuckerberg can have his private photos leaked from Facebook, you can too. Assume anything on Facebook is public.
Employers, clients and university admissions offices may all be judging you based on Facebook. You may think that no one but your friends can see your Facebook profile, but you never know when an overly zealous intern somewhere may be trying to impress someone by digging up dirt on you.
The new Open Graph search on Facebook will make finding your information much easier so make sure your information is what you want the world to see.
You can moan about the unfairness of it or argue the legality of Facebook scrutiny. Or you can simply wash your Facebook clean.
SimpleWash is a Facebook app that will scan your Facebook Timeline for inappropriate posts, photos and tags. Developed by college students at Kent State, this tool can help you find everything from the eyebrow-raising to shocking.
To use this tool, go to the SimpleWash website and log in with your Facebook account. Give the app permission to access your account and your News Feed.
SimpleWash searches for the basic inappropriate terms, such as profanity, drugs and alcohol, plus you can enter custom search terms. If you want to find posts mentioning your boss, Mr. Worstbossever, just enter his name into the search box to add it as a search term.
SimpleWash searches in English and you can add other languages: Spanish, German and Italian.
The app searches your wall, photos, tagged photos, Likes, Liked links, status updates, and Liked pages. The app shows you how far back it searched and you can click on a button to go back even farther.
After I discovered SimpleWash from fellow blogger, Katy Ryan Schamberger at V3, I decided to give it a whirl. My Facebook account was very clean, perhaps indicating that I need to go out and have more fun in life?
SimpleWash can sometimes find false positives. On my Timeline the app picked up a misspelling of “as” and a Wonder of Tech article from last year, Do You Feel the Need for Speed?, highlighting the word “Speed”.
If you discover a post you’d like to remove from Facebook, click on the post to go to Facebook and delete it. You can then be comforted that your moment(s) of embarrassment will be gone from your Timeline. Make sure your kids use this too!
Block Game Requests
Even if you enjoy playing games such as SongPop on Facebook, you may have friends who pester you with multiple requests to join them in games you have no interest in playing. Sure, you can unfriend these folks but you may want to take less drastic action.
To stop a friend from sending you invitations to games, click on this Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/appcenter/requests?ref=reminders. You’ll be shown a list of current invitations from your Facebook friends. Click on the “X” to decline the request.
You will be given an option to:
- Block all requests for that game or
- Block all requests from that person
There is no way to block all game requests from all people. While you may be wishing for that universal button, someday you may be glad to receive a SongPop invitation from your good buddy, Justin Bieber!
I discovered this very cool trick thanks to Kim Castleberry at Just Ask Kim. If you haven’t discovered her amazing blog yet, you’re in for a treat. If you’re a blogger, it’s a must read.
Clean Your Permissions
As you’re having fun with Facebook, you may be giving permission to different third party apps to access your account. Over time you may have given access to apps you’re no longer using. Cleaning up your permissions will help to keep your Facebook account safe from possible hackers.
I first wrote about Clean Up Your Permissions! last year. If you checked your permissions but haven’t done it since, then it’s time to check them again. By visiting mypermissions.org you can easily see which apps have access to your Facebook, other social media and email accounts, and revoke permission for the ones you’re not using. You can even get alerts when an app is accessing your Facebook account.
Here’s a video showing how it works:
You can also get a free My Permissions Cleaner app for your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store.
I set up a reminder for myself with IFTTT (If This Then That) to clean my permissions monthly. Make sure to clean your permissions not just for Facebook but for other social media sites you use.
Bottom Line
By keeping your Facebook clean, you’ll make sure to avoid unwanted posts, photos, tags, game requests and permissions. A few minutes spent cleaning your Facebook can make for a much better Facebook experience for many seasons to come!
Have you checked your Facebook account with SimpleWash? What did you find? Have you blocked any Facebook games? Do you clean up your permissions regularly? Let us know in the Comments section below!
That sure was an informative post Carolyn!
Never heard of SimpleWash not My Permission Cleaner earlier, both of which I would give a try soon after here.
Oh yes…I am rather fed up of the games request that I keep getting from family and a few friends, and they just don’t stop even when I’ve requested them so many times that I’m not the gaming kind of a person. Other than that, and a few apps that don’t really bother me, I think my Facebook would be pretty clean like yours. Nevertheless, I would surely be checking out and seeing what SimpleWash has to say (I love the name – sounds like it’s going to really wash off a lot of dirt from Facebook:))
Thanks for sharing this one with us. Have a wonderful week ahead. 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, everyone needs to at least check their Facebook Timelines to see what can be found. You never know what you’ve been tagged in, even if you haven’t posted anything embarrassing yourself.
Going through Facebook manually is possible but time-consuming. By using these easy tools, cleaning your Facebook can be done in just a few minutes.
Happy week ahead to you too, Harleena!
I agree with Harleena, so many requests! It would be nice if you could block all requests period but I guess that will come in time. Thanks for the links! I have heard of Permissions Cleaner and actually use it and love it, the Simple Wash I hadn’t heard of but will definitely check it out! Thanks again, it’s nice to keep things cleaned up.
Carolyn,
Good to know about these! I recently went through my timeline (manually) and deleted tons of old posts and things I did not want on it anymore. I wish I had known about this when I spend HOURS going through it line by line….sigh….live and learn…
Aaron Brinker aka DadBlunders
Hi Aaron, You’re right, you can spend hours going through your Facebook manually. But next time you can save a lot of your valuable time and get the job done in a few minutes. How great is that? :-bd
Hi Carolyn,
Great information shared!
I really feel very bad about my facebook page.It is Littered with unwarranted images, I thought probably it will take hell of the time to delete all those, but this app appears to do wonders for sure.
Thanks Carolyn for the share. Wishing you a great week ahead.
Sapna
Hi Sapna, Yes, a Timeline can get polluted even if you haven’t posted anything yourself. Reviewing your Timeline manually can take a very long time. By using these tools, you can clean up your Facebook in a matter of minutes. 🙂
Best wishes for a wonderful week, Sapna!
Good to know such tools exists. But as fair as I can tell from a little bit of research is not available for my native language. Nevertheless I get the feeling facebook is moving more and more towards business type profiles, where everybody acts just like in a formal party displaying this fake business card persona.
I feel that facebook is and should remain a social network strictly for personal use, a place when everybody can be themselves.
There are plenty of business oriented social networks out there, why not use those when it comes to having a professional online profile.
Hi Christioan, good point. People want to feel as if they can let their hair down on Facebook and just be themselves. After all, it’s not LinkedIn or a professional organization. But with the upcoming launch of Open Graph, information from your Timeline will be even easier to find.
Thank you for the great tips. I do need to do a cleanup especially the permissions. I think I have a lot of apps authorized that don’t need to be anymore. Simple wash sounds pretty amazing as well.
Hi Michelle, Yes, with apps, it’s easy to give permission, but when you want to revoke permissions, finding where to do that can be challenging. My permissions.org makes the process as easy as possible. The first time you use it you may be quite surprised at how many apps have permission to access your Facebook account.
Yep, i think it is time for some clean-up of my FB account. There is a lot of unwanted mess, thanks for bringing this to our attention so we can use it accordingly. I wasnt aware of these tools before now and seems like a great one to have. Rightly named I should say 🙂
Thanks once again Carolyn.
Hi Praveen, yes, going through this process manually could take hours. But these tools take just a few minutes each, increasing the likelihood you will use them regularly.
I’m afraid I’m like you Carolyn but hey, we have fun! I’m not squeaky clean but I know my account is. I’ve been very cautious from the very start with what I share and what I approve to be on my wall.
I have a feeling though that some people may need this gem and what a very smart creation I must add. Why didn’t we think of this!
Enjoy your week Carolyn.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, We probably didn’t think of this because our Facebook Timelines aren’t spicy enough for us to have a dire need for this tool. But hey, college students came up with this app. Their friends might be forever grateful, right?
I have never tried SimpleWash or My Permission Cleaner, but they sure look interesting. I don’t have any issues on Facebook at the moment, and I don’t think that there are any embarrassing photos of me, and I have filtered my friends and the requests I am receiving. It took me a while, but now things are finally more or less under control on Facebook. I am not receiving that many requests from games or apps as I used to, that was the biggest problem.
Hi Jens, That’s good your Facebook is under control. But these tools are available should you ever need them…when your kids are teenagers, for example . 😉
Carolyn,
I think I need to go and do this. I am thinking that my Facebook profile is clean but it may not be.
I know I need to go and delete a whole bunch of apps and things I have given permissions to. I looked at those the other day and there were some that I have not used for over a year.
Thanks for putting all of this in one spot for us.
Dee Ann Rice
Hi Dee Ann, I’m so glad you found this useful. You’re right, it’s helpful to have these tools all in one article. We should clean our Facebook regularly, not just once. You never know when an errant post or picture may sneak onto our Timeline.
Hi Carolyn,
Ohw no dear 😉 I don’t like to see anything messing up. Naturally I tend to be organized and delete all stuff I don’t wanna keep up with, as and when it happens. Sometimes I can’t wait until I remove clutter. Well, that’s me 😉
But once I’ve seen a Facebook profile of a friend and I couldn’t believe it. I mean it’s just a mess but nothing less. I just ask him may I clean this up and it took me about an hour. After all, I was just happy as it was clean. But you never know what will happen 😉 After about 2 weeks, it’s a mess again. Habits… Ugh…
The apps seems very easy to use especially someone who don’t like to mess with Facebook settings 🙂
I like the way how Facebook handle game requests now as once we ignore a game request in notifications it asks to block further requests. That’s easy peasy and user friendly 😉
Have a fabulous week Carolyn 😉
Cheers…
Hi Mayura, You are a very kind friend to clean up your buddy’s Facebook account. How discouraging that he just messed it up again! At least now, if you offer to help out again, the chore will only take you a few minutes instead of an hour.
Yes, you can also block Facebook game requests as they appear in your Timeline, but if you missed some this link makes it easy to take care of them all at once.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, Mayura!
Cool beans, looks like I got a hair cut………damn birthday requests…….:).
Hey Bill, I’m sure that your Facebook Timeline is pristine, so no need for you to polish it up nice and shiny! :-bd
Carolyn,
I love this post! I can’t wait to stop those nasty game requests. Don’t relatives get it when you don’t play any games?
I once did the permissions but took out too many and had to add some back. It can be daunting keeping up with everything Facebook as they make so many changes. Thanks for sharing the info here Carolyn. I had not heard of these methods before for Facebook cleaning. I’m off to go clean mine now.
Hi Lisa, I’m so pleased that this was helpful to you. You’re right, people might get a clue that you don’t want to play games on Facebook if you don’t accept their invitations. But for everyone who plays a game on Facebook, there was a time that they didn’t play a game. Almost everyone on Facebook gets started on a game through an invitation from a friend. Most games give big rewards for inviting your Facebook friends to play.
But the link in the article will help you block the games and invitations from friends so this won’t be an issue for you any more.
I have done the same exact thing with my permissions. I revoked some I didn’t mean to because I didn’t recognize the name of the app developer. Sometimes it’s a very different name from the app.
If you a revoke a permission for an app that you were actually using, that’s easily solved. Just grant permission to the app to access Facebook the next time you use the app.
Happy cleaning, Lisa!
Whoa! Never knew that apps like these existed.
Saves me a lot of time indeed!
Thanks a lot for the info! 😀
Hi John, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m very glad this was helpful to you. You’re right, these free tools can save you a lot of time.
Have fun scrubbing your Facebook clean!
Simple wash, might be useful for me. I do delete things on a daily basis, but we can be judged on the stupidity of some of hours friends! I dislike the profanity and would like to delete all that in a stroke. I think being aware of what you post is important though.
More editing on my blog today!
Hi Mike, Excellent point. You can be extra careful of what you post on Facebook but your friends might post comments, tags, photos that you would rather not let others see. These tools are a fast, free way to make sure your Facebook stays sparkly clean!
Awesome list of tools. I didn’t even consider it before reading this, but I have used all of these services. I’m a big fan of MyPermission.
Hi Paul, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! It’s great to hear from a fellow fan of MyPermission as well as the other services. I’m very glad you’re keeping your Facebook clean, Paul. :-bd
These are great resources especially for parents! I insist that my children provide me with their login information so that I can go into their Facebook accounts, poke around, and clean everything up every so often. I’m going to check out these tools to streamline the process! Thanks Carolyn!
Hi Ruth, Yes, you’re exactly right, Ruth! Even if your kids behave well on Facebook, their friends may not. Cleaning out their Facebook is important to make sure that your kids aren’t unfairly judged by their friends’ actions.
I think facebook it self is mess, It is not interesting any more for me, I’m carrying out my social enviorment to google plus.
Hi Cagri, There is a lot to recommend Google+. I’m sorry that your Facebook ended up being a mess. If you want to stay on Facebook, you could take a few minutes and use these tools to clean up your Timeline.
Hey Carolyn,
I never thought that I can clean this stuff out of my time line. Thanks to Simplewash.
Going to try it now.
Yes, with open graph am a bit concerned about my privacy, anyway I deiced long back not to share my personal likes and dislikes on FB. I use it only for my business.
~@Khajamoin1
Hi Khaja, Excellent point. Even your Likes can get you in trouble. With Open Graph search people will be able to see what you Like very easily. You’re right, it’s best to keep your Facebook simple and clean!
Hi Carolyn
It sounds like a great idea with such an app to clean up the mess that people sometimes has on their Facebook timeline. Facebook permissions is also something that a lot of people should pay more attention to.
Hi Thomas, Yes, unfortunately, many people’s Facebook accounts are a mess. I know some people who have closed their accounts to start fresh. But using these tools makes the clean up job much quicker!
You’re so right. Permissions are very important, Thomas. So often we don’t think twice before granting permission for third party apps to access our Facebook accounts, but once we’re done using these apps, we may not need them to have that access any more. MyPermissions makes this job much easier.
Hi Carolyn!
Thanks for sharing this post! I can now go back to my FB account and clean it up. I really don’t understand why I keep getting invites to play games. I’ve never played a game on FB before and it can be so annoying sometimes.
Hi Melanie, That’s great that you’ll be able to clean up your Facebook easily. You’re probably getting game requests because game developers give bonuses to people for inviting new players. Some people invite all of their friends, even if they’ve never played a game before.
Yes, I guess it is time for me to get rid of unwanted photos, tags and posts on my timeline. Of late, I have not been paying much attention to my timeline due to a lot of work pressure. However, when you have highlighted this topic in your post, I feel I should clean my facebook right away before the mess get out of control.
Hi Thomas, I completely understand. We’re all busy so why spend unnecessary time trying to clean up our Facebook accounts? These steps should take you just a few minutes to polish your Facebook sparkly clean!
I hope the work pressure eases up on you soon, Thomas!
Hi Carolyn,
I keep getting a 403 error that says The website declined to show this webpage and prompts me to log in when i try to download mypermissions.
I have looked everywhere for a place to log in or create an account and can’t find it.
what am i doing wrong?
Hi Amanda, I would love to help you, but I’m not sure which link is giving you that error message. I checked the links in this article and they seem to be working fine. Which one is giving you trouble?
It’s after i go to the page and click on the download now:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/mypermissions-extensions/extensions/mypermissionscleaner_0.3.6.exe
Okay, that link doesn’t work for me either. Try this one: Permissions Cleaner. I hope this helps, Amanda!
Hi Carolyn,
Facebook is one of top sites where every one is accessing it.Their are many Pro and cons by using Facebook.Very Good Ways you have written to manage our timeline in Facebook!! Thanks For Sharing 🙂
Hi Srikanth, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you enjoyed this article. Yes, Facebook is a fun site but we also need to be mindful of keeping it tidy.
Thanks for stopping by The Wonder of Tech today and taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂
Looks like someone going for a “bath”!!! :))
Facebook was getting quite displeasing thanks to all unwanted games, images and “know answered what” type of applications. Need to try these cleaning apps for sure. Thanks for the share!!! :-bd
Hi Rashmi, You’re not alone. Sometimes social sharing on Facebook can get lost in the mix with all of the game requests. I’m glad you’re taking time to polish up your Facebook, Rashmi! :-bd
Yes, I agree compeletly with you, it is really necessary to scrub our Facebbok timeline clean of all the unwanted and irrelevant post as well as videos posted there. Our timeline showcases our online reputation and too many useless posts can ruin it. Hence, meaningless posts should be instantly deleted.
Hi Sam, Excellent point. Our reputation can be built on our Facebook Timeline. Like it or not, people can judge us based on what they see there. Keeping your Facebook clean will help keep your reputation sparkly clean as well!
if we want a healthy Facebook profile we need to keep it clean everyday. this is a great thing to do and you have suggested some nice ways to keep it clean like deleting old photos and tags and other unnecessary things, this will help in a much cleaner fb profile. i have seen some profiles with this type of crap. they just like 1000’s of page without any solid reason and get too many notifications so it becomes really tough to know which notification is important