How to stop Facebook from showing you old memories, photos and updates you’d rather forget

By Kim Komando

July 2, 2017

Ahhh memories. Facebook helps you re-live your good ole’ days with photos from your past that were posted “on this day.”

It’s a simple way to remember good times, fun places and best friends. But life happens. And sometimes cherished memories from one year can become completely forgettable by the time that day rolls around again.

That good day is now a very bad day. When Facebook reminds you what happened on this day, you get sad. You break down.

You can’t change the past but it is possible, at least on Facebook, to keep history from repeating itself. It’s very simple to change which memories show up or turn off the feature altogether.

Here’s how to modify your “On This Day” settings on Facebook:

On This Day shows you memories to look back on from that particular day in your Facebook history. Memories include things like your posts and others’ posts you’re tagged in, major life events and when you became friends with someone on Facebook.

To see your memories:

1. Log in to Facebook.
2. Find “Explore” in the left column menu of your Facebook newsfeed.
3. Click On This Day (Note: The apps section will only show you up to four to five apps, so if you don’t see On This Day, click More to be shown a full list.)

If you’re already logged into Facebook, you can also access On This Day by typing facebook.com/onthisday into a web address bar.

Editing the On This Day feature:

Now that you know where to find the On This Day feature, there are some settings you’ll want to know about too. Here’s how you can make changes and customize your preferences.

To turn notifications on or off:

1. Go to facebook.com/onthisday.
2. Click Notifications and select All Memories to turn on, or Off to turn off.

To filter memories about a person:

1. Go to facebook.com/onthisday.
2. Click Preferences.
3. Click Edit next to People.
4. Enter the names of the people you don’t want to see memories with.
5. Click Save.

To filter memories for dates:

1. Go to facebook.com/onthisday.
2. Click Preferences.
3. Click Edit next to Dates.
4. Click Select Dates.
5. Select a start and end date for the date or dates you don’t want to see memories from, then click Done.
6. Click Save.

With just a few clicks, bad memories will disappear. It’s almost like they didn’t happen, kinda.

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Tags: apps, digital lifestyle, Facebook, settings