How to Turn Off Facebook Memories

Facebook’s Memories (also known as On This Day) feature shows you posts from previous years on the same day. It can be a wonderful way to remember fun times, exciting news, or great accomplishments. But you may also have shared sad, difficult things from your life that you don’t necessarily want to be reminded of. For example, it may have been comforting to get friends’ responses a year ago when your cat died. But seeing her picture now just makes you feel sad all over again.

Fortunately, there is a way to turn off this feature entirely, partially, just for certain people or dates, or even just certain memories.

How to Turn Memories Off (and Back On)

If you dislike the Memories feature altogether because, say, you just want to see what your friends are up to and the Memory function interrupts that action, it’s very easy to turn off.

1. Open your Facebook account, and look in the left column. There you’ll see a number of features. Find and click On This Day. Some accounts may display Memories rather than On This Day

2. Once you’re in the On This Day screen, look in the top-right portion of the screen for the Notifications button. Click it and select None to turn off the function entirely, or Highlights to see fewer memories.

3. If you decide later that you want to see more memories again, just return to this setting and select All Memories.

How to Block Memories Involving Certain People or Dates

Sometimes it’s only certain events or people that are troubling. For example, maybe you keep seeing images of a relationship that ended badly. If that’s the case, use the following method.

1. Open your Facebook account, and look in the left column. There you’ll see a number of features. Find and click On This Day.

2. Once you’re in the On This Day screen, click the Preferences button in the top-right portion of the screen. You’ll be taken to a screen that gives you a couple of options: People and Dates.

3. Choose People if you don’t want to be shown memories that involve others on Facebook. You can even choose people you’re not Facebook friends with. To complete the action, follow the prompts on your screen.

4. Choose Dates if a disturbing event or anniversary reminders are likely to pop up on a particular day. To complete the action, follow the prompts on your screen.

Remove Certain Memories

If your dislike of the Memories feature is limited to specific memories, like that really embarrassing birthday party, you can simply remove them so they don’t show up again.

1. Open your Facebook account and look in the left column. There you’ll see a number of features. Find and click On This Day.

2. Scroll down until you find the memory you want to remove.

3. In the upper-right corner of the post, click the three-dot icon. From the drop-down menu, select Delete. NOTE: This action will delete the post entirely from your account.

4. Alternatively, you can find the offending post by going to your Facebook profile, then clicking View Activity Log. Find the post you want to remove and click the pencil icon to hide it from your timeline, or delete it entirely.