How to Manage Who Can Send You Friend Requests on Facebook

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Reduce the number of friend request you get on Facebook

Written by Travis Boylls

Last Updated: September 14, 2024 Fact Checked

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On Your Computer

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Video

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Q&A

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Tips

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Warnings

This wikiHow teaches you how to reduce the number of people who can send you a friend request on Facebook by changing the friend request filter from "Everyone" to "Friends of Friends". While you can't turn off friend requests entirely, changing the filter will drastically cut down on the number of people who can friend you.

Quick Steps

Click or tap ☰ or your profile picture.
Click or tap Settings & privacy.
Click or tap Settings.
Click or tap How people find and contact you.
Select "Friends of friends" next to "Who can send you friend requests?"
Toggle off "Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile."
Toggle off "Allow your profile to be recommended to people looking at similar profiles."

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

On Mobile

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1
Open Facebook. It's a dark-blue app with a white "f" on it. Doing so will open your News Feed if you're logged into Facebook.
- If you aren't logged in, go ahead and log in with your email address (or phone number) and password.
It's either in the bottom-right corner of the screen (iPhone) or in the top-right corner of the screen (Android).

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It's next to an icon that resembles a gear. It's towards the bottom of your profile menu. This expands the Settings & privacy menu.
It's at the top of the "Settings & privacy" menu.
It's below "Audience and visibility" header.
You can do so using the drop-down menu next to "Who can send you friend requests?" You can't stop all friend requests, but you can make it so that only friends of friends can send you a friend request.
It's towards the bottom of the menu. This prevents people from finding your Facebook profile using search engines like Google.
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Toggle off "Allow your profile to be recommended to people looking at similar profiles." It's at the very bottom of the menu. This prevents your Facebook profile from being sent to other people looking for similar profiles.^{[1]
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- For additional privacy, make sure "People with your email address" and "People with your phone number" are set to "No one." Set "Who can see your friends list" to "Only me". Then go through the rest of the privacy settings to make sure your Facebook page is private.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

On Your Computer

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1
Go to Facebook's website. It's at https://www.facebook.com/. If you're already logged into Facebook, doing so will open your News Feed.
- If you aren't logged into Facebook, go ahead and log in with your email address (or phone number) and password in the upper-right side of the page.
It's in the upper-right corner of the Facebook page.
It's in the pop-up menu that appears when you click your profile icon. It's next to an icon that resembles a gear.
It's at the top of the "Privacy & settings" in the upper-right corner.
It's below "Audience and visibility" header in the menu bar to the left.
You can do so using the drop-down menu next to "Who can send you friend requests?" You can't stop all friend requests, but you can make it so that only friends of friends can send you a friend request.
It's towards the bottom of the menu. This prevents people from finding your Facebook profile using search engines like Google.
8
Toggle off "Allow your profile to be recommended to people looking at similar profiles." It's at the very bottom of the menu. This prevents your Facebook profile from being sent to other people looking for similar profiles.
- For additional privacy, make sure "People with your email address" and "People with your phone number" are set to "No one." Set "Who can see your friends list" to "Only me". Then go through the rest of the privacy settings to make sure your Facebook page is private.

Community Q&A

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Question

How can I accept a friend request but stop them from seeing my posts?

Community Answer

When post, click the 'share settings' button next to the 'post' button. From there, click 'more options' and 'custom.' This pop-up will allow you to share with specific people or prevent certain people from seeing your posts.

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Question

How do I block a friend request?

Community Answer

You can't block a friend request, but you can deny it, which has the same effect.

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Question

How do I remove all outgoing friend requests on Facebook?

Community Answer

You have to go into the outgoing friend request section and cancel them one by one.

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