Tap Menu, then Dating, tap the profile icon in the top right, and tap Settings. Below Account, tap Delete Profile, then tap Delete Profile again to confirm. Your Facebook account stays exactly as it is, but your Dating profile, your answers, your likes and your conversations are all removed.

The steps

Open the Facebook app and tap Menu, then tap Dating. Tap the profile icon in the top right corner and tap Settings.

Look below the Account heading and tap Delete Profile. Facebook asks you to confirm, so tap Delete Profile a second time.

That is the whole process. It takes less than a minute, which is exactly why it is worth thinking for a few minutes before you do it.

What deleting removes

Facebook is clear about what goes. Deleting removes your Dating profile, your answers, your likes, your matches, and your conversations.

The conversations are the part men forget. Every chat you have in Dating lives only in Dating. It is not in Messenger, and there is no copy anywhere else. Once the profile is gone, so is every conversation, including the one with the woman you were about to meet on Friday.

Your Facebook account is not affected

You can delete your Dating profile without deleting your Facebook account. Your friends, photos, posts, and Messenger chats all stay exactly where they are.

The reverse is not true. If you delete your whole Facebook account, your Dating profile is deleted along with it. So if you are leaving Facebook entirely, treat that as leaving Dating too, and do the housekeeping below first.

Save what you need before you tap

Go through your conversations before you delete anything. For any woman you are still talking to and want to keep seeing, get her number, or give her yours, and move the conversation to text.

Do it with a short, honest line. "I'm about to delete this app. I'd still like to take you for that drink. What's the best number for you?" Most women who were enjoying the chat will simply send it.

If you have a date already set, confirm the time and place by text before the chat disappears. Nothing sinks a first date faster than neither of you remembering which bar you picked.

When you met someone here

The most common reason to delete is a good one: you met a woman on Dating and you want to see where it goes. Even then, the timing is worth a thought.

Deleting the morning after one great first date is a big statement to make on your own. You do not know yet whether she feels the same, and you have not talked about it. There is no rush. Your conversation with her has probably moved to text by now anyway, so keeping the profile for a few more weeks costs you nothing.

When the two of you agree you are only seeing each other, delete it then. You do not need to make an announcement. If she asks, a simple "I deleted it last week" says everything, and it lands far better than a speech about commitment.

Deleting to start over rarely fixes anything

Some men delete their Dating profile after a quiet month, hoping a fresh start will change their luck. It usually does not.

If you rebuild with the same photos and the same prompt answers, you get the same results. The problem was never the account. It was what the account showed.

The better move is to keep your profile and change it one piece at a time. Swap your weakest photo for a better one, give it a few days, and see whether things improve. Rewrite your dullest prompt answer next. Small, careful changes teach you what works. Starting from nothing teaches you nothing.

Good reasons to delete

There are plenty of good reasons to go. You met someone and want to see where it leads. You are taking a real break from dating to focus on work, training, or yourself. You simply prefer other apps, or meeting women in person.

If one of those is yours, save your contacts, delete the profile, and do not look back. If you ever return, you will build a new Dating profile from scratch, and you will be able to make it better than the last one.