How to check who’s unfriended you on Facebook

By | January 10, 2012, 1:50pm PST

Summary: Have you ever wondered who just unfriended you on Facebook? The social network will never tell you, but this Google Chrome extension will.

Update: How to see who unfriends you on Facebook

If someone accepts a friend request from you, Facebook sends you a notification, both on the service and via e-mail (unless you disable this functionality). If one of your friends deletes (or unfriends) you, Facebook does not notify you. The company says so explicitly in its Facebook Help Center:

If I unfriend someone, will they be notified?
No, but all friend links are reciprocal, so you will be removed as a friend from their friend list as well.

Facebook does this so users don’t feel guilty when they unfriend someone. Unfortunately, some users just can’t help themselves and are unbearably curious who is unfriending them, and when.

That’s where the Google Chrome extension Facebook Friend Checker (FFChecker) comes in. You can download it yourself from the Chrome Web Store. Also see the following Photo Gallery: How to check who’s unfriended you on Facebook (screenshots).

FFChecker keeps track of your Facebook profile in the background and notifies you on a frequent basis who unfriends you. Here’s the official description: “Regularly checks your Facebook friends to check whether anyone has removed you from their friends.”

You can set how often the plugin should check your friend list (the default is two hours). The time limit is there so that FFChecker isn’t constantly working: it only activates when it’s time to check. Two hours is way too frequent; setting it to 24 hours or even more should be enough for you.

When FFChecker detects that one or more of your friends have unfriended you, it displays a message informing you of the event. The message also includes a link to ex-friend’s profile page.

The extension works because it can compare the list of Facebook friend ids saved in Chrome’s cache. If you clear your cache (Wrench menu => Options => Under the Bonnet => Clear browsing data…), the plugin won’t work until Chrome caches you Facebook Friend List again.

This Chrome extension is a modified version of the original Greasemonkey script, which is available on Userscripts.org and was developed by the user znerp.

Update: How to see who unfriends you on Facebook

See also:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Emil Protalinski has covered the tech industry for five years for multiple publications.

Disclosure

Emil Protalinski

Emil has nothing to disclose.

Biography

Emil Protalinski

Emil Protalinski has covered the tech industry for five years for multiple publications, including Neowin for two years and Ars Technica for three years. He has written 1,000s of articles for both, with a particular focus on scrutinizing Microsoft products and services. Recently, Emil has expanded his coverage to non-Microsoft technologies, including the social networking giant Facebook.

6
Comments

Join the conversation!

Just In

unistalling friend checker needing help BADLY
flipperpaslay 6 days ago
can someone please help me unistall friend checker from facebook its not in my programs and a long page is stuck on my face page cant get it off and ive tried everything and cant figure it out please help
0 Votes
+ -
works for Pages too??
steveholt68 10th Jan
wonder if this works for Facebook Pages too??
This reminds me, time to remove some friends. The pic for this article should of had the girl with those pants & shoes as being the outcast.
SocialFixer also does this. It's available for as an extension for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari or a Greasemonkey/Scriptish userscript.
0 Votes
+ -
In case one doesn't use Chrome, or just doesn't want to deal with extensions, then one can use a native Facebook app. I found XTracker to be good at it, nice UI and no ads: http://www.facebook.com/pages/XTracker/151984564914895
0 Votes
+ -
Frankly, the rise of social media has made it so easy for people to live completely false lives! I know people who don't exist outside of FB. Let me explain: I know several people who speak to no one, add nothing to the verbal conversation when you see them out and about, but man let them get a hold of a mouse or a smart phone and these people have much, much to say, most of it fantasy. I have been "unfriended" by a young mother after she came to pick up her child from the nursery at church and decided that I was "mean" and "judgemental". All this she poured out in a FB message to me. When I suggested we meet for coffee and discuss this because I was mystified and felt bad that she thought this. She promptly unfriended me and does whatever she can to avoid me. I only found out that she had done this because she still comments on things I say and since we know the same people, it said she was a friend of a friend and I thought, that's wierd, I thought she was my friend too. So I checked her friend list, it's easy to do, and I was gone!
0 Votes
+ -
can someone please help me unistall friend checker from facebook its not in my programs and a long page is stuck on my face page cant get it off and ive tried everything and cant figure it out please help

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix