Forgot Your Facebook Password? How to Recover It

Start here: go to facebook.com/login/identify, enter the email address or phone number on the account, and follow the reset link Facebook sends. That recovers the large majority of accounts in about two minutes.

The rest of this page is for when that does not work — when the email is dead, the number has changed, or someone else has taken the account. Those cases have real routes too, and they are different from each other.

The standard reset

On the login screen, tap Forgotten password?, or open facebook.com/login/identify directly.
Enter the email address, phone number, username or full name on the account.
Choose where to send the code — email or SMS.
Enter the six-digit code, then set a new password.
Choose whether to log out of other devices. Say yes if there is any chance someone else has access.

Search by full name if the email and number both fail. Facebook will show partly masked contact details for matching accounts, which is often enough to remind you which address you used.

If you are already logged in somewhere

Much easier, and worth doing before you lose that session. On any device still signed in, go to Settings & privacy → Accounts Centre → Password and security → Change password. You will be asked for the current password on some flows — if you cannot supply it, use the reset link from within the same menu, which is pre-authenticated.

Check Where you're logged in in the same section while you are there, and remove any session you do not recognise.

When the email and phone no longer reach you

This is the common hard case: an old university address, a number from two carriers ago.

Try every address you have ever used. Facebook accepts any email ever added to the account, including ones you removed.
Recover the email account first. If the mailbox itself is recoverable through its own provider, that is usually the shorter path — fix the email, then reset Facebook normally.
Use a device or browser you have used before. Facebook weights recognised devices heavily, and the alternative-verification options appear far more often on one it knows. Doing this from the phone you always used matters more than people expect.
Look for “Try another way”. Depending on the account, this offers identification from photos of friends, trusted contacts, or an identity document.

Uploading identification

Where offered, Facebook accepts a government ID to confirm you are the account holder. It is the most reliable route when contact details are gone. Submissions are reviewed rather than instant, so expect a wait, and use the official upload form reached from the recovery flow rather than any link sent to you.

If the account was hacked

Treat this as a different problem, and move quickly.

Go to facebook.com/hacked. This is the dedicated flow, and it handles cases where the attacker has already changed the email and password.
If Facebook emailed you about a contact-details change you did not make, open that message and use the revert this change link. It works even after the attacker has switched the address, and it is the fastest recovery available.
Once back in, change the password, remove unknown sessions, check for added admins on any Page you manage, and review linked apps.
Turn on two-factor authentication before you do anything else.

Why the code does not arrive

Check spam, and look for mail from [email protected].
Try email if SMS failed, and the reverse. They are separate delivery paths.
SMS to some carriers and countries is unreliable. Email is generally more dependable.
Wait before requesting again — repeated requests can rate-limit you, and only the newest code works.
Check the number is still yours. A recycled number is a common and easily missed cause.

Making the next time easier

Once you are back in, spend two minutes on this:

Turn on two-factor authentication, preferably with an authenticator app rather than SMS.
Add a second email address you actually control.
Save your recovery codes somewhere offline.
Store the password in a password manager rather than remembering it.
Confirm the email and number on the account are current — the reason recovery fails is almost always that nobody updated them.

FAQs

Can Facebook support recover my account by email?

There is no support address that handles this. Everything goes through the recovery flows above, and anyone contacting you offering to restore an account for a fee is running a scam.

How long does ID verification take?

Usually a few days. There is no way to expedite it.

Will resetting my password log me out of Messenger?

Yes, if you choose to end other sessions. You sign back in with the new password.

What if my account was disabled rather than hacked?

That is a separate process — password recovery will not help. Use the disabled-account appeal form, which asks for identification.