How To Tell If Someone Blocked You On Facebook

Social media is a great tool used to interact with and meet others. There are times when you or someone else may get ‘blocked’ by another user. This feature is open for anyone to use for any reason.

To protect users’ privacy or the feelings of others, Facebook does not show you who blocked you. You receive no notifications of getting blocked, nor is there a list of users who’ve blocked your account.

You may wonder how you can tell if someone has blocked you. This article shows you various ways to find out if someone blocked you on Facebook.

What is the Difference Between Blocked and Unfriended?

First of all, you must understand that there is a big difference between getting blocked and unfriended. When another user unfriends you, you can still see their profile, comments on mutual pages, and any public content they share. You can even send them another friend request.

However, if someone blocks your account, you won’t see their profile and can’t view comments, interactions, or updates. You also cannot contact them whatsoever.

In short, if someone blocks you, they effectively disappear on Facebook (at least for you). So, if you don’t see them in your Friends list but can still see them on the site, you were not blocked; you got unfriended.

How to Know if Someone Has Blocked You On Facebook

Unfortunately, it can be challenging to differentiate between an account that blocked you and a deactivated account. Both have similarities in that they no longer appear on Facebook, you can’t message them, and you can’t see past comments or likes.

While Facebook won’t let you know if you were blocked, the other person deleted their account, or their account got banned, there are a few things you can try. Let’s get right into it.

Search for Their Facebook Profile

If a friend is no longer showing up on your Timeline or in your Friends list, you should first search for their profile using Facebook’s user search function. This one isn’t foolproof, but if you feel like you’ve been blocked based on a recent conversation or disagreement, you can double-check that you weren’t unfriended instead. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Facebook “search bar” at the top of the page.
   
   
2. Type in the name of the profile that you are searching to find.
   
   

If the profile doesn’t appear (and you’ve made sure you’re searching for the right name), the user may have blocked your account.

Check Past Facebook Posts and Comments

If you just got unfriended, you’ll still see your former friend’s activity on your wall. Have they ever posted anything to your wall? Have they ever commented on any of your posts? How about posts from mutual friends? You can follow these steps to check for specific posts quickly:

1. Click the arrow in the top right and select “Settings and Privacy.”
   
   
2. Select “Activity Log.”
   
   
3. Under “Filters” in the “Activity Log,” select “People.”
   
   
4. Search the name of the person you are looking to find.
   
   
5. Their posts and comments won’t disappear from your page. However, instead of their name appearing as a clickable link, it will appear as bold black text; this is a possible sign that you got blocked.

Use Messenger to Search for Someone

Facebook Messenger can provide insight into whether someone blocked you on Facebook or not. There are two valuable ways of checking if you got blocked through Messenger.

1. Use Messenger’s search bar and type in the name of the individual you need to find.
   
   
2. If the user doesn’t appear in the list, this is a crucial indicator that you got blocked.
   
   
3. Try sending the Facebook user a message. If you receive a prompt that this person isn’t available right now, you’re most likely blocked.
   
   

Recruit Help from a Friend to Verify if You Got Blocked on Facebook

Ask a friend or a family member to pull up their Facebook account. This process works best with a disinterested third party, someone they aren’t likely to block. If the page appears, then their profile is not deactivated.

Ultimately, if you can’t see the profile but another person can, the user has indeed blocked you.

Note: Anyone that blocks you on Facebook has to wait 48 hours after unblocking you before they can send you messages, re-friend you, or view your profile, so be patient.

How to Contact a Facebook user that Blocked You

Sometimes, a Facebook user has a particular reason they blocked you and may not want to tell you why. That’s OK because it means that they had their reasons. However, if they accidentally blocked you or changed their mind if it occurred months/years ago, they will most likely respond to your message.

Create a new Facebook Account

You can create a new Facebook page to contact the other user. But, if they aren’t accepting your friend request, your messages will go to the Message Request folder.

If someone has blocked you in error, you can follow these steps to get unblocked:

1. Create a new Facebook account with unique credentials, such as a new email, new username, etc.
   
   
2. Search for the specific person that may have accidentally blocked you.
   
   
3. Send a message using Messenger to ask them. Try to be respectful and don’t make them feel pushed to answer.
   
   

Remember that the above steps can frustrate the user who blocked you to the point of reporting you, leading to the reprimands found in the note mentioned below. Why? The other user knows who you are. They can easily report you to Facebook, which becomes associated with your real FB account.

Note: The steps above breach Facebook’s Terms of Service (one personal account per person), so use them at your own risk. Potential outcomes can be banning/removing your main Facebook account, blacklisting you based on identifiable information, losing commenting/posting abilities for up to 30 days, etc.

Use a Friend of Friend’s Facebook Account to Send Messages

You can also use another person’s Facebook account to message the recipient, but that may not always work out well. This action makes you look desperate or pushy to find out why they blocked you. It also risks the “sender’s” account getting blocked by the user. Above all, it could frustrate the person that blocked you and lead to worse outcomes.

Log Out of Facebook, Then Search for the Facebook User as a Guest

This section was included but only to let you know that your chances of getting the information you need are slim. Also, this method only works on mobile phones.

By logging out of Facebook, you cannot get identified. You can easily search the social media giant for the user that blocked you. Of course, information gets restricted based on their “Public” settings, but you can still view a glimpse of their profile. This objective aims to get contactable details, such as a phone number or email. If you already have that information, you can text/email/message them, but they may have also blocked your phone number on Android/iOS.

1. Log out of “Facebook” if logged in from a browser. There’s no need to log out of the app.
   
   
2. Use a search engine to find their Facebook profile. Type “Facebook [name]” in the search box, replacing “[name]” with their actual name.
   
   
3. Click the “search engine link” to their Facebook profile.
   
   

You’ll see a glimpse of their profile page based on what they have set as “Public.”

Reference: How to Unblock Someone on Facebook

If someone blocked you, you could help them unblock you using the below directions. Copy/paste the process into your email or text message to reduce the effort required on their part. Otherwise, they may feel it’s not worth it or don’t have the time to figure out how to unblock you.

Be sure to wait until you get a response from the blocker before helping them unblock you. You don’t want to seem pushy or desperate or make the blocker feel insulted. If the person is interested in unblocking you, you can help by providing these steps to them.

1. Click the “arrow” in the top right and select “Settings & Privacy.”
   
   
2. Choose “Settings.”
   
   
3. On the left, click or tap on “Blocking.”
   
   
4. Locate the profile in question and click “Unblock.”
   
   
5. After 48 hours elapses from the time you unblock someone, you can reply or view their profile again.
   
   

Keep in mind doing this action means you will have to wait to block them again for a short time. If you’re unblocking someone to snoop at their profile, they’ll be able to see yours as well until you can block them again. For more information, see our article How To Unblock Someone On Facebook.

Facebook Blocking FAQs

We rely on Facebook for a lot of important communications. Here is some more information to help you navigate getting blocked on Facebook.

Can I block someone who blocked me?

Absolutely! Perhaps another user beat you to the punch, and you don’t want them snooping your profile. Fortunately, you can still block someone who blocked you. Here’s how:

Here’s how to block someone who blocked you:

1. Open Facebook’s Settings and tap on “Blocking.”

2. Tap “Edit” next to ‘Block Users.”

3. Tap “Add to blocked list.”

4. Search the user you’d like to block. Select “Block” next to the user’s name.

If the Facebook user who blocked you unblocks you and tries to view your profile, they can’t.

Can I send messages on Facebook Messenger to someone who blocked me?

Yes. But only in a group chat. If you were in a group chat together before the user blocked you, you can still send messages in the group. The other user can open the chat, see your message, and choose to respond.

Wrapping Up

In closing, you may think someone has blocked you out of spite or anger, but that is not always the case. This article mentioned that someone could disappear from your friend’s list simply because they unfriended you or got banned, and it talked about how someone could be unsearchable because they changed their privacy settings.

If you have been blocked online, there may be a good reason behind it, and it may be a good chance to evaluate your own behaviors online. If you’re concerned about your online friendship with another person, you can always ask them if they’ve deactivated their account. The response, or lack of response, will enlighten you about what is actually going on rather than worrying about it.