How to deactivate your birthday on Facebook

Facebook notifies all your friends about your birthday by default. Beyond perceived insincerity, there are good reasons to hide your birthday on Facebook entirely. Your date of birth is something that identity thieves will easily search for, and maybe you just don’t want to remind people of your age.

Whatever the reason, stopping notifications from your friends’ feeds is a simple process. In this article, you will learn how to do it in the mobile app and desktop browsers. Also, if you’re sick of receiving notifications about other people’s birthdays, you can remove that feature.

Turn off birthday notifications on desktop

The process won’t be much different whether you’re working on a desktop or mobile device. We’re starting with the desktop process, but feel free to use whatever you have on hand.

The first thing you need to do is log in to your Facebook account. You will arrive at your news feed. From there, follow these steps:

1. Click on your name Profile icon in the upper right corner.
   
2. Click on your Profile at the top of the menu.
   
3. On your profile page, click About button just below your cover photo.
   
4. In the About section overview, click Contact and basic information.
   
5. Scroll down to Basic Information and click the pencil icon to the right of Birthdate.
6. Once you click on the pencil icon, select the Privacy icon. This will reveal the privacy menu, where you can choose who can see your birthday and who will receive notifications about it.
   
7. If you want to hide it completely, select Just me.
   
8. Don’t forget to change your birth year privacy settings as well. Once done, click Save.
   

If you follow these steps, you will have effectively made your birthday invisible to other Facebook users besides you. No one will receive notifications about your birthday nor will anyone be able to see it. Now, let’s move on to the mobile version.

Disable birthday notifications on your mobile

This time you will start the process by launching the Facebook app on your phone. The app is not necessary and you can also follow the steps described above in a mobile browser. Once the app launches, follow these steps:

1. The first page you see is your news feed. Tap your profile photo to the left of the search bar.
   
2. Tap on View your information about.
   
3. Under Basic information, find your date of birth and tap the Edit button next to it.
   
4. Expand the privacy settings menu next to your birthday to reveal the privacy menu and select Just me. Maybe you have to touch More options if the option is not shown.
   
5. Also change the privacy settings for your year of birth. Once done, tapSave at the top right of the screen.
   

As you can see, the two procedures are similar and neither should take more than a minute to complete. Now, if you don’t want to receive notifications about other people’s birthdays, you can also turn it off.

Turn off birthday notifications from your friends

Sometimes a birthday notification creates a feeling of obligation to respond, and that can be irritating. To stop receiving birthday notifications, go to your Facebook settings page.

You can do this by clicking the down arrow in the top bar of your Facebook page or by going to the Settings page directly.

Click on Notifications in the left sidebar menu and scroll down to Birthdays. Expand the Birthdays section and turn off notifications. You will no longer receive birthday notifications from Facebook.

Frequent questions

Here are the answers to more questions about Facebook birthday notifications.

I still want to receive birthday wishes, but I don’t want anyone to have access to my personal information. Do I have any options?

Yeah! If you are worried about others knowing your birthday, but you still like birthday wishes, you can hide your birth year.

Hiding your year of birth will protect your private information. But your friends will still receive a birthday reminder every year.

What do I do if I want to hide my birthday from some friends?

If you want to hide your birthday from some Facebook users, you can click the Habit option instead of Just me option shown above. The custom option allows you to hide your birthday from some people.

Happy birthday to you and only you

Disabling or hiding your birthday on Facebook has many purposes. The process is relatively simple and direct. All you have to do is access your About page and change your privacy settings to prohibit access to anyone but yourself. You can do it from any browser or the Facebook application. While you’re at it, you can quickly turn off notifications about other people’s birthdays if you want.

Why do you want your birthday to be hidden from your friends? Do you think it is a security problem that people easily access your date of birth information? Share your thoughts in the comments below.