You filled in the form, you attached what it asked for, and nothing has changed. The profile is still there, the birthday reminder still went out, and nobody at Meta has written back. This happens to a lot of families, and it is almost never because you did something wrong.
This page is for the moment after the how-to guide. If you have not sent a request yet, start with our Facebook guide, which explains the two routes and the two forms. If you have, find your situation below.
The short version. Most stuck requests fall into three groups. The form itself failed, usually because a name was typed where Meta wanted the profile's web address. The request went through and Meta is simply slow, in which case you resubmit at two weeks. Or Meta could not connect you to the person from the documents, in which case you add the missing link and send it again. Everything below tells you which one you have.
Which of these is happening?
- The form will not submit, or says it cannot find the account
- You sent it and nothing has happened
- Meta asked for more documents, or said it could not verify you
- You may have used the wrong form
- The account is posting, liking or messaging people
- The account was suspended or disabled after the death
- There is a legacy contact, and it is confusing things
- The account was memorialised by mistake
The form will not submit, or says it cannot find the account
Meta's memorialisation request form asks for four things: the person's profile web address, the date they died, a document showing that they died, and your email address. The first of those causes most failures. The form wants the address of the profile, the one that starts with facebook.com, and it cannot find a person from a typed name.
Open the person's profile in a web browser on a laptop or desktop, logged in to your own account, and copy everything in the address bar. Paste that into the form. If the person had a custom address it will look like facebook.com/their.name; if not it will be a long string of numbers. Both work.
The report option on a profile is for content that breaks the rules and does not reach the team that handles deaths. Search the Facebook Help Centre for "Request to memorialise or remove an account" and use the form linked from that page. If it errors, try a different browser before you try anything else.
Meta's own list is a scan or photo of the obituary, the death certificate, a memorial card, or other documentation confirming the death. If the notice is online, a screenshot of it is accepted. Keep the file small and readable.
If the form still cannot find the profile, the person's privacy settings may hide it from anyone who was not a friend. Ask a mutual friend to open the profile and send you the address, or use the special request form described below, which asks for the name and the account's email address as well.
You sent it and nothing has happened
This is the most common outcome of a first request, and the most upsetting, because the profile keeps behaving as if nothing has changed while you wait. Meta publishes no timescale. Families on Mumsnet and Reddit describe anything from a few days to several weeks, and some never hear back at all from the first attempt.
Two things are true at once. Meta does process these requests, in high volume, from a queue you cannot see. And a request that has gone quiet for a fortnight is unlikely to wake up on its own.
Meta replies to the address on the form, and its messages often land in junk folders. Search your email for "Facebook" and "memorial" before you assume silence.
Same form, same documents, same wording. Meta does not penalise duplicates, and a fresh submission gets fresh attention. A second family member can submit at the same time from their own account. One of the two usually goes through.
If two submissions have produced nothing, send the special request form instead, with the same documents, and tick "Please memorialise this account". It goes to the same team through a different door, and it lets you give the account's email address, which helps Meta match the profile.
This is the point where most families hand it over. Two silent submissions is usually where people stop, and the profile stays open for months. If you would rather not send it a third time yourself, we will take the request over: the right form, the documents in the format Meta accepts, a resubmission on schedule, and a written record when it is done. Start a case from £149 →
Not ready for that? Email us what Meta sent you, or tell us what you sent and when, and we will tell you what it means and what to do next. No charge, and no obligation.
Meta asked for more documents, or said it could not verify you
Memorialisation and removal need different proof, and mixing them up is the usual cause of a rejection.
To memorialise, Meta only needs proof that the person has died. Anyone can ask, and the obituary is usually enough. If a memorialisation request was rejected, the most likely problem is that the document did not clearly show the person's name and the fact of death, for example a photo of a funeral booklet with no name visible, or a screenshot cropped too tightly.
To remove the account, Meta's special request form says it requires verification that you are an immediate family member or the executor. That means two chains of proof: that the person died, and that you are who you say you are in relation to them. This is where most rejections happen.
- Your surname differs from theirs. A married daughter, a stepchild, a partner. Add the document that links you: a marriage certificate, a birth certificate showing the parent's name, or the grant of probate naming you as executor.
- You are the executor but not family. Send the grant of probate or the letters of administration. A will alone is weaker, because it has not been through the court.
- The death certificate names them differently. A middle name on the certificate and a nickname on the profile is enough to stall an automated check. Add one line in the form explaining the difference.
Our guide to the documents you need explains what each one is and how to get a certified copy.
You may have used the wrong form
Meta has two forms, and the Help Centre does not make the difference obvious.
The memorialisation request is short, needs only proof of death, and turns the profile into a memorial. The special request for a medically incapacitated or deceased person's account is longer, asks for your name and the account's email address, and offers four options: memorialise, remove because the owner has died, remove because the owner is incapacitated, or "a special request". It is the form for removal, and the fallback when the memorialisation form cannot find the profile.
The special request form also says that Meta generally cannot respond to reports about anything other than memorialisation. So if you asked a question in the box rather than making a request, you may never hear back. Resubmit with a request ticked and the question left out.
The account is posting, liking or messaging people
A profile that shows new activity after a death has been taken over. Scammers use these accounts to message relatives asking for money, and to post links. It is distressing and it is also urgent, because a memorialisation request can take weeks and the account is doing harm now.
Go to facebook.com/hacked and report the account as compromised. This goes to a different team and moves faster than the bereavement queue. Keep the memorialisation request running in parallel.
A short message to family and close friends: the account is not being used by anyone who knew them, do not send money, do not click links. Ask them to report any message they receive.
Once the account is memorialised, nobody can log in to it again, which is the only permanent fix. The stories page has one family's account of how long this took and what finally worked.
The account was suspended or disabled after the death
Sometimes a profile disappears not because Meta memorialised it but because an automated system suspended it, often after someone tried to log in, or after a scammer used it. Meta's own page on suspended accounts says the person can appeal within 180 days, and that if nobody appeals in that time, or the appeal fails, the account is permanently disabled and no further review can be requested.
For a family this creates a deadline. The appeal happens by logging in, which you can only do if you have the person's login details or a device that stays signed in. If you do, log in, follow the on-screen instructions, say plainly that the account holder has died and that the family is asking for it to be restored so it can be memorialised, and then send the memorialisation request the moment it is back.
If you cannot log in, send the memorialisation request anyway with the death certificate, and say in the form that the account has been suspended. Meta's Oversight Board only takes cases that come with a reference number and an account someone can log in to, so it is rarely a route for a bereaved family. If the deadline passes, the account is deleted, which for many families is an acceptable outcome, though it means the photos go with it.
There is a legacy contact, and it is confusing things
A legacy contact is someone the person chose, while alive, to look after their memorialised profile. If one exists, Meta notifies them when the profile is memorialised. A legacy contact can manage the memorial, pin a post, change the profile picture, respond to friend requests, and ask Meta to remove the account. They cannot log in as the person and cannot read messages.
Two things trip families up. A legacy contact cannot do any of this until the profile has been memorialised, so somebody still has to send the request. And if the person chose, while alive, to have the account deleted after death, Meta will delete it once it learns of the death, whatever the family or the legacy contact would prefer. Meta honours the person's own setting.
The account was memorialised by mistake
Occasionally a living person's profile is memorialised because someone sent a false request. If this has happened to you or to someone you know, Meta has a separate process to reverse it, reached from the Help Centre by searching for "memorialised by mistake", and it needs the person themselves to prove they are alive with photo ID. It is not something a third party can do on their behalf.
What a finished request looks like
You will get an email from Meta. The profile shows "Remembering" before the name. Nobody can log in to it. It stops appearing in birthday reminders and in "People you may know". Posts and photos stay as they were, visible to the people who could see them before. If you asked for removal instead, the profile disappears entirely and Meta says it can take up to 90 days to delete everything from its systems.
If the profile was memorialised but you wanted it removed, send the special request form with the immediate family or executor proof and ask for removal. Memorialisation does not prevent a later removal request.
Or let us take it over
Departed Digital closes or memorialises online accounts for families. For a stuck Facebook request that means the right form, the documents in the format Meta accepts, resubmission on schedule, the hacked route if the account is being misused, and a written record of the outcome. We never ask for passwords and we never log in to anyone's account. We cannot make Meta move faster than it moves, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can do is make sure nothing is missed and that you do not have to keep checking.
One case covers Facebook and every other account you need dealt with. Packages start from £149.
Stuck with Meta? Hand the request over and we will see it through. Start a case → Or email us what Meta sent you and we will tell you what it means, free.