How to Block Facebook on iPhone (Without Deleting It)

To block Facebook on iPhone without losing your groups, events and Marketplace, set a Screen Time App Limit, block facebook.com in Safari, and cut Facebook's notifications down to people only. What you actually want gone is the feed, and the best tool for that is a limit on long, continuous scrolling rather than a daily total.

Quick answer

• App: Settings > Screen Time > App Limits > Add Limit > Facebook, with Block at End of Limit on.
• Browser: add facebook.com and m.facebook.com to Never Allow.
• Messenger is separate, so it stays open unless you add it.
• For the feed itself: a session limit that lets quick visits through.

Why is Facebook so hard to put down?

Because the feed is no longer mostly your friends. Much of it is recommended content: short videos, suggested groups and pages, so there's always more. Add notifications built to pull you back (memories, group activity, "you have 5 new notifications") and you open the app for an event invite and stay for half an hour.

That is also why deleting it rarely sticks. The family group, the local Marketplace and ten years of photos are real reasons to keep it.

How do you block Facebook with Screen Time?

These steps work on iOS 16 through iOS 26.

1. Open Settings > Screen Time and turn it on if needed.
2. Tap App Limits > Add Limit.
3. Find Facebook in the categories or search, and select it.
4. Pick a time: 1 minute for a near-total block, about 15 minutes for a cap.
5. Turn on Block at End of Limit. This needs a Screen Time passcode (Settings > Screen Time > Lock Screen Time Settings, or Use Screen Time Passcode on iOS 16).

Without a passcode, the limit screen just offers Ignore Limit. See how to remove "Ignore Limit".

Use it only at lunch? If Facebook is mainly for groups or Marketplace, a time window can beat a daily total. Set Downtime (Settings > Screen Time > Downtime > Scheduled) for the hours you want it shut, and keep Facebook off the Always Allowed list.

How do you block Facebook in Safari?

Links from friends open facebook.com in the browser, so close that door too.

1. Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions, and turn it on.
2. App Store, Media, Web & Games > Web Content > Limit Adult Websites (on iOS 16 to 18.0, the first menu is Content Restrictions or Store, Web, Siri & Game Center Content).
3. Under Never Allow, add facebook.com and m.facebook.com.

This blocks the site in Safari and in apps that use Apple's web view. It's all or nothing: no time limits for websites here.

What do Facebook's own settings do?

Look under Menu > Settings & privacy > Your time on Facebook (the path changes between versions). You can see your usage, set a daily time reminder and turn on Quiet mode to pause most notifications.

The bigger win is notifications. In Settings & privacy > Settings > Notifications, turn off everything except messages from people. Much of your Facebook use is Facebook calling you back. None of this blocks the app; it only quiets it.

A Face ID lock (long-press the icon, Require Face ID) keeps other people out, but your own face opens it instantly.

Why don't these blocks hold?

Facebook leaks through side doors: Messenger is a separate app, friends' links open the website, and group notifications keep calling you back. And every built-in block has the same flaw: you set it, so you can undo it. We list every gap in Screen Time loopholes.

A daily total is also the wrong shape for Facebook. You use it for a few quick, useful things, and a daily cap counts those and the feed the same.

How do you block Facebook so it holds?

Detox is an iPhone and iPad app built for the moment the built-in tools fail: mid-scroll, low willpower.

1. Add Facebook (and Messenger if you want) to a Detox rule, plus facebook.com and m.facebook.com so the browser isn't a way round.
2. Set a session limit, say 20 minutes in a row. Checking an event or replying in a group is fine. Once you have scrolled continuously past your limit, Facebook locks for a short break. Step away a couple of minutes and the count resets, so quick visits never add up to a lockout.
3. Add a schedule to shut Facebook every evening, or all day except lunch.
4. Turn on Strict mode so you can't edit or delete the rule while it blocks. An urgent unblock covers real emergencies, once every 24 hours.

Detox blocks the whole Facebook app, not parts of it. It's iOS only and paid, with a free trial.

The bottom line

Set an App Limit with Block at End of Limit, block facebook.com and m.facebook.com, and cut notifications to people only. That removes most of the pull. If you still get lost in the feed, a limit on continuous scrolling keeps the useful parts without the half-hour spiral.

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