Is the “Add Friend” button not showing up on someone’s Facebook profile?
Wondering why the “Add Friend” button sometimes turns gray or disappears?
A lot of Facebook users have had this problem before, so you are not the only one experiencing this problem.
In this article, you will learn why the “Add Friend” button is not showing/missing on Facebook.
You will also learn how to fix the button and get it working again.
- Why is the “Add Friend” button not showing on Facebook?
- How to fix the “Add friends” button on Facebook
- Conclusion
The “Add Friend” button isn’t showing on Facebook because the user has restricted their privacy settings, they declined your friend request, or they marked it as spam.
Facebook allows users to control their privacy settings, such as who can see your activity and who can find/contact you.
Users can also change their friend request settings in privacy settings to disable “strangers” from sending you friend requests.
Next, users who decline your friend request can disable the button on their profile.
Similarly, users who mark your friend request as spam will also disable it.
Here is a list of all the reasons why the friend request button disappeared and their details.
1. User has restricted their privacy settings
The first reason why the “Add Friend” button doesn’t show up, disappear or go missing on Facebook is because users have restricted their privacy settings.
In the Facebook app/website, users can control their privacy settings.
One of the privacy settings is to limit who can send you friend requests.
There are two options in the settings—”Everyone” and “Your Friends”.
If you set the setting to “Everyone,” anyone with an account on Facebook can add you as a friend.
This setting is enabled by default.
On the other hand, if you change the setting to “Your friend”, only mutual friends can add you as a Facebook friend.
In other words, only people who are friends with one of your friends on Facebook can add you as a friend.
Users who are not friends with any of your Facebook friends cannot add you.
Here’s how you can change who can send you friend requests on Facebook:
Navigate to menu > settings & privacy > settings > privacy settings > who can send you friend requests > your people/friends.
Therefore, if someone changes their privacy setting to “friend of friends”, the “Add Friend” button won’t show unless you’re a friend of one of that person’s friends on Facebook.
2. Your friend request was denied
If you’ve sent someone a friend request and they decline it, the “Add Friend” button won’t show up on their profile for a while.
When someone declines your friend request on Facebook, you won’t be notified about it.
However, there are three ways to know if your friend request has been declined:
- The button is gray and not clickable.
- The button may not show up on their profile at all.
- “Friend Request Sent” is changed to “Add Friend”.
When someone declines your friend request, you can’t add them right away as there will be a cool down period.
The “cool down” period is used to prevent spammers from abusing the “Add Friend” button.
That being said, you may have to wait a while before you can send them a friend request again.
After waiting a few days or weeks, the “Friend request sent” button will be changed to “Add Friend”.
That’s when you can resend the friend request to that person.
If the person declines your friend request again, the “cool-down” period may be extended.
3. They mark your friend request as spam
Finally, if someone marks your friend request as spam, the “Add Friend” button will not show up on their profile.
Facebook allows users to mark friend requests as spam.
If you receive a friend request on Facebook, you can confirm or delete it.
You can also choose to mark the friend request as spam after deleting it.
If you mark a friend request as spam, the person won’t be able to add you on Facebook for a long time.
According to various sources, the person has to wait a year to re-send the friend request to you.
This button is irreversible, so if you accidentally mark a friend request as spam, you won’t be able to revert it.
If that happens, it’s best to contact Facebook support for assistance.
In short, if the friend request button hasn’t been visible on someone’s profile for a long time, they may have marked your friend request as spam.
To fix the “Add Friend” button on Facebook, you can try adding one of your friend’s friends on Facebook or wait.
When the “Add Friend” button doesn’t show up on someone’s profile, it’s not a fault on Facebook.
“Add Friend” hidden or grayed out is one of Facebook’s features to prevent spammers from abusing this button.
You can only do one manual action to make the button visible.
If not, you need to wait it out.
Here are some proven ways (explained in detail) that you can try button fixing.
1. Add a mutual friend
The first method to fix the “Add Friend” Button on Facebook is to add one of the person’s friends on Facebook.
However, this method only works if the person changes the setting “Who can send you friend requests” to “Friends of friends”.
If someone has changed their privacy setting to “Your friend”, you can only add them if you are a friend of one of their friends on Facebook.
Therefore, you need to ask one of his or her friends to accept you as a friend on Facebook.
As soon as one of that person’s friends accepts you as a friend on Facebook, an “Add Friend” button will appear on their profile.
Otherwise, the “Add Friend” button will be hidden from their profile and you will not be able to send them a friend request.
2. Wait
If someone deletes your friend request, you may have to wait a few days or weeks to add them again.
This is because there is a “cooling off” after someone deletes your friend request on Facebook.
If you added someone as a friend and the “Add Friend” button has disappeared or is grayed out, you need to wait a while for the button to show up again.
Similarly, if someone you recently added on Facebook deleted your friend request and marked it as spam, you also need to wait.
However, if your friend request is marked as spam, you’ll need to wait a year for the “Add Friend” button to work again.
In most cases, your friend request will not be marked as spam because most users will delete it instead.
Therefore, your best bet is to wait a while (e.g. 3 days) before checking the person’s profile again.
Then an “Add Friend” button will show up on their profile (if they haven’t changed their privacy settings).
Conclusion
Issues like the missing or grayed out “Add Friend” button on Facebook inconvenience many users.
However, you need to realize that it’s not a bug so there’s no need to contact Facebook support for assistance.
The “Add Friend” button can be restored using a few steps mentioned in this article.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you won’t be able to add someone as a Facebook friend if they’ve reached their friend limit.
You can only have a maximum of 5,000 Facebook friends.
In order for you to add someone who has reached their friend limit, they first need to remove someone from your friends list.
Read more
What does bump mean on Facebook? And how to use it
5 surefire ways to make friends on Instagram
Missing music stickers on Instagram (How to fix)
Author: Lim How Wei is the founder of Followchain. Follow him on Instagram.
Categories: Social Media
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
