Randell's Tech Blog

Randell's Tech Blog

How to change your Facebook username

Posted: 25 Oct 2009 10:41 AM PDT

I accidentally changed my Facebook username just recently. I know it’s stupid.  How in the world can I change my username without me consciously allowing it? There’s even a warning that says once I change my username, I cannot change it again.  To defend my stupidity, I thought I was changing a username for a Facebook page I was creating, and it turns out that I was actually changing MY username.  I was just clicking and clicking to find a way to change the page’s url, and I thought arrived at that page.  I couple more clicks and voila! I got a good shock for that day, when I saw my account’s username changed to the username I thought I created for a fan page.  I mean, the pages look all the same!

I don’t know why Facebook implemented such (lack of) feature, but I think it’s not a good design decision.  Users should be allowed to change their usernames! I’m obviously biased because I’m one of the many victims of this implementation, but I’m sure a lot of other people will agree with me.

Anyway, I really can’t live my life having a username that’s far from my own name.  I can add an underscore or use an anagram, but not the name of one of my websites.  So I had to find a way to get my original username back.  Here’s how I did it:

    We’ll be using this simple legend to keep the instructions short:

    • F1 – your old Facebook account – the one that you want the username changed
    • F2 – your new Facebook account – yes, you will need to create a new one
    • E1 – your email address used to sign-in for your old Facebook account
    • E2 – a temporary email address to use for your new Facebook account
    • E3 – another temporary email address

    Follow these instructions:

    1. Create F2 using E2.
    2. Provide the username that you want for F2 in the settings page.  Note: You might also need to verify your identity first through SMS.
    3. Add E3 to F1.  Note: You will need to verify E3.  You’re doing this so you can use E1 for F2.
    4. Remove E1 from F1.
    5. Add E1 to F2.  Note: You will need to verify E1.
    6. Remove E2 from F2.
    7. Deactivate F1.

    That’s it.  Don’t mess things up by changing your username again.

    And I also learned a lesson from this experience: Read the instructions!

    Related posts:

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    2. Show recent Delicious bookmarks in your Facebook Wall
    3. Show recent Google Reader shared items in your Facebook Wall
    4. Withdraw funds from your Paypal account
    5. Using the admin.getAppProperties and admin.setAppProperties Facebook API calls in RFacebook

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    Posted by computer at 3:04 PM  

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