Is the “Add Friend” button not showing on someone’s profile on Facebook?
Are you wondering why the “Add Friend” button greys out or disappears sometimes?
A lot of Facebook users encountered this issue before, so you’re not the only one facing it.
In this article, you’ll learn why the “Add Friend” button is not showing/missing on Facebook.
You’ll also learn how to fix the button and get it to work again.
- Why Is The “Add Friend” Button Not Showing on Facebook?
- How to Fix The “Add Friend” Button on Facebook
- Conclusion
Why Is The “Add Friend” Button Not Showing on Facebook?
The “Add Friend” button is not showing on Facebook either because the user has restricted their privacy settings, they denied your friend request, or they marked it as spam.
Facebook allows its 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 the privacy settings to disable “strangers” from sending you a friend request.
Next, users who deny your friend request may disable the button on their profile.
Similarly, users who mark your friend request as spam will disable it as well.
Below is the list of all the reasons for the disappearing friend request button and their details.
1. The user restricted their privacy settings
The first reason why the “Add Friend” button is not showing, has disappeared, or missing on Facebook is because the user has 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 setting—”Everyone”, and “Friends of friends”.
If you set the setting to “Everyone”, anyone that has an account on Facebook can add you as a friend.
This setting is enabled by default.
On the other hand, if you changed the setting to “Friends of friends”, only mutual friends can add you as a friend on Facebook.
In other words, only people that 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 the menu > settings & privacy > settings > privacy settings > who can send you friend requests > everyone/friends of friends.
Hence, if someone changed their privacy setting to “friends of friends”, the “Add Friend” button will not show unless you’re friends with one of the person’s friends on Facebook.
2. Your friend request is denied
If you sent a friend request to someone and they denied it, the “Add Friend” button will not show on their profile for a while.
When someone denies your friend request on Facebook, you won’t be notified of it.
However, there are three ways to tell if your friend request is denied:
- The button is grayed out and unclickable.
- The button may not show on their profile at all.
- “Friend request sent” is changed to “Add Friend”.
When someone denies your friend request, you may not be able to add them immediately after 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 for some time before you can send them a friend request again.
After waiting for a few days or weeks, the “Friend request sent” button will be changed to “Add Friend”.
That’s when you can send a friend request to the person again.
If the person rejects you friend request once more, the “cool down” period may be extended.
3. They marked your friend request as spam
Lastly, if someone marked your friend request as spam, the “Add Friend” button will not show on their profile.
Facebook gives the ability for users to mark friend requests as spam.
If you received a friend request on Facebook, you can either confirm or delete it.
You can also choose to mark the friend request as spam after deleting it.
If you marked a friend request as spam, the person will not be able to add you on Facebook for a long period of time.
According to multiple sources, the person has to wait for a year in order to send you a friend request again.
The button is irreversible, so if you accidentally marked a friend request as spam, you won’t be able to revert it.
If that happens, your best bet is to contact Facebook support for assistance.
In a nutshell, if the friend request button is not showing on someone’s profile for a long time, they may have marked your friend request as spam.
How to Fix The “Add Friend” Button on Facebook
To fix the “Add Friend” button on Facebook, you can either try adding one of your friend’s friends on Facebook or wait it out.
When the “Add Friend” button is not showing on someone’s profile, it’s not a bug on Facebook.
The hidden or grayed out “Add Friend” is one of Facebook’s features to prevent spammers from abusing the button.
There’s only one manual action that you can take to get the button to show up.
Otherwise, you need to wait it out.
Here are the couple of proven ways (explained in detail) that you can try to fix the button.
1. Add mutual friends
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 changed their “Who can send you friend requests” setting to “Friends of friends”.
If someone changed their privacy setting to “Friends of friends”, you can only add them if you are a friend of one of their friends on Facebook.
Hence, you need to get one of the person’s friends to accept you as a friend on Facebook.
As soon as one of the person’s friends accepts you as a friend on Facebook, the “Add Friend” button will show up on their profile.
Otherwise, the “Add Friend” button will be hidden from their profile, and you won’t be able to send a friend request to them.
2. Wait it out
If someone deletes your friend request, you might have to wait for a few days or weeks to add them back again.
This is because there is a “cool down” after someone deletes your friend request on Facebook.
If you added someone as a friend and saw that the “Add Friend” button has disappeared or is greyed out, you need to wait for some time for it to show up again.
Similarly, if someone you recently added on Facebook deleted your friend request and marked it as spam, you need to wait it out as well.
However, if your friend request is marked as spam, you need to wait for a year in order for the “Add Friend” button to work again.
In most cases, your friend requests won’t be marked as spam as most users will delete it instead.
Hence, your best bet is to wait for some time (e.g. 3 days) before checking the person’s profile again.
After that, the “Add Friend” button should show up on their profile (if they didn’t change their privacy settings).
Conclusion
Issues like the missing or grayed out “Add Friend” button on Facebook is an inconvenience to many users.
However, you need to realize that it is not a bug, so there’s no need to contact Facebook support for assistance.
The “Add Friend” button can be restored by using the couple of steps mentioned in this article.
One more thing to note is that you will not be able to add someone as a friend on Facebook if they reached their friend limit.
You can only have up to 5,000 friends on Facebook.
In order for you to add someone who has reached their friend limit, they need to remove someone as a friend first.
Further Reading
What Does Bump Mean on Facebook? And How to Use It
5 Surefire Ways to Make Friends on Instagram
Instagram Music Sticker Missing (How to Fix)
Author: Lim How Wei is the founder of Followchain. Feel free to follow him on Instagram.
