Can’t Send or Accept a Friend Request on Facebook? Every Reason and Fix

Meta’s first reason is the simplest: they haven’t accepted your request yet, or you’re already friends.

1. Open your sent requests: facebook.com/friends/requests?outgoing=1 on a computer or phone browser, as Meta links it. In the app, look in Friends for your sent requests.
2. If your request is there, it’s still waiting for them. Give them time, or let them know another way.
3. If they’re already in your friends list, there’s nothing to add.

Meta says you can have up to 6,000 friends. It also works the other way: you can’t accept a request from someone who already has 6,000 friends.

1. Turn on professional mode (pro mode). Meta says this lets you connect with more than 6,000 friends. See how to turn on professional mode on each device.
2. Unfriend someone you no longer keep in touch with, then send the new request. On a computer, Meta says to search for their profile, click Friends at the top of it, then Unfriend > Confirm. They aren’t notified, and you’re removed from their friends list too.
3. Follow them instead, if they’ve turned following on. Meta says you’ll still see their public posts. See follow someone (external site, opens in a new tab).
4. If they have 6,000 friends, they’d need to unfriend someone or turn on professional mode. You can follow them if they’ve turned following on.

If someone only accepts requests from friends of friends, and you have no friends in common, you can’t send them one.

1. Ask the person to send you the request instead. Meta suggests this.
2. If your setting is the problem (people can’t add you): on a computer, or in the app after tapping Menu (top left on iPhone and Android, bottom right on iPad, top right in Lite and a mobile browser), go to Settings & privacy > Settings > How people find and contact you (under Audience and visibility) > Who can send you friend requests? (iPhone: Who can send me friend requests?), and choose Everyone or Friends of Friends. Meta’s Privacy Checkup also lets you review this.
3. Hard to find? Meta suggests using the first and last name you use in everyday life, adding another name (external site, opens in a new tab) people know you by (such as a nickname or maiden name), and adding your basic info (external site, opens in a new tab).
4. If you only see Follow or Message, the person may also have following turned on, so you can follow them in the meantime.

Meta lists a deleted request as a reason you can’t add someone. Meta also says you can have up to 1,000 sent requests waiting for a response, and that if you send more, the oldest request is deleted.

1. Send them a new friend request: tap Search (top right in the apps; the search bar at the top left on a computer), enter their name, tap Search, then Add friend next to their name (on iPhone and iPad, tap People at the top first; you can Filter by city, education, work or friends of friends). Or ask them to send you one.
2. Sent a lot of requests? Check your sent requests (Fix 1) and cancel old ones you no longer need (our advice), so you stay under Meta’s 1,000 limit. To cancel on a computer, Meta says to open View Sent Requests (or find the person), click View sent request, then Cancel Request.
3. If they deleted your request: Meta says the person who sent a deleted request can’t send another one for one year, and isn’t notified that it was deleted. Our advice: ask them to send you a request instead. If they deleted it on purpose, respect that.

You can’t send a friend request to someone you’ve blocked.

1. Unblock them: Settings & privacy > Settings > Blocking > Unblock. Full steps for every device: unblock someone. Meta says you’ll then need to send a new friend request.
2. Then send them a friend request.

Meta says this usually happens because you recently sent a lot of friend requests, your past requests went unanswered, or they were marked as unwelcome. It’s a limit on your account, not a setting on theirs.

1. Wait it out. Meta says the block is temporary and ends automatically within a few days, and that it can’t lift it early.
2. Stop sending requests for now (our advice). Repeating them won’t speed it up.
3. To avoid it next time, Meta suggests: only send requests to people you already know (family, friends, coworkers, classmates); follow people you don’t know, such as celebrities, instead of adding them; and use the name you go by in everyday life, so people recognize your requests.
4. Longer or wider restrictions? See Facebook jail: restricted account.