How to Stop Friend Requests on Facebook
There is no off switch, and the setting that looks like one has a side effect most people would rather know about first.
Open settings, go to privacy, and find the control for who can send you friend requests. The options are everyone or friends of friends. Choosing the second stops requests from strangers.
There is no setting that stops requests completely.
The real alternative is to turn on followers. People who want your posts can follow without asking, and the friend button becomes far less interesting to strangers.
The missing off switch is a design decision rather than an oversight, and understanding it saves hunting for a setting that does not exist.
Facebook's model assumes a profile is a person who can be found by other people. Friend requests are the mechanism for that, so the platform narrows them rather than removing them: everyone, or everyone with a mutual connection.
Friends of friends sounds restrictive and often is not. Anyone who shares a single mutual friend qualifies, and for an account with a few hundred friends that is a large population.
This is where followers change the picture. With followers switched on, your public posts are visible to people who follow rather than to people who friend you, and a stranger who wants to read you has a route that does not involve your approval or your notifications.
For anyone building an audience, that is the right configuration anyway: friends for people you know, followers for everyone else, and a request list that stops being a chore.
The setting, and what it covers
Settings, then privacy, then the section about how people find and contact you. The first item is who can send you friend requests.
Two options exist. Everyone is the default; friends of friends is the narrow one.
It applies going forward. Requests already pending are unaffected, and you can decline them from the requests screen.
The same area controls who can look you up by phone number or email, which is worth reviewing at the same time because it is a separate route to your profile.
Turning on followers instead
The follower setting lets people subscribe to your public posts without being friends.
It does not expose anything that was private. Followers see what you post publicly, and nothing else.
For a profile used for work, this is the configuration that makes sense: a modest friends list and a public follower count.
It also changes the incentive for strangers. Someone who just wants to read your posts follows instead of sending a request you would have ignored.
Declining, ignoring and blocking
Declining is silent and final for that request. The sender is not told.
Ignoring leaves it pending, which costs you nothing and leaves it on the sender's list.
Blocking is the heavy option: it hides your profile from that person entirely and removes any existing connection.
Blocking is the only one of the three the other side can infer, because your profile stops being visible to them.
Why strangers are finding you
Mutual friends are the main route. Facebook suggests people with shared connections, and a large friends list makes you a suggestion for many strangers.
Groups are the second. Being visible in a large group puts your name in front of people you have never met.
Contact upload is the third: someone with your number in their phone can be shown your profile.
The lookup settings in the same privacy area limit that last one, and they are more effective at reducing stranger requests than the request setting itself.
Pages, and when the profile is the wrong tool
If the requests are coming because you are running a business from a personal profile, the structural fix is a Page.
A Page has followers rather than friends, so the request mechanic does not apply at all.
It also separates the audience from your private account, which is the part people usually want and try to achieve with privacy settings.
The switch has a cost: a new Page starts with no audience, and friends do not transfer into followers automatically.
Questions people ask about blocking requests
Can I turn friend requests off completely?
No. The only options are everyone or friends of friends. Facebook does not offer a complete off switch for requests.
Does friends of friends really reduce requests?
It removes complete strangers, but anyone with a single mutual friend still qualifies, so a large friends list keeps the gate wide.
Will people know I declined their request?
No. Declining is silent, and so is leaving a request pending.
What does turning on followers do?
It lets people subscribe to your public posts without sending a request, which removes most of the reason strangers send one.
Can I stop people finding me by phone number?
Yes, in the same privacy section. That lookup is a common route to unexpected requests and is worth narrowing.
Is blocking the only way to stop one person?
For a persistent individual, yes. Declining only handles the current request; blocking removes you from their view entirely.
Keep reading
- followers on a Facebook profile — Followers are the half of a profile that grows without approving anybody, and followers on a Facebook profile acts on exactly that number.
- the requests you sent — The outgoing side has its own screen and its own limit, and the requests you sent covers where it hides.
- hiding who you are connected to — Fewer requests also comes from being less browsable, and hiding who you are connected to is the setting for that.