Since its inception back a decade ago, Facebook has made a lot of changes to its appearance and functionalities. From just being a platform for meeting old and new friends worldwide, it has grown from being just a place to make friends to a hub of opportunities for businesses and professionals for marketing and promotions.
While the universe of Facebook has expanded manifold, it has still not lost its luster of what it started as – “a site where you can get in touch with your old friends or make new as well”. While the features and functions have only increased on Facebook, however, due to security reasons, there have been some restrictions posed on certain activities users do on the social networking giant.
One of those restrictions is related to sending a friend request. Initially, Facebook didn’t pose any limitation on sending friend requests, however, as the users increased tremendously and users started exploiting the networking sites by making fake accounts and sending unlimited requests to people around the world, there was no option for Facebook but to bring rules for preventing such activities. Although these rules have helped Facebook in maintaining the security and authenticity of accounts on its platform, it has also caused problems to users from time to time in sending a friend request. If you are also facing a problem adding someone on Facebook, you can go through the information provided below.
When You Are Not Able to Add Someone on Facebook
Yes, you can send a friends request to anyone using your Facebook account, however, it is always recommended adding people as friends on Facebook whom you know personally. If you can’t add someone on Facebook as a friend, it can be because of the following reasons:
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The Person is Yet to Accept Your Friend Request
When you send someone a friend request on Facebook, the person needs to accept it before he/she will become your friend on FB. Sometimes, the person whom you sent request may take time to respond to your request, so it is suggested to check if the friend request is still pending.
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You or the Person you Are Sending Friend Request Have Exhausted the Limit
Facebook is known for allowing a user to have up to 5,000 friends in a single account. In case you wish to have more than 5,000 people as your friends on Facebook, you will need to change your personal account to a Facebook Page. However, if you do not want to change your personal account to a FB page, you will need to unfriend someone else in your account before you can send another friend request. Alternatively, if the person you are trying to add has the “Following” option, you can simply follow them to see their public posts.
NOTE: You cannot accept a friend request from a person who already has 5,000 friends.
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Only Friends of Friends Can Send Request
Another possible reason that you can’t add someone on Facebook is that one of you may have configured the privacy settings in your account to receive friend requests only from friends of friends. In such a case, you can either ask the person to send you a request or change the privacy settings in your account.
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The Friend Request You Sent was Deleted
A person has the option to either accept your friend request or delete it. If your request was deleted by the person to whom you sent, you can try sending the friend request again or ask them to send you one instead.
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You’ve Blocked Them
To help users avoid being bothered by anyone on Facebook, there is a block option provided. Make sure that the person you are sending a friend a request has not mistakenly blocked you in their account. If this is the case, you will first need to ask him/her to unblock you before you can send them a request.
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You Are Blocked from Sending Friend Requests
If even after following the above-mentioned suggestions you are unable to send a friend request, it’s likely that you are blocked from sending friend requests currently due to the following reasons:
- You have sent a lot of friend requests using your account recently.
- The friend requests sent by you earlier have gone unanswered.
- The friend requests you sent in the past were marked as unwelcome.
As this kind of blocking is temporary on Facebook, you can wait for it to end automatically.
So, these are the different suggestions that will help you fix the problem of not being able to add someone on Facebook. If still you are looking for any professional help you can call toll free Facebook customer service phone number to fix your Facebook problem.