How to Find Someone on Facebook Using Their Email Address

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Search for friends and contacts with their email

Co-authored by Hannah Dillon Reviewed by Candace Gasper

Last Updated: June 2, 2025 Fact Checked

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On Mobile

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On Desktop

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Control Who Can Find You By Email

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Video

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Q&A

This wikiHow guide teaches you how to look up a person on Facebook by using their email address. Be aware that not all users can be found via email address. The person you're searching for must have their email address set to Public, and they must have their "Who can look you up using the email address you provided?" privacy option set to "Everyone".

Search For Someone on Facebook Using an Email Address

You can search for someone by email address if they've made their email address public in their settings. To search, just type the email address into the search bar at the top of Facebook (tap the magnifying glass first if using the mobile app), type the email address, and press Enter or Return.

Section 1 of 3:

On Mobile

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1
Open Facebook. Tap the Facebook app icon, which resembles a white "f" on a dark-blue background. This will open your News Feed page if you're logged in.
- If you aren't logged into Facebook, enter your email address and password when prompted before proceeding.
It's the icon that resembles a magnifying glass. It's in the upper-right corner of the app. This displays a search bar at the top of the screen.

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3
Tap the search bar and enter an email address. It's the "Search" text box at the top of the screen. When your smartphone's on-screen keyboard appears, type in the email address that you want to use to search for a person.
- You’ll have to type it completely, as Facebook cannot search for a partial email address.
4
Review the search results. If the email address belongs to someone on Facebook, their profile will appear in the search results.
- You can tap their profile to view it, or tap Add Friend to add them directly from the search results.
- If the search returns no results, the person may use another email address for Facebook, or they may have changed their privacy settings in such a way that their email address is not searchable.

Section 2 of 3:

On Desktop

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1
Go to facebook.com in a web browser. This will open your News Feed if you're logged in.
- If you aren't logged into Facebook, enter your email address and password to log in before proceeding.
2
Click the search bar and enter an email address. The search bar is the the text box that says "Search Facebook" in the upper-right corner. Type in the email address that you want to use to search for a person.
- You’ll have to type it completely, as Facebook cannot search for a partial email address.
3
Review the results. If the email address belongs to someone on Facebook, their profile will appear in the search results.
- You can click their profile to view it, or click Add Friend to add them directly from the search results.
- If the search returns no results, the person may use another email address for Facebook , or they may have changed their privacy settings in such a way that their email address is not searchable.^{[1]
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Section 3 of 3:

Control Who Can Find You By Email

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If you're on a computer, click your profile picture in the upper-right corner then click on Settings & privacy > Settings. If you're on mobile, tap the three lines in the upper-left corner, then tap on Settings.
This is under the "Audience and visibility" header. You'll have to scroll a little to find it.
It's under the lengthy header that says "Who can Facebook suggest your profile to based on your phone number or email address?".
If you don't want anyone to find you by your email address, choose No one. If you want to allow people to find you by searching your email, choose one of the other options based on how restrictive you want the search to be.
If you want to repeat this for your phone number, click or tap People with your phone number and repeat step 4.^{[2]
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Community Q&A

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Question

Can you use somebody's date of birth to find them on facebook?

Community Answer

There's no way to do this on Facebook, though it was once possible with Graph Search.

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Question

How do I cancel my Facebook account if I don't remember the password and no longer have access to my email address?

Community Answer

When attempting to sign in to Facebook, click "Forgot your account?" or "Can't log in?" at the top of the page, then follow the steps to recover your password. You'll have the ability to select "No longer have access to these" when prompted to enter your email address.

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Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
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