Restore Old Facebook Profiles With Timeline Remove for Chrome

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 8, 2012
Updated • Jan 4, 2018
Companies, Facebook, Google Chrome extensions
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The reception of Facebook's Timeline profile design has been highly controversial so far, with part of the userbase rejecting it. With Facebook rolling out the new profile design for everybody, there is no turning back from that point on. Users who switched from the old Facebook profile to the new Timeline profile were the first to notice that it was not possible to return to the old profile once the new one had been activated.

With no official option provided, Facebook users turned to third party solutions. First solutions to pop up were userscripts that modified the new profile pages to look like previous ones.

Timeline Remove is a free Google Chrome extension that does the same thing. It turns Timeline profiles into regular profiles again on Facebook. It needs to be noted though that this works only on computers the extension is installed in, and that profile visitors will still see the new profiles on Facebook. These solution are therefor only practicable for users who dislike Timeline and do not want to see a single trace of it on Facebook.

Remove Facebook Timeline

Once you have installed the extension in Google Chrome, you will notice that all Facebook profiles that you visit resemble the old profiles on the social networking site. Here is Marc Zuckerberg's modified profile. If you visit the profile without the extension, installed, you will see the Timeline profile instead.

remove timeline facebook

The Google Chrome extension adds a button to the browser's address bar that you can use to enable or disable the functionality. This can be useful if you need to check how your own profile or a Facebook page looks like for other users who do not have the extension installed. If you do not need that functionality, you can right-click the icon and select to hide it from the context menu.

Verdict

Timeline Remove works fine right now. The developers need to monitor Facebook for changes though, as it could otherwise be that the extension stops working after a profile page update. This is by far the biggest uncertainty when it comes to this extension.  Facebook users who dislike the timeline and work with Chrome can install the extension to get rid of it.

Do you know of a similar extension / option for other web browsers? Post your solutions in the comments below.

Update: Timeline Remove is no longer available in the Chrome Web Store. I suggest you use the TL Remove extension instead which is still working.

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Comments

  1. Reginald said on September 4, 2012 at 8:29 pm
    Reply

    it is done by your instruction thanks.

  2. Scott said on July 31, 2012 at 9:32 pm
    Reply

    It is not working for me…

  3. Tania Poletti said on April 28, 2012 at 12:57 pm
    Reply

    I removed my timeline but want to get it back – can anyone tell me how I undo the timeline remove?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on April 28, 2012 at 1:00 pm
      Reply

      You need to uninstall the Chrome extensions.

  4. Kimberly said on April 27, 2012 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    I have been using timeline remove for couple of months, but today it stopped working and my timeline came back. I tried removing the app, reinstalling it and restarting my computer, but it’s still not working… has anyone else had this problem?

    1. Pat said on May 3, 2012 at 7:46 pm
      Reply

      Mine has stopped working also.

  5. Ross Presser said on April 9, 2012 at 6:15 am
    Reply

    Social Fixer (previously known as Better Facebook, until FB forced a name change with a legal C&D letter) has had the equivalent of Timeline Remove for quite some time. For Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari.

    http://www.socialfixer.com

    And it was covered here on ghacks back in December:
    https://www.ghacks.net/2011/12/01/modify-facebook-to-your-liking-with-social-fixer/

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on April 9, 2012 at 9:44 am
      Reply

      Thanks Ross for posting, I knew I had covered a userscript.

  6. Helper said on April 8, 2012 at 9:15 pm
    Reply

    For Firefox, Chrome, IE and Safari. I only came across it a few days ago but it definitely works as i’m using it after FB tricked me into switching to the new FB Timeline profile when I was wanting to read a Yahoo article.

    http://www.timelineremove.com/

    Enjoy :)

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