Over the past few days many Facebook Page administrators have noticed their fan counts decreasing. If you’ve seen this happen, you are not alone. We’ve reached out to Facebook but haven’t received a response on the issue, which means there is probably a bug which needs to be fixed. Unfortunately there hasn’t been any clarifications from Facebook, but don’t worry as many other people have noticed similar issues.
We watched our Facebook Page increasing in popularity earlier this week, however starting three days ago, the number of fans we have has decreased by over 400. Initially I thought that there had been a temporary surge in fans which was followed by a random mass “unfanning”, something that has never taken place to us before. Even the top Facebook Pages, like Michael Jackson, have seen their fans decreasing.
So what on earth is going on? We have no idea to be honest but rather than not posting about the issue, we’ve decided to make it known that this issue appears to be happening to the vast majority of Facebook Pages. Don’t worry though, your fans should all be intact. We’ll definitely be sure to update this Page once we receive any information from Facebook, who has so far been quiet about the problem.
Update
Facebook provided us with the following statement: “There was a bug that caused an accounting error for the number of people who like a Page. We are working hard to fix this bug and restore the counts as quickly as possible. No fans or data was lost, and news feed distribution has not been affected.”
Additionally, as some have noted in the comments, Facebook appears to have fixed the bug for Pages since last night.
Same thing happens on twitter; that’s why you don’t put your facebook in your twitter or your twitter in your facebook; you’ll end up with cross contamination, LOL!!!
yup mine decreased over 200
I’ve also noticed a “lag” in the insights where the number of weekly active fans doesn’t appear to equate to what actually happened on the wall. It would be nice for Facebook to be a little more transparent with what’s happening, especially when they’re encouraging businesses to invest so much time and effort on their Page presence.
Is that bug also why many games seem to be losing users since about 3 weeks ago?
I’m so happy to hear this…our page has lost a dozen or two at most, but that’s because we’re a small page…but it made it seem much more real! Losing 400 would definitely clue you in to something being wrong.
We have a fan building campaign running right now so I have only seen an overall increase. But I have noticed that my “x Friends Like This” count has stayed the same, despite many of my friends “Like”ing my page this week. So something is definitely wonky.
This has been going on for months. FB software engineers are incompetent.
WE’ve seen several pages hidding all fans !
Our best guess is that it is a privacy flaw
(i.e.) Some FB users don’t want to apear as fans anymore
Check that out !
We we were losing thousands and had no idea what was up. That’s a relief. Thanks for posting…
My comic strip’s Facebook page dropped over 100 fans BUT when I look at See All, I manually count about 160 more fans than Facebook is recording!!!
It looks like this may have been fixed. I run a fan page that seemingly lost several people, and they all came back (and more) tonight.
thanks nick for mentioning it! i wondered what happen with this and almost began searching what the f__ was going on. by now, i guess it doesn’t makes sense to report it on the bug tracker.
Its me. I have been “unliking” every single past that posts about how many fans they have.
Its me. I have been “unliking” every single page that posts about how many fans they have.
Good news if it is that. Our group of over 300,000 members has been losing members by the hundreds. It was suggested by some that it was due to FB clearing out fake profiles and spammers, but the drop has been far too abrupt and I presume FB is continuously dealng with those kinds of profiles anyway.
I also noticed that the fan photos are not displayed in the external fan box anymore unless you are logged in to facebook at the same time. Temporary bug or here to stay?
I left a comment about half an hour ago and now it’s disappeared. Why?
I noticed that fan profile pictures are no longer displayed under the fan count. I stopped seeing them a couple of days ago and it’s not only on your site.
They fixed it, yes. Wow, now I’m somewhat comforted. I tweeted yesterday that some major fan pages are loosing fans in a dramatic way. Our own lost about 4,500 in two days, similar to Audi, Mercedes Benz was loosing about 7,000 in the same period. But the peak was reached 7 hrs before.
. Let’s see if FB will comment it. (thx @zaibatsu for your support)
We lost 4-5 fans per minute, Mercedes Benz 11, Coke 28, Red Bull 48 and Starbucks lost more than 100 fans per minute. You just couldn’t reload their FB page fast enough to follow the fan counts decreasing.
But now, all of them are back again – at least it seems so
Has anyone with a small enough group noticed if it is only the numbers going down, or if names are disappearing too?
They fixed it, yes. Wow, now I’m somewhat comforted. I tweeted yesterday that some major fan pages are loosing fans in a dramatic way. Our own lost about 4,500 in two days, similar to Audi, Mercedes Benz was loosing about 7,000 in the same period. But the peak was reached 11 hrs before.
. Let’s see if FB will comment it. (thx @zaibatsu for your support)
We lost 4-5 fans per minute, Mercedes Benz 11, Coke 28, Red Bull 48 and Starbucks lost more than 100 fans per minute. You just couldn’t reload their FB page fast enough to follow the fan counts decreasing.
But now, all of them are back again – at least it seems so
It hasn’t been fixed for our group.
yeah it hasnt been fixed yet my page went from having almost 15600 “likes” to 15290
i was about to start paying for advertising to maybe reach out to more fans but if other people are experiencing it as well then i guess i dont have to worry too much but i feel that i am not connecting with the fans ( i manage a musicians page which has a really active fan base :/)
i hope they fix it quick
I observed a few hours ago that one of my pages had lost about 200, are now all right again.
Like I said, this has been going on for months. It’s NOT NEW. Anyone who’s a group admin with a small group would have noticed this like I did months ago, and reported it. But like I said, FB engineers are stupid, and never respond to bug reports anymore. THEY ARE IDIOTS and have fubared their site with all the stupid crap “improvements” they’ve made, especially those stupid redundant community pages.
Thank god! One of our clients fan pages has dropped by at least 1200 fans, but the insights page was showing my usual fan count.
We have the same problem mentioned by Pawe? Krakowiak above.
The fan profile photos are no longer displayed in our Facebook Like box. I have seen many posts complaining of this problem.
Mine has been gone most of all day. Now I am just getting a white page when I try…I did get in for just a minute and my wall was totally empty!! Could not write on it either. Plese get it fixed!!
Is there now an issue with fans liking/commenting directly under pictures. Fans now need to maximize the picture to post a comment/like or share. this is also hurting pages.
Is anyone else seeing the same problem??
Dave
That was really frightening. The problem is: we are all at facebook’s mercy. There’s not much you can do. Good they gave feedback to you guys, though!
ahhh thank you this post was so helpful!
i experienced the same issue with my page(s). I lost about 200 likes. Thanks for this Nick
Thanks for the update Nick. Until last week, My fan page was growing about 500 fans a day and now has decreased to 30-40 fans a day. Any advice? Please keep me posted on any news.
Is this problem why my Member count has disappeared off my Group sites? I find the feature very helpful in monitoring my pages, but then it suddenly disappears, unannounced??? I just love the way these guys do business. And asking for Help or posting a question? I can’t figure that out, either, for the life of me. Thanks for being here, allowing me to vent! I take it I’m not alone in having lost my Member count, in any case?
you said on June 11, 2010 -
“Additionally, as some have noted in the comments, Facebook appears to have fixed the bug for Pages since last night.”
It is now Aug 03, 2010 and the problem persists. My page fan count does not reflect reality.
“I have a problem in FB like button that seems very frustrating. I have hundred/s or ten/s FB likes in most of my pages since last night but now are all gone. When I tried to like of the pages I got this error. “Be the first of your friends to like this. · Error” What’s the problem with this application?
Well yesterday i kind hv a problem with the facebook button, my sis upload some new photos, in mby 60 sec. appears in his facebook profile page that i like his photos, that would seems normal, but i was offline n i was sit next to her when i see it! 1 i thought someone broke into my profile, it was impossible, cause i never gave my password, i have a strong password very strong indeed n my password wasnt modificated by the security question. How could this happen?In same day my sis went to see a video that share in my facebook page and she clicked in like button, then she exit the page, n renter again the like disappeared she do that several time n happens again in that video! Facebook like Button is full of BUGS and we dont even hv a link to reported the problem they dont even answer!
Is anyone getting this problem again now with the like button count reduced?
My comic strip Just Say Cheese has added 40 new fans in the last week and the count has read the exact same number, 1,286 the entire time. It will rise to as much as 1,292 but it falls right back to 1,286. This really stinks because it has me thinking maybe people are dropping as fast as they are adding! I wish Facebook would be more open and actually answer our questions and problems.
Yes. I’ve added 40 fans for my comic strip Just Say Cheese in the last week and my count remains at 1,286. It will rise up to as much as 1,292 and then fall right back. I see the new fans when I view as the admin. What’s up? When will we get an accurate reading?