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I have noticed that there is a folder named .facebook_cache in /storage/emulated/0/

I have never had the Facebook app or the Facebook Messenger app installed on the device and I don't intend to. At first I thought it must have been put there by the Facebook website, which was concerning, or been set up as default by the Android OS. After reading around I assume it was imported as a backup from the Google cloud from an earlier device which had the app installed.

Can anyone confirm the reason that it exists on this device and if it is okay to delete the folder without causing any issues?

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    It's fine. Go ahead and delete it.
    – NVZ
    Commented Mar 5, 2017 at 16:12

2 Answers 2

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Quoting from Mathew Read's answer here

Cache is temporary files. One example might be thumbnails for contacts in a social media app. These can be cleared without any major effect — the app can just download them again when it needs to — and if space is low the Android OS may remove cache files itself.

You don't even have the app installed , so it can do no harm

The reason for it being of likely the Google Backup, since you never installed the app

You can also use the SD maid app mentioned here, which I find very effective in removing corpses and cleaning system How to clean up related files from deleted apps?

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I had this directory, too.

I discovered pictures in it (everything except the journal file) are created when a map thumbnail is opened in Whatsapp after giving it storage permissions.

You can safely delete this directory.

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  • Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! When writing answers, it's best to give information just as it is without additional narrative. For example, it's generated by whatsapp when opening a map thumbnail and the app has storage permissions. You can safely delete it, as it's only a cache.
    – Ethan Z
    Commented Jul 24, 2019 at 17:20
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    Hi @EthanZ, the narrative was due to the apparently unrelated name. Most people do not know that Whatsapp is owned by Facebook and frankly I can't understand why this directory does not have a Whatsapp-related name. Also, I know applications should save data in $storage/Android/data or $/data/data/application_id, (locations unreadable by other apps) not $storage/.name_of_developer (writable and readable by anything), so this can be easily mistaken for a virus by people not having facebook installed on their devices.
    – Scrooge McDuck
    Commented Sep 10, 2019 at 1:44
  • That's entirely fair.
    – Ethan Z
    Commented Sep 12, 2019 at 1:18

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