A sideloadable tool called ‘Oculess’ lets you unlink your Facebook account from Oculus Quest.
You still need a Facebook account to set up the device in the first place and you need to give Facebook a phone number or card details to sideload, but after that you could use Oculess to forgo Facebook entirely – just remember to never factory reset.
The catch is you’ll lose access to Oculus Store apps because the entitlement check used upon launching them will no longer function. System apps like Oculus TV and Browser will also no longer launch, and casting won’t work. You can still sideload hundreds of apps from SideQuest though, and if you want to keep browsing the web in VR you can sideload Firefox Reality.
You can still use Oculus Link to play PC VR content, but only if you stay signed into Facebook on the Oculus PC app. Virtual Desktop won’t work because it’s a store app, but you can sideload free alternatives such as ALVR.
Oculess doesn’t disable automatic firmware updates by default, but offers this option if you want it – and you probably do given future updates might break it. You can also disable system telemetry – the data sent to Facebook about which apps you launch, how long you spend in apps, which apps crash, and other diagnostics.
To use Oculess, just download it from GitHub and sideload it using SideQuest or Oculus Developer Hub, then launch it from inside VR. If your Quest isn’t already in developer mode or you don’t know how to sideload you can follow our guide here.
