To make a photo private on Facebook, open the photo from your profile, click Options, choose Edit post audience (Edit post privacy in the app) and pick Only me or Friends. If the photo sits inside an album, you usually have to change the audience of the whole album instead. Your current profile picture and cover photo can't be made private: Facebook keeps those two public.
Most people who ask me this have had a moment. A client looking at their personal profile, an ex, a boss, a holiday album from years ago that's still on Public. The good news is that Facebook gives you control photo by photo and album by album. The catch is that the setting lives in different places depending on how the photo was posted, and that's what trips people up.
Make one photo private on a computer
These are Facebook's own steps for changing who can see a single photo you've uploaded:
- Click your profile picture in the top right of Facebook, then click your name to go to your profile.
- Click Photos, then click Your photos.
- Click the photo you want to change.
- Click Options in the top right.
- Click Edit post audience.
- Choose who can see it, such as Friends or Only me.
Make one photo private in the Facebook app
- Tap Menu, then tap your name.
- Scroll down and tap Photos, then tap Photos again.
- Tap Uploads.
- Open the photo, then tap Options in the top right.
- Tap Edit post privacy.
- Choose who can see the photo, then tap Save.
If you can't see Edit post privacy, the photo is almost certainly part of an album. Facebook says that in most cases a photo shared as part of an album takes the album's setting, and you can only edit individual photos in certain albums, including your profile pictures and cover photos albums.
Make a whole album private
This is the quicker route if you want an entire trip or event hidden in one go.
| Step | On a computer | In the app |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Go to your profile and click Photos | Tap Menu, tap your name, then tap Photos |
| 2 | Click Albums | Tap All albums |
| 3 | Open the album | Open the album |
| 4 | Click Options, then Edit album | Tap Edit album in the top right |
| 5 | Click the current privacy setting, for example Friends | Tap the current privacy setting |
| 6 | Pick the new audience and click Save | Pick the new audience, tap Done, then Save |
One rule matters here: only the person who posted an album can change its privacy. If a friend made a shared album and added your photos, you can't lock that album down yourself.
The two photos you can't make private
Your current profile picture and cover photo are public, so anyone on or off Facebook can see them. A small version of your profile picture also shows next to your name across Facebook, on your posts and comments.
What you can control is the history. Old profile pictures and old cover photos sit in their own albums, and Facebook lets you change the audience for those past photos individually. So if you've cycled through ten profile pictures since 2012, you can hide the old ones even though today's has to stay visible. If you're about to swap yours, my guide to changing your Facebook profile picture covers the options.
Lock everything at once
If you've got hundreds of old public photos, going one by one isn't realistic. Facebook has two bigger switches.
Lock your profile
Profile lock isn't available everywhere, only in certain countries. Where you can use it, people who aren't your friends see a limited view. Only your friends see the photos and posts on your profile, your full-size profile picture and cover photo, your stories and anything new you post. Any posts you shared to Public in the past change to Friends, and profile review and tag review are switched on.
Limit past posts
Everyone can use this one. Click your profile picture, go to Settings and privacy, then Settings, click Posts and choose Limit past posts next to Limit who can see past posts. It changes every past post that was visible to more than your friends, photos included, to Friends.
Before you click it, know the catches Facebook spells out:
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- It can't be undone in one click. To reverse it you'd have to change each post back by hand.
- Posts shared with a custom audience, like Close Friends, aren't changed.
- If you tagged someone, the post's audience still includes them and the people they share tagged posts with.
- It only covers what you posted. If someone else posted a photo of you, they control who sees it.
Privacy settings go further, as how to stop people posting on your Facebook profile explains.
Photos other people posted of you
This is where most of the frustration comes from. A photo a friend posted belongs to them, so its audience is theirs to set. What you can do is take it off your own profile.
- Hide from profile removes a friend's post from your profile, but not from Facebook.
- Removing your tag means the post no longer appears on your profile. It's still visible to its audience in Feed and search.
- If you posted it yourself, Delete post removes it from Facebook entirely.
If deleting is what you're after, I've written a separate walkthrough on deleting photos on Facebook, including old profile pictures.
My advice
Start with Limit past posts if your account is more than a few years old, because it catches the forgotten stuff in one go. Then set each album you care about to Friends or Only me, and clear out old profile pictures you'd rather people didn't scroll through. If you want the wider picture beyond photos, my guide to making your Facebook profile private goes through the rest of your settings. And remember Facebook doesn't let anyone track who views their profile, so a private photo is about what people can see, not who's been looking.
For the rest of the series, see the Facebook Help: 80 Guides to Pages, Groups, Ads, Stories and Fixes.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make my Facebook profile picture private?
Not your current one. Your current profile picture and cover photo are always public, but you can change who sees your past profile pictures and cover photos.
Why can't I change the privacy of one photo on Facebook?
If the photo was shared as part of an album, you usually need to change the privacy of the whole album. Facebook only lets you edit single photos in certain albums, including profile pictures and cover photos.
Can I make someone else's photo of me private?
No. The person who posted it controls its audience. You can hide it from your profile or remove your tag, but it stays visible to its audience elsewhere on Facebook.
Does Limit past posts make my photos private?
It changes every past post you shared with more people than your friends, such as Public, to Friends, photos included. It can't be undone in one click, and posts with custom audiences aren't changed.
