Do you have old, embarrassing photos on Facebook you want to remove from prying eyes? With over 2 billion users, Facebook hosts plenty of photos people later regret sharing. In fact, a 2021 survey by Statista found that over 54% of users had posted photos on Facebook that they didn‘t want employers, parents, or others seeing.
Luckily, Facebook offers robust options to hide photos from your profile—both individually and in bulk.
In this comprehensive guide, you‘ll learn insider tips and strategies to hide Facebook photos, from removing individual images to hiding entire photo albums.
Should You Delete or Hide Facebook Photos?
Before you begin removing photos en masse, consider whether you want to permanently delete photos or simply hide them on Facebook:
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Delete: Deleting removes photos from Facebook servers entirely. However, any friends who have shared or saved your photos will still have access.
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Hide: Hiding photos via privacy settings keeps them on Facebook servers but makes them private to you. This gives you the option to unhide them later if desired.
My recommendation is to hide embarrassing or unnecessary Facebook photos first. This allows you to revisit them if needed while still limiting visibility. Only permanently delete photos that are deeply private, objectionable, or no longer needed.
How to Hide Individual Facebook Photos
Hiding one-off photos on Facebook is a snap—just change the privacy setting on each image. Here‘s how to get started:
On Mobile
- Launch the Facebook app and go to your profile page.
- Tap on the photo you want to hide to open it.
- Hit the three-dot "More" button in the top-right corner.
- Choose "Edit Privacy" from the dropdown menu.
- Select "Only me" to make the photo private.
- Confirm by tapping "Done".
This will lock down that photo so only you can see it on your profile. Friends, public, and even family will no longer have access.
On Desktop
The process is similar on a computer:
- Go to your Facebook profile page and click a photo to expand it.
- Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the expanded photo.
- Choose "Edit Privacy" from the dropdown menu.
- Change the audience to "Only me".
- Click "Confirm" to save the new privacy setting.
The photo will now only be visible to you when visiting your profile.
Rinse and repeat for any other individual photos you want to hide from your profile. Just know this can be time consuming if you have hundreds of photos to privatize.
Pro Tip: Use Facebook‘s facial recognition tool to quickly find photos of specific people, like an ex. Click "Photos of You" under the Face Recognition section of your Facebook profile to review and hide relevant photos.
Hiding All Photos in an Album
For hiding photos en masse, your best bet is adjusting entire Facebook albums to private. Here‘s how:
On Mobile
- From your profile, tap the "Photos" bookmark.
- Select the "Albums" tab.
- Tap the album you want to hide.
- Hit the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
- Choose "Edit Album".
- Tap the current privacy setting (e.g. Public, Friends).
- Change it to "Only me".
- Confirm by tapping "Done".
This will hide the full album, including all the photos in it. Friends and public will no longer see any of the photos in that album on your profile.
On Desktop
Similarly, on a computer you can:
- Click the "Photos" bookmark on your profile.
- Click the album you want to hide.
- Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
- Choose "Edit Album".
- Click the current privacy setting.
- Change it to "Only me".
- Click "Confirm".
This will again hide the album and all associated photos from your profile.
Hiding albums in bulk is the fastest way to remove large swathes of photos from public visibility. Use it for albums from your school days, old relationships, or any other photos better left in the past.
Managing Photos You‘re Tagged In
When friends tag you in their photos, those pictures can appear on your own Facebook profile by default. To remove them:
- Click the down arrow in the top-right of Facebook.
- Choose "Settings & Privacy" > "Settings".
- Click "Profile and Tagging" in the left menu.
- Under Tagging, click "Who can see posts you‘re tagged in on your profile?"
- Select "Only me" from the dropdown menu.
Now photos you‘re tagged in will stay private on your profile. Friends and public won‘t see them there moving forward.
Pro Tip: If an old embarrassing photo still shows up, open it and click "Remove Tag" to fully disassociate it from your profile.
Conduct a Full Profile Privacy Check
For total Facebook photo privacy:
- Review and hide all individual photos
- Hide questionable albums
- Adjust tagged photos to "Only me"
- Set all other privacy settings to "Friends" or stricter
Scrutinize your Facebook activity log and limit old posts when possible. The more you lock down, the more control you have over your profile.
Additionally, consider enabling two-factor authentication. This adds extra login security to keep out prying eyes if your account is ever compromised.
Before You Hide Photos…
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Download copies: Preserve special photos by downloading them to your computer or phone before hiding.
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Review tagging: Double check to untag yourself from any inappropriate photos.
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Clean up posts: Delete or hide related wall posts that mention the photos.
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Adjust notifications: Turn off notifications to avoid being alerted when old hidden photos are reshared or mentioned.
Hiding photos removes them from public view but doesn‘t delete Facebook‘s copies from their servers. Proceed with caution in case you ever need to access the originals again.
Conclusion
I hope this deep dive helps you gain control of your Facebook photos. Hiding embarrassing or private pictures is simple once you know the insider tricks. Change individual photo privacy, edit albums, and adjust tagging settings for total control.
Let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m happy to provide more tailored social media privacy tips.
