How to Hide Your Facebook Profile (and Your Posts)
How can you hide your profile on Facebook? Partly, and in layers rather than with one switch. Where Meta offers it, profile lock keeps most of your profile for friends only. Everywhere else, you set who sees each post, hide posts from your profile page, turn off search engine links to your profile and block individual people.
Two points from Meta’s Help Center matter most: profile lock isn’t offered everywhere, and hiding a post from your profile doesn’t make it private. Our Facebook how-to hub maps the other settings.
Table of Contents
- Can you hide your profile on Facebook?
- What each option hides: a comparison
- How to lock your Facebook profile (where available)
- How to make new and old posts private
- How to hide posts on Facebook from your profile
- How to hide from one person: block them
- Frequently asked questions
Can you hide your profile on Facebook?
Yes, partly. Each control hides something different: a single post, a post on your profile page, most of your profile (where lock is offered), your posts from one person, or search engine links to your profile. None hides everything; the comparison below shows what each leaves visible.
What each option hides: a comparison
In short, the post audience decides who sees each post, profile lock keeps most of your profile for friends, hide from profile only changes your profile page, a block affects one person, and the search engine setting affects links from outside Facebook. Of these, only profile lock comes with a country limit in Meta’s Help Center. Here is each one from the viewer’s side, as Meta’s Help Center describes it.
| Control | People who aren’t your friends | Your friends | Available to everyone? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post audience | See posts you share with Public, and anything you post in a public group | See posts you share with Friends or Public | No limit stated |
| Hide from profile | Don’t see the post on your profile, but can still find a Public post in Feed and search | Still see the post in Feed and search if it was shared with them | No limit stated |
| Profile lock | Can’t see your profile photos and posts, full-size profile and cover photos, stories or new posts; only part of your About info stays public | Are the only people who see them | No: certain countries only, no list published |
| Block | No change, except for the person you block: they can’t see your posts, tag you, invite you, start a conversation or add you | No change, unless you block a friend, which also unfriends them | No limit stated |
| Search engine setting | Can’t reach your profile through a search engine link, though search engines may still crawl public information | No change | No limit stated |
One catch with Friends posts: Meta says that when anyone else is tagged in a post, the audience expands to include the tagged person and their friends (Meta’s audience options, checked 2 October 2026).
The search engine setting is in Settings, under How people find and contact you: turn off “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?” (Meta’s article, checked 2 October 2026).
How to lock your Facebook profile (where available)
Meta lets you lock your profile only in certain countries, and it doesn’t publish the list. Where it’s offered, only friends see your profile photos and posts, full-size profile and cover photos, stories and new posts. Past Public posts change to Friends, profile and tag review turn on, and only part of your About info stays public.
Checked against Facebook Help Center: Lock your Facebook profile.
Meta’s lock article gives no steps for any device, so we print none. Without the option, Meta points to Privacy Checkup, post audience, Profile Review, tag review, Profile Picture Guard, and who can friend and follow you. Checked against Facebook Help Center: Lock your Facebook profile On a locked profile you also can’t choose a Public audience for a reel. Checked against Facebook Help Center: Create a reel on Facebook
How to make new and old posts private
The audience selector sits below your name when you create a post, and it also appears on posts you’ve already shared. Meta’s examples are Friends, Public and Only Me. A change applies to that post only; your next post goes back to the default audience in your privacy settings.
Checked against Facebook Help Center: Choose who can see your post on Facebook.
To change past posts at once, Meta’s Limit Past Posts option (Settings & privacy > Settings > Posts) switches posts you shared with more than your friends, such as Public ones, to Friends. It can’t be reversed in one click, and custom-audience posts keep theirs (Meta’s article, checked 2 October 2026).
Location tags matter too: a Public check-in is also visible to the people who manage that place’s Page. Checked against Facebook Help Center: How do I check into a nearby location on Facebook
How to hide posts on Facebook from your profile
On your profile, a post’s Options menu offers Hide from profile on posts from friends, and Delete post (computer) or Move to trash (apps) on your own. Hiding removes a post from your profile, not from Facebook: it stays visible to its audience in places like Feed and search.
On a computer:
- Click your profile picture in the top right of Facebook, then click your name to go to your profile.
- Find the post and click Options in the top right.
- Select Delete post on your own posts or Hide from profile on posts from friends from the dropdown menu.
On iPhone:
- Tap Menu in the top left of Facebook, then tap your name.
- Scroll to the post you'd like to remove, then tap on the post.
- Tap Options in the top right.
- Select Move to trash on your own posts or Hide from profile on posts from friends from the dropdown menu.
On Android:
- Tap Menu in the top left of Facebook.
- Scroll to the post you'd like to remove.
- Tap Options in the top right.
- Select Move to trash on your own posts or Hide from profile on posts from friends from the dropdown menu.
Checked against Facebook Help Center: Remove or hide something posted on your Facebook profile.
Checked against Facebook Help Center: Use Activity Log to view hidden information on Facebook.
To hide your own post without deleting it, set its audience to Only Me, or move it to your Archive from Manage Activity in Activity Log. Meta says archived content is visible only to you, and Manage Activity works only in the Android, iPhone and Facebook Lite apps (Meta’s Manage Activity article, checked 2 October 2026).
Hidden posts are listed in Activity Log under Posts hidden from profile. Checked against Facebook Help Center: Use Activity Log to view hidden information on Facebook To restore one, see our guide to unhiding a post on Facebook.
How to hide from one person: block them
Blocking is the control for one person. A blocked profile can’t see your posts, tag you, invite you to events or groups, start a conversation with you or add you as a friend, and it isn’t notified. Meta adds that a block may not prevent every interaction, for example in apps or groups.
Checked against Facebook Help Center: Block someone's Facebook profile, Page, or nickname.
Steps for every device are in our guide on how to block someone on Facebook.
Posting publicly as a business? Outfeed AI publishes to Facebook Pages, never to personal profiles, as one of the nine networks it covers (TikTok posts publish as private while TikTok reviews the app). Meta’s free route is in how to schedule a post on Facebook.
Try Outfeed AI for your Facebook Page
Frequently asked questions
How do I make my Facebook profile private?
Where Meta offers it, lock your profile: only friends then see your profile photos and posts, and past Public posts change to Friends. Meta says lock is only available in certain countries. Elsewhere, set each post’s audience, use Limit Past Posts, and block anyone you don’t want seeing your posts.
Why don’t I have the option to lock my Facebook profile?
Meta says you can only lock your profile in certain countries, and it doesn’t publish a list. Where lock isn’t offered, it points to Privacy Checkup, your post audience, Profile Review, tag review, Profile Picture Guard, and who can friend and follow you.
Can I hide my Facebook profile from search engines?
Partly. In Settings, under How people find and contact you, turn off ‘Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?’ Meta says search engines may still independently crawl and index publicly accessible information.
Does hiding a post on Facebook make it private?
No. Meta says posts hidden from your profile stay visible to the audience they were shared with elsewhere on Facebook, such as Feed and search. To limit who sees a post, change its audience (for example to Only Me) or move your own post to your Archive in the Facebook app, which only you can see.