Can I make all my photos on Facebook private?

The Short Answer

Yes, you can make all your photos on Facebook private. This prevents people who are not your friends on Facebook from seeing them. There are a few ways to do this:

Go to your Facebook profile and click on “Photos.” Next to each album, there is an audience selector that lets you choose who can see that album. Choose “Only Me” to make an album fully private.
From the photos page, click on “Options” at the top and choose “Limit Old Posts.” This will make all your previous posts private that were set to be fully public.

Go to your profile, click the three dots in the top right corner and choose “Settings & Privacy.” Go to the “Privacy” section and under “Limiting Your Audience” choose “Friends” to limit photo visibility to friends only.

Making all your photos private is a good way to lock down your Facebook profile. While friends will still be able to see photos you’re tagged in, this prevents the general public from accessing your personal images.

Setting Photo Privacy on Facebook

Facebook’s privacy settings allow you to control who can see your photos and posts. By default, Facebook sets your posts, photos and profile information to be visible to the public. This means anyone on or off Facebook can see it.

To make your Facebook photos private, you need to edit the privacy settings for each photo album. Here are the steps:

Go to your profile page and click on “Photos” in the left menu.
For each photo album, click on the audience selector in the top right corner. This looks like a globe icon.

In the menu that pops up, choose “Only Me” to make the album private. Only you will be able to see these photos.
Repeat this for each album you want to make private.

The “Only Me” setting makes a photo album completely private. No one else but you will be able to access or see that album.

You can also limit old posts in just a few clicks. On the photos page, click “Options” at the top and select “Limit Old Posts.” This will make all your previous public posts private in one go.

Making All Photos Private

Rather than adjusting each album individually, you can make all your Facebook photos private with a few settings changes:

Go to your profile and click the three dots at the top right. Choose “Settings & Privacy.”

Go to the “Privacy” section and click on “Limiting Your Audience.”
Under “Who Can See Your Future Posts?” choose “Friends” from the dropdown menu.

This will make all your future photo and post uploads only visible to friends. Existing public photos will stay public unless you change them individually or limit old posts.

You can also limit photo visibility by network with these steps:

Go to “Settings & Privacy” then click “Privacy.”
Click “Edit” next to “Limit Your Audience for Posts.”

Choose if you want friends, family, your school or a custom group to see posts.

This lets you fine-tune exactly which networks can view your photos on Facebook.

Changing Visibility for Tagged Photos

When other people tag you in photos on Facebook, it can make them visible to a wider audience than you’d like. To take back control:

Go to your profile, click the three dots and select “Settings & Privacy.”
Click on “Privacy.”
Go to “Tags” and edit the visibility levels for posts you’re tagged in.

You can choose whether tagged posts are visible to the public, friends or only yourself. This overrides the settings the photo poster chose.

Another option is to review tags before the photo appears on your profile. Enable this under “Review Tags” in your privacy settings.

Removing Tagged Photos

Don’t want a tagged photo on your profile at all? Take these steps:

Go to the photo and click on your tagged name.
Choose “Options” next to your name tag.
Select “Remove Tag” to untag yourself from the photo.

This completely removes the photo from your profile. The picture will still be visible to others on the poster’s profile unless they also remove it.

You can also limit who sees a friend’s post that you’re tagged in. Click on the post, choose “Options” and select “Change Audience.” This lets you overrides your friend’s settings for that post.

How Facebook’s Privacy Settings Work

Facebook’s privacy settings allow you to control what various groups of people see on your profile:

Public: Anyone including people off Facebook can see your photos.
Friends: Your accepted Facebook friends can see photos.
Specific friends: You can pick individual friends to share with.

Only me: Only you can access the photos.
Custom: Share with subsets like close friends or family.

When uploading photos, you choose an audience to share with. You can post a fun party album to friends only and share family photos with your customized family group.

Album privacy overrides your overall default privacy setting for who can see posts. You may limit posts to friends but share an album with the public.

Granular Control

Facebook offers granular control over photo privacy:

Per-album privacy settings let you hide old albums.

Custom friend lists let you share with subsets of friends.
You can limit visibility by schools, employers, cities and more.
Review tag requests to approve tags before posting.

Untag yourself from any photo you don’t want visible.

You have full control over your photos. Set privacy on both old and new albums as strictly or openly as you like.

Pros and Cons of Private Photos

Making your Facebook photos private has some advantages:

More security: Private photos are more protected from hacking attempts.
No embarrassing content: Keep party photos away from your professional contacts.
Avoid misuse: Prevent strangers from downloading your pictures.

However, there are some downsides to consider as well:

Less sharing: Friends can’t tag you in public photos easily.
Professional impact: Hiding all photos may make your profile less personal.

Time consuming: Changing each album’s privacy individually takes longer.

In most cases, the privacy benefits outweigh the downsides for personal Facebook use. But you may want to keep some albums public to show off your hobbies and interests to a wider audience.

Tips for Managing Photo Privacy

Here are some tips for taking control of your photo privacy on Facebook:

Double check old albums for embarrassing photos you forgot about.
Delete albums entirely you no longer want public or private.
Consider a social media management tool to post to multiple sites more privately.

Review tagged photos and untag yourself when necessary.
Enable tag review so you can approve tags.
Create friend lists to easily share albums with different groups.

Actively managing your photo albums and tags is the best way to control your privacy. Check your settings every so often to make sure you’re still comfortable with the sharing levels.

Conclusion

Facebook’s customizable privacy settings give you full control over who can see your photos. Make old albums private, limit visibility for new uploads and review tags to keep your profile secure.

With granular options to hide photos from the public, friends, family and other groups, you can share as openly or as privately as you want. Just be mindful that completely locking down photo access can limit some of Facebook’s social benefits.

Photo Privacy Setting	Who Can See Photos	How to Change It
Public	Anyone including people off Facebook	Album privacy selector -> Choose “Public”
Friends	Your Facebook friends only	Album privacy selector -> Choose “Friends”
Only Me	Only you	Album privacy selector -> Choose “Only Me”
Limited public profile	Only your name and profile photo	Privacy settings -> Limit public profile

By taking the time to go through your Facebook albums and tags, you can confidently control who sees your personal photos.