Facebook allows you to customize your profile by adding a cover photo at the top of your Timeline. This large header photo acts as the background image for your profile and helps express your personality or interests. However, sometimes you may wish to hide your cover photo from being publicly visible on your profile for privacy or personal reasons. Fortunately, Facebook provides options to limit who can see your cover photo.
In this guide, we will walk through the steps to hide your Facebook cover photo from public view in a few easy steps. Whether you want to temporarily hide your cover photo or restrict it permanently, we have got you covered.
Should I Hide My Facebook Cover Photo?
Here are some common reasons why you may want to hide your Facebook cover photo from public view:
- You want to keep your cover photo private and limit it to friends only
- Your cover photo has personal images or details you don’t want publicly visible
- You plan on changing the cover photo but don’t want it visible until the change is made
- You don’t want acquaintances, co-workers or strangers seeing your cover photo
- You feel your current cover photo is inappropriate, unprofessional or embarrassing
Whatever your reasons, Facebook provides simple options to hide or limit visibility of your cover photo from your profile.
How to Temporarily Hide Facebook Cover Photo
If you only need to quickly hide your Facebook cover photo for a short time, here are two easy methods:
Method 1: Remove Cover Photo
Follow these steps:
- Go to your Facebook profile page
- Click on the camera icon on your cover photo
- Select ‘Remove Cover Photo’
This will instantly remove your current cover photo and display a plain background. You can add the cover photo back at any time the same way.
Method 2: Toggle Cover Photo Visibility
- Click the three-dot menu icon in the cover photo
- Select ‘Hide Cover Photo’
This will hide the cover photo from your profile view only. It will still be visible in your photos. Simply select ‘Show Cover Photo’ to make it publicly visible again.
These options are useful for quickly hiding your cover photo for a short period of time. However, the photo will be visible again once you toggle the visibility back on.
How to Permanently Hide Facebook Cover Photo
For a more permanent solution to restrict general public access to your Facebook cover photo, you will need to change the audience. Here are the steps:
- Click on your cover photo to open it
- Click on the audience selector (globe icon) below the photo
- Choose a more restrictive audience like Only Me, Friends, or a custom group
- Save your changes
This will limit visibility of your cover photo to only people you select. Everyone else will just see a plain background on your profile.
You can choose from these audience options for your cover photo:
- Public: Anyone can see it
- Friends: Only your friends can see it
- Friends except acquaintances: Friends but not acquaintances
- Specific friends: Select individual friends
- Only me: Just you
Select the option that best matches your comfort level for who can view your cover photo.
How to Completely Remove Facebook Cover Photo
If you want to permanently delete your cover photo from Facebook, it’s a simple process:
- Click on your cover photo to open it
- Click on the three-dot menu icon in the upper right corner
- Select ‘Delete Photo’
- Confirm deletion in popup
This will completely remove the cover photo from your profile and Facebook. You can always upload a new cover photo in the future if you change your mind.
Pro Tips for Hiding Facebook Cover Photo
Here are some additional tips when hiding your Facebook cover photo:
- Preview what a hidden cover photo looks like to others before committing the change
- Double check that the right audience is selected after making visibility changes
- Consider adding a new cover photo you don’t mind being public if completely removing it
- Remember that hidden or deleted photos can still be visible in certain areas like screenshots or Google Cache
- On a mobile device, tap and hold the cover photo and use the menu to manage visibility
Conclusion
Hiding or restricting your Facebook cover photo from public view is easy and can be done right from your profile settings. You can temporarily hide the cover or permanently limit visibility to only certain friends or custom groups. Just toggle the visibility option or adjust the audience. Or completely remove the cover photo if desired.
Now you can keep control over your Facebook cover photo for privacy. Just use the steps in this guide to quickly hide or limit visibility according to your comfort level. Your profile can stay personalized but only share what you want.