How do I stop Facebook from posting when I change my cover photo?

When you change your Facebook cover photo, the change is automatically posted to your timeline for all your friends to see. You may not want every little change to your profile broadcasted publicly, so it’s understandable if you’d like to stop Facebook from auto-posting about your cover photo updates. There are a few different things you can try to prevent your cover photo changes from being posted.

Change Your Facebook Post Audience Settings

The easiest way to stop cover photo changes from being posted is to adjust your Facebook post audience settings. Here’s how:

1. Click the arrow in the top right of your Facebook page and select “Settings”.
2. On the left sidebar, click “Privacy”.
3. Click “Edit” next to “Who can see your future posts?”
4. Uncheck the box next to “Friends” so that nobody is selected.
5. Click “Confirm”.

This will make all your future wall posts private so that they are not automatically shared. The downside is that you have to manually select an audience every time you want to make a public post.

Restrict Old Posts When Updating Cover Photo

Rather than making all your posts private, you can use Facebook’s built-in tool to restrict old posts whenever you make a new cover photo update:

1. Upload a new cover photo as usual.
2. When prompted to post about the update, click “Limit Old Posts” below the post text box.
3. Adjust the date range to limit visibility of previous posts during this time.
4. Click “Limit Old Posts” to confirm.

This will prevent your previous posts from being visible to the audience of your new cover photo post. You can select a long date range to limit a lot of old posts each time you update your photo.

Use a Third-Party App to Prevent Posting

Installing a third-party Facebook app is another option to stop cover photo change posts. Some apps that can help include:

• Social Privacy – Automatically hides all your Facebook activities including profile changes.
• F.B. Purity – Allows you to disable specific types of posts including profile updates.
• Privacy Fix – Lets you manage privacy settings easily including profile post visibility.

Research different apps to find one that suits your needs. Make sure to check reviews and permissions before installing anything.

Temporarily Deactivate Facebook Posting

You can temporarily deactivate all posting to Facebook with these steps:

1. Click the arrow in the top right and select “Settings”.
2. Click “Privacy” on the left sidebar.
3. Click “Deactivation and Deletion”.
4. Click “Deactivate Account” and confirm when prompted.

This will temporarily deactivate your account and pause all posting. You can then make changes to your profile including updating cover photos without anything being posted. When you’re ready, you can easily reactive your account.

Delete Facebook Activity Log

Manually deleting your Facebook activity log can also prevent a cover photo update from being posted:

1. Click the arrow in the top right and select “Settings”.
2. Click “Your Facebook Information” on the left sidebar.
3. Click “View next to Activity Log.”
4. Click the 3 dots next to each item and select “Delete”.

This is tedious but will remove any trace of your cover photo update from your log, preventing it from being posted.

Cover Photo Posting Workarounds

If you want to update your cover photo but don’t want to take any of the above approaches, there are a couple workarounds:

• Schedule the update for a less active time – If you change your cover photo in the middle of the night when fewer friends are online, fewer people will notice the post.
• Change cover photos less frequently -Spacing out your cover photo updates means individual posts are less obvious.
• Crop a banner section – Upload a large image and only show a narrow banner portion as your cover photo. You can then change the hidden parts of the photo without altering the public banner.

These tactics reduce the visibility of your cover photo posting, but don’t prevent it completely.

Should You Stop Cover Photo Posting?

Before utilizing any of the above methods to block cover photo posts, think about whether it’s necessary. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros

• Prevents clutter on your timeline and in friends’ feeds from minor profile tweaks.
• Lets you change cover images as much as you want without spamming others.
• Keeps your profile consistent if you need to temporarily use a different cover.

Cons

• Makes it harder for friends to see your profile changes and stay updated on your life.
• Could cause friends to think you deleted them if posts continuously disappear.
• Requires extra steps or third-party apps to manage posting settings.

Posting cover photo changes is a standard Facebook practice most people expect. Evaluate whether controlling these posts is really beneficial or if you should just let them be public.

Conclusion

Facebook automatically posting your new cover photos can be annoying if you update them frequently. There are several ways to prevent these posts including adjusting audience settings, using third-party apps, deactivating your account temporarily, and manually deleting activity logs. You can also use workarounds like waiting to change them until no one’s online. Consider the pros and cons before putting limits on your Facebook cover photo posting.