Facebook hosts billions of photos that are shared by its users every day. While most of these photos are shared publicly, some users choose to limit the visibility of their photos to only their friends or even just themselves. If you want to view photos that aren’t publicly available, you’ll need to send a friend request to the account owner first. Here’s what you need to know about searching for someone’s photos on Facebook.
Searching for Photos of Friends
If you and the person you’re searching for are already friends on Facebook, finding their photos is easy. Here’s how:
- Go to their Facebook profile page
- Click on the Photos tab on their page
- This will bring up all of their uploaded albums and profile pictures. You can scroll through their albums and photos here.
That’s the simplest way to see all of the photos that a friend has uploaded to their Facebook account. Photos they’re tagged in will also show up here. Keep in mind that if they have privacy settings in place, you might not be able to see some photos.
Searching for Photos of Non-Friends
If you want to search for the photos of someone who isn’t your friend on Facebook, the process requires a few extra steps but is still possible in most cases. Here’s how to do it:
- Go to Facebook’s homepage and click in the search bar at the top
- Type the name of the person whose photos you want to see. Make sure you’re searching for their profile and not a Page or Group.
- Click on the name of the user to go to their profile
- On their profile, click on the Photos tab
- This will show you any public photos that the user has uploaded
- If the photos tab says there are no photos to show, it means the user has their album privacy set to Friends or Only Me. In this case, you would need to send them a friend request to view their photos.
Essentially the process is the same as viewing a friend’s photos, except first you need to search directly for the person’s profile. If their photos aren’t public, you won’t be able to see them unless they accept you as a friend.
Searching for Photos You’re Tagged in
Friends can tag you in photos on Facebook, allowing that photo to also show up on your own profile. Here’s how you can search for and manage photos that you’re tagged in:
- Click on your profile picture in the top right and select Settings & Privacy
- Go to Settings and click on the Tagged Posts section on the left sidebar
- Here you’ll see a feed of photos that you’ve been tagged in by friends
- You can also change your tag review settings here. By default, you need to approve tags before they appear on your profile.
Using the tagged posts section under your settings is the easiest way to monitor photos that you’ve been tagged in by friends. You can remove tags from any photos here if you don’t want them on your profile.
Searching from a Desktop Instead of Mobile
The process for searching for photos is similar on both desktop and mobile, but there are a few small differences:
- On desktop, the Photos tab is on the left sidebar of a user’s profile instead of at the top
- On the homepage, click the spyglass icon to access search instead of the search bar at the top
- To access your tagged photos from desktop, click the down arrow at the top right and choose Settings & Privacy > Settings > Tagged Posts
Follow the same steps as above, just look for the links in slightly different places on the desktop layout. The functionality works the same across both desktop and mobile.
Using Advanced Facebook Search Operators
Facebook’s search tool has some advanced operators you can use to narrow down photo results and be more precise. Here are some examples:
- Photos of [name] – Finds public photos that the specific person is tagged in
- My photos of [name] – Finds photos that you’ve uploaded and tagged the person in
- [location] photos – Finds public photos tagged at a certain place or city
- Photos I like – Finds photos you’ve liked, even if you weren’t originally tagged
- Photos from [date] – Finds photos uploaded on a specific date
Using these operators in Facebook search gives you better results than just searching for a name or place on its own. Play around with them to become an expert at tracking down specific photos.
Searching Photos on Facebook Business Pages
Facebook Business Pages have a separate section where they can upload photos related to their business. Here’s how you can view and search these photos:
- Go to the Page you want to search and click Photos in the left sidebar
- This will open the Page’s Photos section, allowing you to scroll through or search for album names
- Use the filters button in the top right to only view photos from specific dates or locations
- You can also click on individual people tagged in the Page’s photos to see what they’re tagged in
Pages can upload an unlimited number of photos about their business, so this section is useful for discovering photos related to brands, stores, restaurants or local attractions.
How to Download Photos from Facebook
If you find a photo on Facebook that you want to save or download to your own device, here are a couple ways to do that:
- While viewing the photo, click the three dots icon in the top right corner
- Select ‘Download’ or ‘Save Photo’
- This will save the full-size image to your device storage
Alternatively, you can right click the image and choose ‘Save image as’ to download the file. The photo will save its original quality, up to what was uploaded to Facebook.
Keep in mind that downloading others’ photos for personal use is allowed under fair use laws in many countries. However, you should always get permission from the photographer before using their work.
Troubleshooting Common Photo Search Problems
Here are some solutions if you’re having trouble locating certain photos on Facebook:
- If a user’s photos aren’t public, send them a friend request to view them.
- Make sure you’re searching for profiles and not unrelated Pages or Groups.
- Double check that the name, place or date search operators are spelled correctly.
- The user may have untagged themselves or deleted a photo you’re looking for.
- For technical issues, try the troubleshooting tips in Facebook’s Help Center.
With over 300 billion photos on Facebook, tracking down a specific image can sometimes be tricky. Using advanced search operators and understanding privacy settings are key to mastering Facebook photo search.
Conclusion
Searching for photos on Facebook is easy if you know where to look. For friends’ photos, check their profiles under the photos tab. For non-friends, search for their profile then go to their photos section. Look under your own tagged posts to monitor photos you’re tagged in. Mastering Facebook’s advanced photo search operators helps you zero in on precise people, places, dates and keywords. While some troubleshooting is occasionally needed, following the steps in this guide will get you viewing Facebook photos like a pro.