Quick Answers
There are a few common reasons why you may not be seeing posts from your friends on your Facebook timeline:
- Your news feed settings are filtered to show you less posts
- The privacy settings of the post don’t allow you to see it
- Your friends have stopped posting or aren’t posting as much
- There’s a technical issue with Facebook or your account
The most likely culprits are your news feed settings being filtered or the privacy settings of the posts. Check both of those and adjust as needed. Also make sure there are no technical issues with your account or Facebook overall.
Checking Your News Feed Settings
The first thing to check is your news feed preferences. Facebook allows you to filter what shows up in your news feed, so you may have settings enabled that limit the amount of posts you see from friends.
To check your news feed settings on desktop:
- Click on the arrow in the top right corner and select “Settings”
- On the left side menu, click “News Feed Preferences”
- You’ll see different options for prioritizing who and what you see posts from in your feed
On mobile:
- Tap the three line menu icon in the bottom right
- Tap “Settings & Privacy” then “Settings”
- Tap “News Feed Preferences”
Look through each section and consider adjusting the filters:
- Prioritization: Choose to see more posts from friends and family vs public figures/videos
- Unfollow: Review pages and people you’ve unfollowed and consider refollowing
- Snooze: Check if you have any friends snoozed and unsnooze them
- Hide Posts: Stop hiding posts from specific people or pages
Removing filters like this can help ensure you see more posts from friends regularly.
Checking Post Privacy Settings
The second factor to check is the privacy setting of the posts you’re trying to see.
When your friends share a post, they can choose different privacy options:
- Public: Visible to anyone
- Friends: Visible only to their friends list
- Friends except…: Visible to friends except certain people
- Specific friends: Only visible to certain friends they picked
- Only me: Only visible to them
If a friend has shared a post with privacy limiting who can see it, that could be why it’s not showing up in your news feed.
You can check with the friend to see if they limited visibility for a certain post. If theyrestricted it to not include you, ask them to share it again with you included.
The friend can also double check their default post privacy setting under “Settings” -> “Privacy” -> “Your Activity” on desktop or in the app menu.
Less Posts from Friends Overall
Another possibility is that your friends simply aren’t posting updates as often anymore. Page post volume has decreased overall on Facebook:
| Year | Average Posts Per Page |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 35 |
| 2009 | 29 |
| 2010 | 26 |
| 2011 | 17 |
| 2012 | 15 |
| 2013 | 12 |
| 2014 | 11 |
| 2015 | 10 |
| 2016 | 8 |
| 2017 | 7 |
People are posting less frequently across the board, so even if your feed settings are wide open, you may notice less updates from friends.
This is due to factors like:
- Increased use of formats like Stories that have less permanence
- Shift away from text status updates to sharing photos and videos
- Using Groups for updates rather than News Feed posts
- Preferring other platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter for sharing
You can encourage your friends to share more personal updates to their timelines. But overall, the nature of Facebook posting has evolved quite a bit, so you’re unlikely to see the volume you may have in earlier years.
Common Places Friends Are Posting Instead
Here are some of the common places friends may be posting updates instead of their main News Feed:
| Platform | Type of Content |
|---|---|
| Photos, videos, Stories | |
| Snapchat | Photos, videos, Stories |
| Thoughts, links, updates | |
| Facebook Groups | Shared interests, niche topics |
| Facebook Events | Events they are attending |
Checking where else your friends are active online can help you stay up to date with what they’re up to. You may find they are still posting updates across social media, just not always on their Facebook timelines.
Facebook or Account Technical Issues
Finally, there could be a technical issue preventing you from seeing posts. This includes both widespread Facebook bugs affecting news feeds as well as potential issues with your account specifically.
Here are some technical issues that could be blocking you from seeing updates:
- Facebook app or website bugs affecting the news feed
- Your account’s news feed filters glitching
- Connection issues on your device or internet
- Your account was restricted or shadowbanned
- You were accidentally unfollowed or blocked by friends
If there are ongoing technical problems with Facebook overall, you’ll likely see reports of it on third party site outage trackers like Downdetector. Issues like that typically get resolved in hours or days at most.
For your own account, you can troubleshoot things like reloading the app, checking for updates, reinstalling the app, restarting your device, connecting to different wifi or cellular data, and logging out and back in.
Issues that persist could potentially call for contacting Facebook support if you suspect your personal account is glitching or was restricted. They can check and resolve account-specific problems.
Conclusion
In summary, if you stop seeing your friends’ posts on your Facebook feed, a few places to check are:
- Your news feed preferences and filters
- The privacy settings of the posts
- How often your friends are actively posting updates
- Technical issues with Facebook or your account
Adjust your filters, talk to your friends about their posting, and rule out any bugs. That should help get your news feed back to showing relevant updates from those close to you.
With the evolution of social media, your Facebook feed make-up and activity levels will likely never be the same as many years ago. But optimizing your settings and connections can still ensure you see the posts you want.