How do I limit who can see my old Facebook posts?
Two ways. Change the audience of one past post with the audience selector next to its date, or change past posts that were visible to more people than your friends to Friends at once with Limit past posts — posts with a custom audience keep theirs.
- Trip photos, 2019PublicFriends
- Status about a new jobPublicFriends
- Birthday partyClose Friendsunchanged
- Draft notesOnly meunchanged
- Concert, friend taggedPublicFriends, plus tagged people and their friends
- Post on a friend’s profileTheir choiceunchanged
After: those 3 become Friends — tagged people and their friends stay in the audience; the other 3 keep theirs.
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What Limit past posts changes — and what it doesn’t
| Past post | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| A post shared with Public | Public | Friends |
| A post shared with a custom audience, e.g. Close Friends | Close Friends | Unchanged |
| A post shared with Only me | Only me | Unchanged |
| A Public post where you tagged a friend | Public | Friends — plus tagged people and their friends |
| A post you shared on someone else’s profile | They decide | Still their decision |
| Someone else’s post that tags you | They decide | Still their decision |
Change all old posts at once
- 1Settings and privacy Settings PostsNext to Limit who can see past posts, click Limit past posts.
- 2Read what will changePosts that were visible to more people than your friends become Friends. Posts with a custom audience, such as Close Friends, don’t change, and people you tagged stay in the audience.
- 3Click Limit past posts to confirmThere’s no undo in one click — to change posts back later, you edit each post.
- 4Check the public view with View asProfile → Options → View as shows what people who aren’t your friends can still see.
Take a break: past posts and one person
If you want one person to see less of your past posts, Limit past posts is too broad. Facebook’s Take a break (facebook.com/take_a_break) has its own option, “Edit who can see past posts”, with three choices:
- Keep all posts as they are — nothing changes.
- Edit individual posts — change posts one by one from your friendship page, and untag yourself from their posts.
- Edit all of your posts and posts you’re tagged in — Facebook changes the privacy of your posts that person is tagged in and removes your tags from their posts and from posts you’re both tagged in.
Facebook warns that after editing everything, those posts may be harder to find later.
Edit who can see past posts
- Keep all posts as they areNothing changes
- Edit individual postsOne by one, from your friendship page
- Edit all of your posts and posts you’re tagged inThose posts may be harder to find later
What Limit past posts won’t do
Limit past posts has limits worth knowing before you use it:
- Posts with a custom audience, such as Close Friends, keep it.
- People you tagged stay in the post’s audience.
- It can’t be reversed in 1 click. To change posts back, you edit each post.
- It applies to every eligible past post at once. Take a break, above, has 3 separate options about 1 person.
- It only covers posts you shared. Posts others made keep the audience they chose; for posts friends add to your profile, you choose who can see them in Profile and tagging.
One thing works in your favour: when someone clicks Share on your photo, video or status, only people who could see it when you posted it can see it. A link you posted is different — a friend can share the link with a wider audience, though the text you added isn’t shared.
Old posts where you tagged people
Tags widen a post’s audience, and Limit past posts keeps the people you tagged in it. If you tagged someone, their friends may also see the post.
You have two ways to narrow it:
- Open the post’s audience selector, choose Custom and untick Friends of those tagged.
- Remove the tag from the post.
Posts you set to Only me never widen, even if you tag someone in them.
Only a few posts? Change them one at a time
Go to your profile, scroll to the post and click the audience selector next to its date or time. Pick Public, Friends or Only me. Only that post changes, and your next post goes back to your default audience — set that in Settings → Audience and visibility → Posts → Who can see your future posts?
Questions
01Do stories and reels follow Limit past posts?
Stories and reels have an audience you choose separately from posts.
02Does it change posts other people tagged me in?
No. The person who posted controls that post’s audience.
03What does Only me mean for an old post?
Only you can see it. It appears in your Feed but not in your friends’ feeds.
04Does it change my future posts?
No. Limit past posts doesn’t change future posts. They use your default audience unless you choose another for a post: Settings → Audience and visibility → Posts → Who can see your future posts?
05Can a friend share my Friends-only post with the public?
Not a photo, video or status. Only people who could see it originally can see it when someone clicks Share. A link you posted can be shared more widely.
06Can I stop the friends of people I tag from seeing a post?
Yes. In the audience selector choose Custom and untick Friends of those tagged. With Only me, tagging doesn’t widen the audience at all.
Continue with your account
Sources for this guide
Facts on this page come from the Facebook Help pages listed here, checked on 4 November 2026.