Guide: Locking a Facebook Profile: Guide
Facebook has made every effort to provide the utmost privacy to accounts. Three years ago they launched the profile photo guard featureNow they have a successor to the feature – Facebook profile lock. In this post, we will tell you about it how to lock your Facebook profile on Android, iPhone and PC. We will also learn what Facebook (FB) profile lock is and what happens by unlocking the FB profile. Facebook has already had several privacy options. But you had to manually adjust them if you didn’t want people who aren’t your friends to see your messages or information. To prevent that, Facebook has launched a single feature of locking your profile. Let’s see how to lock profile on Facebook. For some people, Facebook profile lock may not be available. If you are one of them, read the reason for it in this post.
What is profile lock on Facebook
Locking a Facebook profile, easy words, limits what users who are not your friends see on your profile. Normally, your public posts, some information in About (subject to privacy settings), cover photos, and profile photos can be viewed by anyone, even if they aren’t on your friends list. But the profile lock changes everything. It puts your Facebook profile under a lock so people who aren’t your friends can only see small versions of your profile and cover photo, and a few elements of the About section of your profile. Such viewers also cannot view or enlarge those photos. Nothing changes for people on your friends list. They will continue to see your information depending on their existing privacy settings.
Note: The profile can be unlocked at any time. Let’s take a detailed look at what happens by locking a Facebook profile.
What does it mean when a Facebook profile is locked?
Let’s look at different things like messages, photos, profile picture, about, etc.
What happens to messages on the timeline
If you lock a Facebook profile, the privacy setting of your previous posts, including photos or albums, will change from Public to Friends. So only the people on your friends list can see them. Other people cannot view such information in your profile. Likewise, you cannot publish public stories. They can be set to Custom or Friends and connections privacy setting. Tip Checking out how to use Stories on Facebook.
Also for new messages and stories, the privacy is automatically saved only as Friends. You can further customize it and also limit it to your particular friends. In others words, you cannot publish to the public when the profile is locked. If you want to, you have to unlock your profile. At the end of the message you can read what will happen when you unlock your profile. However, that does not mean that anything you have posted or commented on in public spaces such as pages, groups, marketplace, etc. will also be hidden. Your messages in such places are still visible. But messages without privacy settings, such as fundraisers, blood donations, etc., become invisible to people who aren’t on your friends list. Note: Locking a profile enables timeline and tag rating for your profile.
What happens to profile and cover photos
With profile lock, people outside of your friends list will see a thumbnail version of your current profile and cover photo. Interestingly, they can’t click or zoom in on it. For photos from the past, such as profile, cover and featured, their privacy is set to Friends. If a user who is not in your friends list tries to click on the cover or profile picture, they will be notified that the person has locked their profile. Note: Your friends can click on your profile picture and zoom in.
What happens to information
Information in your About section, such as city, relationship status, current city, etc., is also affected by locking your profile. Facebook shows up to five public information details to outsiders. If other details also have the public privacy setting, they will only be visible to your friends. Facebook is not making clear which five details will be public. Note: Locking a profile does not affect the settings for how people find and contact you on Facebook (email or phone number).
What happens to friend requests and messages
The Facebook profile lock does not affect your friend request settings. People can still send you friend requests depending on your previous settings. Find out how to change who can send a friend request on Facebook. Likewise, anyone can still message you. The message button is visible on your profile after you lock the profile. Tip Learn the best tips to use Facebook Messenger.
Here’s a snippet from the official Facebook support page that breaks down the aftereffects of locking a profile.
Now that you know what happens by locking your Facebook profile, here is how to Close it.
How to Lock your Facebook profile
Currently, the ability to lock your profile is only available in the Facebook Android app, Facebook Lite for Android, and Facebook’s mobile website – m.facebook.com. The feature is not available in the Facebook iPhone app or the desktop version of Facebook – Facebook.com. The Facebook profile lock is also currently limited to a few countries, such as UK, Bangladesh, India, etc. Therefore, you may not see the Facebook profile lock on some profiles or in some countries. If you desperately want to lock your profile from an iPhone or a computer, open it mobile website from Facebook from your phone’s or the PC’s browser and then lock the profile as shown below. Note: The inability to lock the iPhone or PC’s profile doesn’t mean someone who’s locked their profile looks like those two unlocked. The profiles remain locked.
Lock Facebook profile step by step
There are two methods to lock your Facebook profile from Android mobile apps or the mobile website.
Method 1: Facebook lock your profile
This is the fastest way to lock your profile. Step 1: Open the Facebook mobile app and tap the three-bar icon at the top. Then tap your name.
Step 2: You will be taken to your profile. Tap the three-dot icon.
Step 3: Tap Lock profile. You will get the lock profile screen. Tap Lock your profile.
Note: If you don’t see the lock profile under the three-dot icon, then follow the next method. Your profile will be locked immediately. Go to your profile and you will see that your profile is locked message.
Method 2: Lock Facebook profile from Settings
Step 1: Launch the Facebook app and tap the three-bar icon at the top. Choose Settings from the menu.
Step 2: Scroll down and tap Profile Lock. Then tap Lock your profile on the next screen.
Tip See what else is hidden features you can use on facebook.
View profile as someone else
If you’ve locked your profile, you can invite others to lock their profile or view your profile as someone else to check how your profile looks to people who aren’t on your friends list. To do this, open your profile screen and tap the message Your profile is locked. Tap View to see what it looks like.
How to Unlock Facebook profile and what happens by unlocking
To unlock your Facebook profile, open your Facebook profile screen. Tap the message ‘Your profile has been locked’. On the next screen, tap Unlock.
If you don’t see the message, tap the three-dot icon next to your name on the profile screen and choose Unlock Profile. Tap Unlock on the next screen.
Pro Tip You can also unlock via Settings> Profile lock> Unlock. Now when you unlock your profile, your previous privacy settings (before you locked your profile) will be restored. For example, if a Facebook post was public, it will be public again. Your current full cover and profile picture will be visible to everyone. The ability to publish public messages is also restored. However, any changes to the privacy setting you made to your profile when your profile was locked will remain unaffected by unlocking it.
Protect your profile
Locking your profile is useful feature introduced by Facebook. You can be safe from the prying eyes of stalkers with this featureIf the profile lock is not available for your account, you will need to manually change Facebook’s privacy settings to protect your information. The next up: Facebook offers many ways to disconnect from someone. Find out how features such as unfollow, release and take a break are different from each other using the following link.
Locking a Facebook Profile: Guide: benefits
Faq
Final note
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