How to hide your likes from Facebook timeline – updated



This post is out of date. Please go here to see the latest version of ‘The Ultimate Facebook Likes Guide – as of April 23, 2013’

TIP: Please read the words just above this. Facebook is constantly changing. Please take the link to our more recent post: This is the NOT latest way to hide your likes from your Facebook timeline. We wrote about this a few months ago but Facebook has changed since then. One of my readers pointed out that the old way of hiding your likes doesn’t work now.

TIP: The word ‘like’ here means public pages that you click ‘Like’ on in Facebook or Subscriptions that you’ve chosen. If you click ‘Like’ on some hot guy or girl’s public page, you can hide that from your timeline. Unfortunately, if you click ‘Like’ on one of the photos or videos on that same page, everyone will know about it. You can hide the pages you like but you can’t hide the fact that you ‘liked’ a photo or something else that someone has shared. Get it? The only way to hide your individual photo likes is to ‘unlike’ them. 

Here’s how you can do it as of May 2012:

1. Go to your profile page, as opposed to your HOME page. Click on your own name up on the right side of your screen.

2. Now is a good time to see what your friends can see. Click on the small arrow just to the right of Update Info/Activity Log. Click on the words View As. Your profile will load again but this time you will see these words at the top: ”

This is how your Timeline looks to the public.

Use this tool to see how your Timeline appears to a specific friend or the public. Remember: you can always change who can see any post that appears on your Timeline.”

Just below these words you’ll see a space where you can ‘Enter a friend’s name’. Pick any friend and you’ll be able to see what they can see. If there are things that you want to hide, follow these steps. Oh, keep that page open. When you make changes, hit reload on this page and you’ll see the new, updated settings as your friend sees them. Right click your name and choose ‘open in new tab’. That way you can work on one tab and check your changes in the other.

3. On the new page that you’ve opened up,  on the very top right, click on the down arrow and choose ‘Account Settings’. Once you’re at that page, look for these words on the bottom of the left column: ‘You can also visit your privacy settings or edit your Timeline to control who sees the info there.’

4. Click on the words ‘your Timeline’.

5. An editable version of your profile page will come up next, with your basic info already open. Make sure you are sharing only the things you want to share there, then close it down. Check the settings in the other areas such as Work and Education, Contact Info (do people really need to know your email address?), etc. This is where you can edit your ‘Favorite quotations’ or the ‘About you’ section, as well.

6. On the top left to the right of your name, you’ll see the word ‘About’ followed by a down arrow. This tells you that you are on the “About’ page, the arrow indicates that there is more to edit. Click on the arrow and choose Timeline. This is where we’ll hide our likes from the Facebook Timeline.

7. Once your page reloads, you’ll see your profile page again, this time with places where you can edit what you share and what you don’t. Around the middle of the page, you’ll see the words ‘Activity Log’. Click there.

8. Once you click on ‘Activity Log’, all of your current activity is shown. You can sort through these one by one, choosing to share it with some people, none or hide it from your timeline completely. The only thing you can’t stop from being shared is your ‘likes’ on photos or videos, individual items in other words. All you can do with these is to ‘unlike’ them.

9. Up on the top right, you’ll see the word ‘All’ with a down arrow to the right of it. Clicking on that will make a menu scroll down that contains all of the available activities. Here is what is looks like:

Editing your Timeline
This is where you can edit each thing you want to share.

10. Clicking on each word brings up that set of activities in its own timeline. Here you can hide each one, depending on who you want to share things with. Maybe you want to share some of the pages you like but not others. Here is where you can scroll through them and choose who sees what. Beside each Public Page or Public Figure you’ll see a small circle. Click on that circle and choose either ‘Allowed on Timeline’ or ‘Hidden from Timeline.’ You can also choose to Unlike that page which will, of course, keep it off your Timeline.

11. Sort your way through all of the activities that are presented in the menu shown above. You can hide the fact that you have befriended someone, for instance, or you can actually highlight that fact, for some reason. You can also ‘unlike’ or ‘unfriend’  from this menu. As for Subscriptions, you can hide them also. At some point in the future I will go through all of these choices one by one but, for now, see what’s here and choose what you want to share and what you want to hide.

Thanks for reading!

 

TIP: I’ve just discovered a hidden menu in Facebook. My next post will be about that. If you’re asking yourself, “Why doesn’t Facebook tell me how to hide my likes on my Timeline?”, my next post will give you the answer. Facebook does tell you how to do it. They just hide the link!

 

 

 

 

 

118 thoughts on “How to hide your likes from Facebook timeline – updated”

  1. Hello, sorry if this isnt the right place but I dont understand how to start another topic.

    Just wondering, is there any way to keep what you press “like” on or when you comment on a link or a picture private and not showing up in your friends’ newsfeed? That is, not Liked Pages but just when I press like on a link or picture that comes up on my newsfeed, and or, when I then go in and comment. I have noticed that when my friends have done this it tells me. I think that that is an invasion of privacy – unless of course I want them to know. I would rather do this without my friends seeing it on their newsfeed. Is there anyway of making this private?? Many thanks again Brian.

    1. Unfortunately, there is no way to hide these things. We agree that it’s an invasion of privacy, as do many other Facebook users, but there is nothing we can do about it. This could be one of the reasons why younger Facebook users are leaving in droves. Feel free to ask anything anywhere on our site, we always answer questions and we appreciate any comments.

  2. I was on someones Facebook page (someone I am not friends with) and suddenly the like symbol appeared next to one of the comments in their status. Saying I had liked it. There was no like option, and there is no unlike option. Would the person have got a notification to say I had liked their comment or have I not actually like it? I hope someone can help!

    1. The only time that we have seen something like this is when the user was on Facebook with their iPhone. Now, you didn’t say if you were using the new Facebook look or the old one. On the old one, there is a definite like and unlike setting to anything you can actually like or unlike. On the new look, the Like button always says ‘Like’. It is a hover icon, meaning that you have to hover over it, after you have liked something, to show the Unlike choice. In other words, after you have clicked Like, it turns blue to tell you that you actually liked whatever it was. The word is still there, but it’s blue now, not black. If you are using the old Facebook, you should be able to see the word ‘unlike’ after you have liked something. On the new one, you will only see a blue like.
      We hope that helps a bit but we can’t see how you can like something on a stranger’s Facebook page unless you liked the comment made by one of your friends. That scenario seems possible but we can’t verify this until we find an example. If we do, we will reply to this again.
      Thanks for commenting!

      1. The same thing happened to me. I was on my iPhone and somehow liked a comment on a photo. The photo was made public by the person whose FB account it was. I was neither friends with the FB account owner nor the person who commented on the picture. It was very strange and now I can’t unlike it even if I hover over it. I have deactivated my FB account until I decide what to do b/c it’s embarrassing.

        1. We’re investigating this but it seems to be peculiar to the iPhone app, not other platforms. It seems you cannot even delete your own activity on your own photos. We came across a post on adding shortcuts to Facebook, perhaps in a browser as opposed to the app itself. Maybe you could try that. We’ll do the same and see if it works better. Open another account using a nickname or something like that, then add your friends one by one. Good luck!
          Thanks for commenting!

  3. Well, hm… there’s no archive button on this blog, nor a next or back post button, nor a way to figure out where “the next post is where you tell us the secret hidden menu” so I give up on trying to find it…

    1. We have a search link as well as a monthly archive so we’re not sure what’s missing. When you load our page you get the last post plus the next-most recent posts below it. Secret menu? There isn’t one. What exactly were you looking for?

    2. Hi again Lise. We misread your first comment, very sorry for that. Here is the link to the ‘secret menu’ post: Why Is Facebook Hiding Its Timeline Help Page? We’ve tried many times to put the date on each post automatically but it’s not working with our current theme. From now on, we’ll date each post manually. Again, sorry for the previous response to your comment. If you’re having a problem with Facebook, let us know what it is and we’ll find the answer for you.

      1. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Brian!!!!!
        I’ve tried for two days unsuccessfully and disparately to fined the pages I’ve liked in the past, because by some stupid accident I hide them so that they not only disappeared from my timeline but I also couldn’t find them! Your explanation was very clear and comprehensible! I finally found everything. I still don’t know how I can see them on my timeline, but I do can access and edit them. So again, THANK YOU!
        Dina.

          1. Hello Brian.
            Do you by any chance know how can I see the “Like” button on my timeline, so I’l able to access it from there?
            Thank you, Dina.

          2. We’ve just spent about an hour or two figuring all of this out. Things have changed. Our next post will explain it all, but time commitments will get in the way a bit. We hope to get the post done by tomorrow, April 23, but it might be the 24th. Everything will be explained then. Stay tuned!
            Thanks for commenting, Dina!

          3. Hello Brian.
            Thank you for notifying me!
            Could you pleas tell me where can I see the posts? And I also couldn’t find our correspondence. Do you have an idea where can I find it?

          4. Hello Brian.
            Sorry for the delay. I can’t see the posts, and either our correspondence…

          5. We don’t know what’s happening with this Dina. We can see the whole page, the long list of comments at the bottom and you should have received an email or every one of our responses to your comments. Check your junk mail folder to see if our emails are there. Other than that, here is a link to the new and updated Facebook Like page: The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Likes
            Are you using a computer or a smartphone? If you scroll right down to the bottom of the page, everything is there. Otherwise, make sure you are on this page ( How to Hide Your Likes From Facebook

          6. Hello Brian.
            Thank for being patient. I got all your mails, I just couldn’t see our correspondence under the first post, probably, because I didn’t find the place to write to you and used the “reply” button of one of the posts. But I do see it under the updated post. And I also found the new post. It’s grate! Like the previous one. Everything is very clear and understandable! Thank you for making this stuff simple!

      2. Hello, I have a question about the new Facebook Timeline, if you are still answering questions. How do I change my timeline to display the likes of users who respond to some of my posts? I want them displayed with a thumbs up and when you hover over it you will see who has liked it. I can’t seem to find out how to do it and I’ve seen a few people with their tiimelines like this.

        Thanks.

        1. We’re not 100% sure what you mean here. On the main Facebook page, the one that shows your news feed, everything has the thumbs up icon plus a list, sometimes, of who liked anything that’s posted there. On your own Timeline or that of anyone else, you simply have the word Like and a listing of who has liked any of the posts there. As far as we know, the only pages that actually show the thumbs up (and a comment number and icon), are ‘fan’ pages. These are pages like ours, Computers Made Simple, on Facebook. Personal pages, as far as we know, are totally different. No thumbs up icon, no listing of the number of comments, etc. If you go to one of those pages, up on the top right you’ll see the words ‘Create Page’. You can try it yourself to see what we mean. Start your own page, even if it’s just for fun, then look at it in another browser. You’ll see what you want to see but we don’t think you can do it on your own, personal Timeline.
          Thanks for commenting. (Let us know if this isn’t your question, OK?)

          1. I have a screenshot of what I’m talking about. Do you have an email address that I can send it to? Thanks for your reply.

          2. Thanks for showing us what you meant. If you look at the dates on the posts which have the thumbs up icon, you’ll see that they are from 2012. We looked at the full page on Facebook and the latest post is from July but we’re not sure what year. Assuming that it’s 2013, we think this user started using the new Timeline after that point. The old look had the thumbs up icon, the new one just has the word Like, etc. Any ‘page’, as in our Computers Made Simple page, still has the icon but normal ones don’t. Check out your old posts/status updates/etc. At some point they will have the icon but past a certain date, they won’t. We can’t imagine why Facebook changed this since we think it looks much better. Maybe the thumbs up icon means something completely different in another part of the world, who knows? Hope this helps.

  4. please help. Hid my like pages and would like to get them back. Under (More) it does not even show (Likes). When I hid them, thought it was just from the public and not hiding them from me. Please help me in discovering how to get them back. Thanks

    1. Do you mean that you’ve hidden your ‘page likes’? If you go to your own timeline by clicking on your name, click on Activity Log. Once your log opens up, it will show you month by month what you have liked. On the left side, you will see the word ‘Likes’, it’s just under Photos and above Comments. Click it then click the word MORE. Directly under the word Likes, you will see your Pages and Interests then Posts and Comments. Below that are all of the other old likes such as Music, Games, Books, etc. Clicking on each of those topics brings them up on the right and this will allow you to show or hide things from your Timeline. If this doesn’t help you, please comment again. Thanks!

      1. thanks Brian. That does work, but I am in the same boat. I hid my Likes (pages) from public view, and now I cant see them – unless I do what you just said. What I would like to know though is, is there a way to get them back in that square that gives you a total of likes? That is what used to be there, how do you get that back?

        1. We haven’t written about this recently so we’re not 100% sure what you’re asking. There are three things involved with Facebook’s sections, let’s call them Favorites because Likes are only one part of all of this, even it is divided into different other sections. Basically, you can have some sections showing, meaning they can be seen by you, and others not showing, as in they can’t be seen by you. If a section is shown, let’s say the big group of Likes (which includes Foods, Websites,Athletes,Sports, etc.), then you can let your friends see it or you can hide it from your friends. Phew! Now, we think you want to be able to see some ‘sections’ that you have hidden. For that, go to your own Timeline and click on Update Info. On the right side of the first section, it should be ‘About’, look for the icon of a pencil. Click on it. A menu will pop down that reads ‘Edit Sections’ or Update Info. You want Edit Sections. Click that and a list of sections pops down. Check or uncheck these according to your own tastes. Once you click Save at the bottom, the checked sections will be shown on YOUR ‘Update info’ page. As you scroll down that page, you can decide what privacy settings you have for each one. Let us know if you need help with any of those settings. Thanks for commenting. (If we didn’t answer your question, comment again.)

  5. Hello,
    I accidentally liked something on a website, which then showed on my timeline, so i unliked it and it went away. Does it still show on my friends’ news feed that i liked it in the first place??

    Thanks

    1. We hope our reply helps but we can’t see a way to hide that like from your newsfeed at this point in time. Next time, don’t move your mouse when you like something. Like it but don’t move your mouse away. A menu will pop down that will allow you to hide the like from your newsfeed. Try it again and you’ll see what we mean. Like it but don’t move your mouse (cursor). Then choose ‘hide from newsfeed’. Once you do that, hurry back to your activity log and hide that ‘like’ from your Timeline. Does this make sense? Let us know if it doesn’t. We’ll do a full post on this in the near future.
      Thanks for commenting! Why not like our Facebook page and tell your friends about our site? We’d appreciate it.

  6. Hello,

    I have set up a business facebook page. I want to ‘like’ the companies we supply but I don’t want anyone else to see what those likes are. Is there any way to hide this. I have no ‘likes’ box under my cover photograph and the ‘likes’ box isn’t editable…I have been going around and around in circles and would really appreciate some help! Thank you

    1. In a word, no. There is no way to hide page likes on a Facebook business page. We have our own Facebook page, “Computers Made Simple”, and we can’t hide them. We can hide them from our main page, Facebook tells us but here is what they say about it: “This post is now hidden from your timeline.
      It will still appear in search, News Feed and other places on Facebook.”
      Additionally, when we check from another profile, the likes are still there. The only solution for you would be to create a personal profile, even one that only ‘likes’ your business partners. That way, you can keep up on what they’re doing but no one will know. The main problem would be if you want those companies to know that you like their Facebook pages but you can’t do that without ALL of your customers knowing about it.
      Thanks for commenting!

  7. If i like one of my friends(say jack) pictures on facebook,then all my other friends come to know about it although they are not friends with jack. i dont understand well but i guess it shows in their news feed…..can you suggest me a way such that if i like or comment on somebody’s picture my other friends dont get to know it????
    how do i delete my likes and somments from my activity log(and im not talking about liking pages here, its about liking a particular picture or status)
    I would be extremely thankful if u please help me out…..

    1. Hi Rose. You can’t hide a like on a photo that is controlled by someone else’s privacy settings. Once you like someone’s photo, there is nothing you can do to hide it except ‘unlike’ it. You can’t keep it off of your timeline or your activity log. Once you like a photo, everyone who can see that photo will know that you liked it. There’s no way around this except to unlike it. Sorry! You can create a new, separate profile and add Jack as a friend. Then you can like his photo and none of your friends will know it is you, something like that.
      Thanks for commenting and we’re sorry that your problem has no real solution.

  8. Thank you! That’s odd, all the Like boxes are the same for all users 🙂 (for example when they like 2 pages in a month) And if you had described how to get rid of it, please let me know. I’ve tried everything, but can’t find the Edit button or any other option to enable it.

    1. We get the feeling that there is more to this than you’re saying, quite frankly. At first, you asked about hiding the monthly likes, that you wanted to keep the Like box. Now you’re saying that the Like boxes are all the same. Yes they are, we know that, but no one that we have seen has a monthly Like box. If you don’t have any Likes, the box doesn’t show up. If you do not like anything in a month, nothing shows up. The only way you can get a monthly read out of a person’s likes is to click on the main Like box and scroll down, month by month. If you show your Like box, which you said you wanted to do, then you will always have a monthly list of things that you Like, except those things that you want to hide.
      Basically, hide the likes that you want to hide, keep the ones you don’t care about. As an aside, the page you linked in two last comments is from September 2011. Things have changed in the 16 months since then. The list of years, for example, is not on the right in the photo on the link. There simply isn’t a monthly Like box on any profile that we’ve seen, nor is there in the photo on the link you sent.
      Good luck!

  9. Thank you! The Likes box looks a bit like this (link removed).
    I couldn’t find a better image elsewhere. If you have any idea on how to remove it, please let me know as soon as possible. It’d be greatly appreciated. I’ve tried contacting Facebook, but had no luck.
    And congrats again for the site!! It’s awesome!

    1. Thanks for the link but we cannot find anything on any profile that looks like that. We have friends from all over the world on different profiles, none of them have anything like the photo in the link. Everyone has the Like box but we’ve already described many times how to get rid of it and/or the things inside of it. No one, not one person, has the month on their Timeline as illustrated in the link. Sorry!

  10. Thank you! I’ll try. But the box is below the Favorites box. I’ve tried looking for the edit button everywhere, but I can’t seem to find it.

  11. I think I understand. Before they used to show the Likes individually, and now it shows Monthly. I’d still like my Likes to be shown individually, not in this stupid Monthly box 🙂 The same goes for Places. Any way around this?

    1. Any of the boxes in the Favorite section, just under your cover photo, can be hidden except for two. You cannot hide the Photo box or the Friends box. While you can hide your friend list, you can’t hide any mutual friends that you have with someone who looks at your profile. All other boxes there can be hidden. (Choose ‘Remove from Favorites’ when all of the favorite boxes are showing. That means click the little arrow on the right of the boxes which will reveal every box there. Then you can hover your mouse up on the top right of each box, except for Friends and Photos, and made your choice there.)
      Any of the other boxes below the Favorites can be edited or hidden by hovering your mouse up on the top right. This will reveal the edit icon which will let you hide it.
      Hopefully this will work for you. If not, we’ll send you a link to our generic profile which will allow us to see your Timeline and, hopefully, fix things up for you. Once we see the box, we’ll know better how to hide it. It seems every account we have checked is just a bit different.
      Let us know, OK?

  12. First of all, congratulations for the site and for your time helping others! There’s 1 box of (monthly) I believe, that shows all my Likes for the month. I’ve tried to look for a link everywhere, and I mean everywhere ro hide it. I’d still like my Likes to show, but not on the Monthly Likes box. That I’d like it hidden! I believe they do the same for other apps, such as Places. Please help.

    1. Thanks for your kind words! If you like a page, you can either hide all page likes or have all page likes shown in your like box. As far as recent activity goes, the action of liking a page is different from that like showing up in the likes box. Hopefully you can follow that. In other words, the action of liking something is an activity. The like itself is part of your group of likes.
      OK, here’s what you can try. As soon as you like a page, and this only works for Facebook pages that you like, head over to your Timeline, click on Activity Log, look for Likes on the left side then find the like you want to hide on the right. There is a faint pencil icon there, click it and choose ‘Hidden from Timeline’. Make sense? Let us know if this doesn’t work.
      There are ‘Hidden Activities’ as well. For just about anything you do on Facebook, look at the notification on your Timeline. Hover your mouse on the right side of that notification and an ‘x’ will appear. Click it and you’ll see a setting that will hide all such activity from your Timeline. It’s up to you to decide what you want to hide. Friending, for instance, is something that no one else has to know about, in our opinion. Once you hide something, check your Timeline again and hover on the same area. If the action is a Hidden Activity, it will show up on the list that’s there.
      Thanks for commenting and let us know what happens.

  13. Hi,
    Is there a way to hide when you have liked pages down the bottom of the favourites part of your timeline without actually hiding your likes all together. E.g. I’ve liked a TV show’s page, i click ‘Hide from timeline’ but it still shows up in the bit below showing what time i liked it etc and the only way to hide that is to make all of my likes seen only by me which i’d prefer not to do.
    Thanks

    1. If you read our latest post here: Hiding Likes on Facebook – It’s Back! , we explain this very scenario. In short, no, you can’t hide some Likes (we call them Page Likes), while showing others. The Timeline thing you mention is the action of liking the page. The actual ‘Like’ is a separate thing. Your Timeline shows your actions AND other information about you, all of which can be hidden or shown separately. We hope this makes sense. Let us know if it doesn’t.
      Thanks for commenting!

  14. It has changed since then but yes, you can control who can see your timeline information inline as you edit your timeline. To hide the Pages you like:
    Go to your timeline and click on the Likes view under your cover photo. You may need to expand the list of views and apps if you don’t see it in the top four.
    Click Edit in the upper-right corner.
    Then to the little icon next to each section.
    🙂

    1. Thanks Jessica! Your suggestion is perfect and works just as you said it would. We’ll do a post on this tomorrow. Excellent! Thanks for commenting.

  15. Hi,

    Please can you help? I really need to know how to hide the Likes panel on our business page – are you able to give instructions please? This is so no other companies can check out our clients! Thanks

    1. We’re not sure what you mean. On our Facebook page, we can’t even see who likes our own page. When we check other pages, such as Mashable or Naked Security, we can’t see any of the names or profiles of users who liked their page. We can, of course, see the names of users who comment but that’s it. Unless we’re missing something, there is no way that a competing company can steal users from you. Let us know if this isn’t the answer you wanted, OK?

      Thanks for commenting!

    1. Agreed. It is complicated and that’s why we try to help. Thanks for commenting! (We edited your comment somewhat but we do appreciate your point of view.)

  16. Hi, I was just wondering if there’s a way to hide all my likes at once, instead of hitting “hide” every time. I got through all the steps, but I have a lot of likes, so it would take me forever to go through them to hide them all individually.
    Thanks!

    1. You can hide your likes/favorites as a group by hiding the subject as in Music,Movies,Television, etc. You can hide all of your pages, too. The only two boxes that you can’t hide are Mutual Friends and Photos. Is that the kind of thing you mean? We describe all of this here: http://brianmahoney.ca/2012/08/facebook-likes-the-ultimate-guide-part-four/
      You cannot hide individual likes inside one box or topic. If you don’t hide your Music likes, for instance, you cannot hide any of the musicians that you like. You have to ‘unlike’ them to get rid of them.
      Let us know if this doesn’t answer your question. Let us know specifically what likes you mean.
      Thanks for commenting!

  17. My mistake – sorry, it does allow an option: “Unlike” and that’s all. No option to “Hide from Timeline”

    1. Hi! You can’t hide a like if what you like isn’t a page. In other words, let’s say you like a friend’s photo or comment. That part of Facebook isn’t under your control. Your friend controls who sees the photo. If you like it, you can only unlike it, you can’t hide the fact that you like it. You can hide things that you like, as in music,books,movies, etc. and any page that you like or person/company that you subscribe to. Unfortunately, you can’t hide it when you like something that someone else has posted. Let us know if that isn’t explained well.
      Thanks for commenting!

  18. Hi Brian.
    I’m experiencing the same problem as Amanda – Amanda
    May 24, 2012 at 7:37 am

    I got to the point where I’d be able to hide the liked pages… but the icons when I roll over them (or click) just show their current settings (“Public”, and “Allowed on Timeline”) — There’s no option for me to change it.

    Any thoughts?

    1. OK, back again for another go at this. You’ve got two things going on here in two different places on Facebook. First, you are trying to access your page likes from your activity log. From there, you can only hide a page you like by ‘unliking’ it. However, if you edit your timeline, you can hide all of your page likes. Unfortunately, you can’t hide just one. You hide them all or none. Here is our post that describes how to do this: http://brianmahoney.ca/2012/08/facebook-likes-the-ultimate-guide-part-four/

      The amount of editing you can do from your activity log is limited. Better to follow our guide above to hide all of the pages that you like.

      Lastly, when you like a Facebook page, there is a setting when you actually perform the like that hides it from your timeline/newsfeed. This gets a bit confusing but if you have ALL of your page likes hidden then no one sees them. If you simply want to hide the news that you liked the page, go back to the page, hover over the Like button (which should be checked) and uncheck ‘Show in newsfeed’. This whole thing deserves more clarification and we’ll do just that next week.
      Again, thanks for commenting!

  19. I saw this posted on one of my friend’s FB wall. I don’t know if it could be some sort of solution to everyone seeing what you comment on and like.

    “To all my FB friends, may I request you to please do something for me: I want to stay PRIVATELY connected with you. However, with the recent changes in FB, the public can now see activities in any wall. This happens when our friend hits “like” or “comment”, automatically, their friends would see our posts too. Unfortunately, we cannot change this setting by ourselves because Facebook has configured it this way. So I need your help. Only you can do this for me. PLEASE place your mouse over my name above (do not click), a window will appear, now move the mouse on “FRIENDS” (also without clicking), then down to “Settings”, click here and a list will appear. REMOVE the CHECK on “COMMENTS & LIKE” by clicking on it. By doing this, my activity amongst my friends and my family will no longer become public. Many thanks! Paste this on your wall so your contacts would follow suit too, that is, if you care about your privacy.”

    1. While that process would seem to make sense, all it does is stop you from seeing that person’s comments. It works the same was as we described in our post on Fewer Facebook Updates. By unchecking ‘comments’, you wouldn’t see that person’s comments, for sure, neither the good ones or the bad ones. You wouldn’t see ANY comments by that person when they are made but, of course, you would still be able to read them on the posts where they made the comments, if you have access to that material. You just wouldn’t get the comment on your newsfeed or updates. The comment would still be visible to you and everyone else, you just wouldn’t be notified of it. We hope this makes sense. Let us know if you have a problem.
      Thanks for commenting!

  20. regarding hiding comments on links, the only option it gave me under Activity Log-All-Comments was to delete the comment altogether, which was not what I wanted.
    assuming I was hiding the comment when I hovered over “Allowed on Timeline”, like I said, it only allowed me to delete the activity.

    I’m on a mac using firefox, but surely that can’t be the explanation?

    1. No, the Facebook interface for Macs and PCs is the same. You can’t hide the comment because you commented on something that someone else posted. Their privacy settings take precedence. They can allow your comment or hide it but you can’t. You can only hide things that you post or actions that you take on your own material. Once you comment or like anything that isn’t yours, it’s open to whoever can see the source material. There is no private button on Facebook, unfortunately, but you can try messaging the person or use the chat app on the right. Whoever you message, however, can always decide to post your message if they feel like doing it. We’ve seen that before several times. Hope this helps!
      Thanks for commenting!

  21. I find it incredibly annoying how UNintuitive Facebook’s new account and privacy are. Somewhat off topic, but another example is creating a business page: you have to click the “Create a page” link at the bottom, but since FB automatically loads more content when you scroll down, it’s nearly impossible to FIND that link in order to click it. Seems like a pretty sophomoric mistake to me.

    1. If you sign out of Facebook, you can easily click on the ‘Create a Page’ link that is on the sign-up page.
      Thanks for commenting. (Oh, nice try.)

  22. This is great info. However when I got to Step 9 I couldn’t find an “ALL” button to complete the task! I want to hide my LIKES and my PLACES from my timeline. I also would love to hide my FRIENDS from my timeline as well – anyway to do that? thanks

    1. The instructions still work for us. You’re in Canada so they should be exactly the same for you. Run through them again and make sure that you are scrolled up to the top of the page. The ‘All’ button is there, for sure. This will allow you to hide your friend list from everyone. It will work, for sure.
      Now, places is a bit more difficult. You can’t do much if your friends have put you in different places but you can stop Places from showing where you are. Just don’t enter a place when you post something. Sure, Facebook will ask you what location you’re in but don’t tell them. Alternatively, if you post from your smart phone, turn off location notification on it. That way your true location will be hidden. Each phone is different, you’ll have to find out how to do it on your own. Any tablet or phone you use that has GPS has a setting that will turn locations off. We’re guessing that you post from a phone and your location shows up. Change the settings and that will not happen.
      Thanks for posting and let us know if this didn’t help. We’ll contact you personally in that case.

      1. Hi there – thanks so much for your reply. I tried again – and get to Step 8 fine, with the activity log.
        up on the top right at that point all that exists is my thumbnail photo, my name , the word Home and a Down arrow.
        Can’t figure out where to find the ALL button so that I can access that Menu drop down that you illustrate in Step 9.
        Thanks~
        -Jan

        1. OK, here’s another way to hide your friend list. From any Facebook page, just make sure you are logged in to your account, click on the down arrow near the word Home and choose Account settings. Then, click on ‘your Timeline’ in the little blurb on the left that says: You can also visit your privacy settings or edit your Timeline to control who sees the info there. On the page that comes up, first close down your Basic info which is open by default (click cancel), then click the down arrow up on the top left, just to the right of the word About. A page full of your friends will come up next. Up on the middle right, you will see the word Edit with the icon of a pen or pencil in the box. Click Edit and you will be able to lock down your full friend list. Please note that you WON’T be able to hide mutual friends from anyone. They will still be visible, OK? Hope this helps!
          Again, thanks for commenting and feel free to comment any time you need help. Follow our Facebook page too, if you want. Here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/ComputersMadeSimple?ref=hl

  23. I’m a little -very- frustrated with the whole facebook fiasco. I have everything in the way of basic information and pictures set up to either ‘Custom,’ or ‘Only Me.’ Whether I’m commenting on a friend’s status (who has set their page to private) what I say still gets blasted all over my page, and people are able to access the status and comment feed of that other person and make remarks themselves. I feel extremely uncomfortable having ‘everything’ out in the open as such. Will this blog post apply to that issue as well, or will 10 trillion people have to blow up Facebook’s ‘Help Center’ inbox just to have something done about it?

    1. Whatever you post on someone’s wall or status or photos, whatever, will be under the control of their settings. There’s nothing you can do about that. Anything that someone posts on your wall (timeline) can be hidden, either before they post it or after they post it. You can hide it from your timeline after they post or set your privacy settings to ‘only me’ as far as others posting on your timeline. So, you can hide things from your timeline but you don’t have control on what other people see when you comment/like/etc. on someone else’s stuff. Let us know if you need more help with this.
      Thanks for commenting!

  24. I’ve tried this and sadly, it did not work. I go to view as a friend and it comes up in a big box on my page. Even after deleting the box next to my info, hiding each like…. VERY frustrating!

    1. The best way to check your own settings is to create a new profile, add yourself as a friend (we mean your real Facebook profile), then open the new profile in another browser. That way you can check to see what affect your changes have. Using the ‘view as’ tool is not as accurate as viewing your main profile on another profile in a second browser. Hope that makes sense. Remember that hiding something from your timeline does NOT mean that it’s hidden from your profile. If it’s not on your timeline, it may still be in your ‘like’ box when someone checks that. It just won’t be in your newsfeed.
      Thanks for commenting!

  25. Hi Brian.. firstly, iv never read one of your posts before, but im impressed.. something that is actually clear and makes sense.. unless iv missed the link, is there a way to get rid of Timeline (and go back to the ‘old’ look) and i guess there still hasnt been a ‘breakthrough’ in how to hide photo likes (other than to ‘unlike’ them). again, thanks for the post.

    1. Thanks for your nice comments! No, there isn’t any way to get rid of the timeline, unfortunately. It’s all tied in with Facebook’s attempts to monetize themselves. Ditto with the photo likes and comments. It’s all open unless it’s your own material.

      Thanks for commenting!

      1. I’m not sure if my last comment came through. I tried to hide ‘likes’ in recent activity, deleted the like box on the right hand side next to ‘about’, I have ‘hidden’ each like from my timeline. STILL it comes up in a big box on my Timeline when I view as someone else. It is really frustrating because I don’t want everyone to see the things I like. Not that they’re bad, I just value my privacy.

        1. The activity may be hidden on your Timeline but the actual ‘like’ box is not hidden. In other words, the action of liking something is hidden but if your Likes aren’t hidden, they will still show up in the Like box. We’ve explained how to hide all of your likes, or some, but if you need more info, let us know. Hiding something from your Timeline is only part of the secret. You have to hide your ‘likes’ as well.
          Thanks for commenting!

  26. I followed the instructions…on the activity page, it shows that the items I want is hidden from timeline, but when I go back to “view as”, they’re still there…even after refreshing the page, and after logging off, then back on (and, using “view as”).

    1. What is it that you want to hide? You can hide everything you do except comments on other people’s photos or links, etc. Anything that is about you or actually posted by you can be hidden. You could try to clear your cache or open your page in another browser or, better yet, open another Facebook account, add yourself and play around with your settings while switching back and forth between the two. Tell us what you want to hide, do it privately if you want. If you tell us it’s private we won’t answer you here, only in an email. You could also c/p the url of your Facebook profile here so we can help you figure it out.
      While you’re at it, how about liking our Facebook page? Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/ComputersMadeSimple?ref=hl

      Thanks for commenting!

  27. I would just like to know how to fully remove the friends, photos, and likes icons in the right side of m timeline? I already have them in small boxes beside my personal information, thus, why does it need to have big pictures of my likes, maps, photos, friends, causing distractions in my timeline. I understand how to hide individual actions, but I want to remove the actual menu. Help please! 🙂 thanks!

    1. The quick answer would be to not use your Timeline when you are on Facebook. Use the standard Home page, the one that looks like your old Facebook profile. If you still want to use your Timeline when you are on Facebook, hover your cursor over the boxes that you don’t want to show and choose ‘Remove from favorites’. That works for everything except friends and photos. You can’t change the whole menu, if that’s what you want to do. It has to look the way it looks, empty boxes or full boxes. Hope this helps!
      Thanks for commenting.

  28. Hi there, why is it that i cannot get to see my daily activities on my timeline?Like when i post to a friend, or when i like someone’s status, or comment on a photo etc..Its in my activity log as ‘allowed on timeline’ but I cannot change it to ‘show on timeline’. I can delete it only, or unlike it. So the story is never shown in the ‘activity recent’ section. Any ideas?

    1. It’s the same thing on our accounts. Things that are in our own activity log are not in our ‘Recent Activity’. This begs the question,”What is the Recent Activity box for anyway?” If you can see your own activities in your activity log (which no one else can see) and your friends can see whatever activity you have allowed on your timeline, what’s the use of recent activity? Maybe that part of the timeline is on its way out. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to have it there.
      Thanks for commenting!

  29. Thank you for the nice post and comments, it helps me a lot to learn. but still I do not understand why facebook do not allow you to hide likes or comment from your timeline its really annoying…

    1. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to us either. Facebook would be more wide open if they allowed you to hide comments. It would be busier, too. It wouldn’t be difficult to allow people to hide things, not at all. On the Chinese version of Facebook, renren.com, you can comment privately. It’s wonderful! Thanks for commenting.

  30. It shows nothing as hidden, just blank- it was a great idea though! And when I hover over Activity and press Hidden Activity it also says I have not hidden anything. I guess the monthly Like box doesn’t count like hiding individual posts or pages etc. I can’t hover over my June box to try out your second idea cause it’s the one I’ve lost 😀 And my top Like box, the one you wrote about today is fine in its place, had no problem with that one. Well, who knows! Thanks so much for your time! If you figure it out, please send me a fb msg because it doesn’t email me when you reply here. Thanks again!

    1. OK, we tried! As a matter of fact, we deleted the June box in one of our accounts and couldn’t get it back either. If we do, I’ll message you. Take care!

  31. I have successfully hidden my “like” activity previously, but now I want that back. I did check Acitivity Log and tried other means also but couldnt find anything that would undo that action.

    It does show up in recent activity in friends’ profiles, but now I’d like to have it back up so that we can get to browse history “likes” later… Is there a way to get to show the “likes” back up on the profile again?

    1. That’s a good question but we don’t have an answer for you. On one of our accounts we’ve got the same problem. All Likes used to part of the Hidden Activity option on the Timeline. We removed the x beside Likes, theoretically making them visible again, but they never came back to the Timeline. You can see if this video helps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd-iDuL3Jcw but it didn’t work for us. As you’ll see in the video, the first time they tried it didn’t work for them either. If we find a way to get the Likes back, we’ll let you know.
      Thanks for commenting.

    2. Second reply, ignore the first. This is how you do it:
      Go to your Timeline. Just to the right of your list of boxes, things like Friends, Photos, etc. (the list under your page photo/profile photo), you’ll see a small arrow with, maybe, a number beside it. Click the arrow and all of the boxes that can be edited or added pop down. If you have hidden your Likes, click the + sign in one of the empty boxes and you’ll see a list of choices for that box. Likes with the thumbs up should be one of them. As always, you can hide some of those likes from your Timeline but you have to do it immediately after you like something. It will probably show up on the news ticker but might not show up on your friend’s main page feed.
      Hope this helps! Let us know if it doesn’t.

      1. Hi!
        Is there a way to unhide & restore my June Likes box? I can see my 2012 and May Likes on my timeline and everything but is there a way to get that June Like box that I hid back in it’s place?
        I don’t mean the Like under the timeline picture but the one on the actual timeline, where the recent acitivity and everything else is. I can see in the acitivity log that all of these pages are allowed individually, I just can’t get the whole box back.

        Please if you know a way, let me know.
        Thanks a lot!

        1. Hi Kris, I’m not sure what you mean. If you’ve hidden activity in June, perhaps everything you like from now on will be hidden. Facebook ‘remembers’ your last setting and you have to change that setting in order for things to show up again once you like them. Do you see the recent likes etc. in your Activity Log? What’s on the right side of each one? What is the icon? If it’s a padlock then it’s hidden, right? Click on Update Info then on the little down arrow to the right of About (top left beside your name) and choose Timeline. See if your June Likes box shows up there and then see what’s hidden. Hover your cursor on the top right of anything there and you can edit the settings. I hope this helps. Let me know if it does. If not,I’ll work on this and if I get an answer, I will re-visit your question.
          Thanks for commenting.

          1. No, it’s not a padlock in the Activity Log, it is just the little cirle which reads Allowed on timeline, all the pages that I like are allowed on my timeline for all friends and I can see the last page liked in my Recent Activity box.
            What I did though was hover over my individual June Likes Box and press Hide from timeline, like the picture example I sent in your inbox (sorry but I can’t send it from here). I can see all other months Likes boxes and the whole of 2012 box a bit further down but I was just wondering if I can get the June box back. Or at least, I hope that from July onwards whatever pages I will like, will be there in their July Likes box.
            Thanks for your time anyway, whether you can sort this or not! !

          2. Hi Kris, try this: Go to your profile, your timeline in other words. Click on Activity log. On the top right of that log, where all of your June events should be shown, click on the down arrow to the right of All. On that list, near the bottom, should be the word Hidden. Click that to see what you’ve hidden. You can then unhide them. Alternatively, hover up on the right of your own June box and see if the words ‘Hidden Activity’ come up. If they do, unclick the activity to unhide it. Once you do that, you might have to go through and add the June box using the technique that I wrote about today. It’s the latest post and describes how to get your Like box back but you can get any box back using the same technique. Good luck! Keep me updated.

            Brian

  32. I was able to hide my list of likes from the timeline box and they do not show when I view myself as others see me, but when I logged into my husband’s profile they still show! leading me to believe they show to everyone on my friends list as well. I do not need to hide anything from him but I want to hide certain “likes” from my friends list, especially with the time stamp FB uses to announce what time you liked a certain page. Please help! Thank you.

    1. If you like a page, the only thing you can do is to go to your timeline then to your activity log and hide it immediately. Keep a separate tab open and be ready to click on the icon to the right of the activity to hide it from everyone or just the people/person you want. The like will still show up on the ticker but it might or might not show up on the person’s main page, depending on how they have their feed set (Top stories or Most recent). If you are quick enough, it might never show up.
      As always, comments on pics,other comments or notes, shares by others, will always show up, depending on the privacy settings of the person who posted the original. You can’t hide those, no matter what you do. You can only hide page likes and only after you have liked them by hiding it from your activity log.
      I hope that makes sense to you. Let me know if it doesn’t. Thanks for commenting.

    2. Here’s an update on my reply. This link: https://www.facebook.com/help/activitylog is what Facebook has to say about what is shown and what isn’t shown on your Timeline. The link itself is hidden, it flashes for a split second when you are loading your different activities. I’ve described this in one of my posts. Maybe this will give you some additional info.
      I’ve also discovered a way to hide your subscriptions from everyone PLUS how to hide all of your non-mandatory likes completely. Stay tuned.

  33. Will hiding likes from the timeline also prevent them from showing up in other peoples’ news feeds?

    1. If you like a comment or like a photo, no. If you like a web page, yes. Anything to do with photos or comments shows up unless the photos are your own and you set your own privacy settings yourself. Not every photo like shows up, however. If you like ten pics in a row, only the first one or two are shown on the feed. I’ll be doing more experiments in the near future. One of my accounts hasn’t been active enough to have the ticker on the side. I’ll have to get it working in order to check all of this properly.
      Thanks for your comment. Read today’s update in a few hours. You might find it interesting. Seems that Facebook has a glitch regarding its social plugins.

  34. Just so you know, on our computers, we are no longer able to edit the timeline display settings using this method for anything except polls and apps. Likes and comments do not display an option to hide from timeline. You are also unable to click the world icon and change display settings (to change from everyone to friends of friends). Not sure if Facebook decided to remove the option, or if its just a problem with my computer.

    1. Hi Amanda,
      I think you might be using Internet Explorer or a Mac browser. It seems there is a problem with the flash installation. Maybe delete your your flash installation and reboot your computer then reinstall it. If you can, try to use Google Chrome. Facebook works perfectly on Chrome but I have had problems with IE. Lastly, What country are you in? I’m assuming the States but if not, let me know. The reason I ask is that Facebook may be changing things in certain countries, Europe especially, that I will not be aware of. The Timeline settings are still the same for me as they were when I wrote that post. Let me know if any of my tips work for you.
      Thanks for commenting!

      1. Both my likes and my posts are already hidden from Timeline (I previously did this). However, I can’t find the option again to undo these preferences. There is no option to “unhide” likes and posts from my Timeline now. I go to my Timeline -> Likes -> Edit, and there is no “audience filter” option as there is supposed to be.

        I have tried using Google Chrome and reinstalling/ updating Flash, as you’ve suggested. No luck. I’m in the US.

        1. Hello! We’ve hidden our likes also but we can still choose an audience for them, in as much as choosing to show it or not on your timeline. You can’t really choose an audience. You can show a page like on your timeline or not, you can’t select an audience for that like.
          Go to your own timeline, click on Activity log then click on the words “Posts and Apps” up on the top right and choose ‘Likes’ in the menu that pops down. On the page that comes up, you will be able to show or hide all of your likes, depending on whether they are actually your page likes or whether they are your photo likes or comment likes. You can’t hide likes on photos, right? You can only ‘unlike’ the photo. The only time you get to choose an audience on Facebook is for something that you post, whether it be a comment or a photo, a video or a note. You can also choose an audience for anything you share, even if the original poster has made that share public.
          Does this make sense? We hope so. Let us know if you need more help.

          Thanks for commenting!

          1. Under Activity Log -> Posts and Apps -> Likes, all of my likes are set “allowed on timeline.” My posts and posts by others are also all set “allowed on timeline.”

            However, the entire posts section on my Timeline, as viewed by friends, is missing. The entire likes section on my Timeline is also completely missing.

          2. There is no specific ‘Post’ section on your timeline when viewed by others. There are the standard small and big boxes named Activity, Friends, Photos but nothing for Posts. If you have made a post and your friends can’t see it, it’s because your share settings with that post are set so your friend(s) can’t see it. Remember that when you set your post sharing to ‘Custom’, that now becomes your default setting. Anything you share after changing the setting will remain custom.
            As for the Likes box, read our latest post. It tells you how to get the Like box back. http://brianmahoney.ca/2012/11/deleting-posts-from-your-facebook-timeline/
            Basically, expand the little boxes and click on the + sign to add the Like box back. Then you can move it around to be on the top row, if you want.
            Keep in touch and let us know if this doesn’t work.

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