It’s one of the new privacy options on Facebook. What it does is change who can see all of your old posts on your facebook wall. All of the other privacy settings only affect new posts you make.
If your privacy settings were already set to share status updates only with friends, most posts won’t change at all. If you had shared specific posts with a limited set of people, those posts won’t change either. Only if a particular post was set to share with everyone or with friends of friends, will it change at all. Those posts will be changed to be visible only to friends.
Past Posts by Wordle
To make the change, go to Privacy Settings in the Account menu. Scroll down to the heading Limit the Audience for Past Posts, the description is Limit the audience for posts you shared with more than friends. Click on Manage Past Post Visibility, then on the pop-up window, click on the Limit Old Posts button. Another pop-up screen appears with a warning and asks Are You Sure You Want to Proceed? Click on the Confirm button and a new pop-up window confirms that the audience has been changed.
You can still go back and change individual posts to show to everyone – except now everyone is called public.
Related articles
- Do I need to change my Facebook settings again? (debsanswers.wordpress.com)
- New Facebook Privacy (web2learning.net)
- Facebook Privacy Settings Now Simpler And Follow You (femaleimagination.wordpress.com)
- Facebook’s New (New) Privacy Controls (gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com)
Deb's Answers 
Did this post answer your questions? Since I’m getting a lot of hits on this post, most from searches, I just thought I would mention that you can ask me any facebook questions in comments or by email at debsanswers@gmail.com
I didn’t like “Limit the Audience for Past Posts”..
hi deb i pressed this option because i wanted everything private now i cant see my statue’s or photo’s or anything?
This doesn’t change what you or your friends see. Maybe you just need to log off and sign back in.
A question: when I limit past posts, it only works for past posts. Every new post I make is visible to the public. So I need to limit my posts again. And then I post something which is visible, and then I have to limit my posts again. etc. I want all my old and all my NEW posts to be limited. How can I make the “limited visibility” permanent?
Go to privacy settings and edit who can see my future posts under who can see my stuff.
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Hi Deb, Is it possible to _choose_ the privacy level?
Will I be able to select who gets access to all my old posts (selecting one from a bunch of my lists)?
I don’t want to simply limit all previous activity to be visible to just friends. I want to limit it to a particular “list” (such as “close friends”).
No, the retroactive option only uses friends, but it won’t change any posts that were already restricted to a particular list. Did you previously have your privacy settings set to everyone?
I believe it’s always been ‘friends’ or ‘friends of friends’, but I’d like to filter posts further.
Filtering to several hundred doesn’t really feel like ‘filtering’. What’s the point of providing lists if they can be used for multiple posts?
You can use the lists for all posts in the future. It’s only the retroactive changing of all past posts that is limited to friends. You can change posts one at a time to a single list or even delete them. This option was designed for people who previously used no privacy settings and now wished they had.
i have done that but i want to change these settings.. please help me out in this matter i want my old settings back and i am unable to do that.
You can’t change the settings on all old posts after limiting past posts to friends. The confirmation pop-up screen clearly states that. You can change your current privacy settings for new posts and updates, but for old posts you would have to change each one individually.
What were your old settings and why do you want them back?
I’m able to limit all past posts. I wanted to change few of the post to public. I’m only able to change it for my post. I can’t do for the post where I’m tagged in. Previously it was public, now after limiting audience for past posts, It is changed to friends. I saw the popup and thought I can change it later, But didn’t imagine this limitation. Is there any way to change it public for post shared by other?? I badly needed this..
Nice piece of info! May I reference part of this on my blog if I post a backlink to this webpage? Thx.
Sorry, WordPress thought this was spam and I tried to email you and it bounced. What’s your blog about? Can you give me a link?
I’d like to stay friends with my husband’s family to keep peace, but I don’t want them to see my wall. There was a way to do this previously, but now I’m not sure how to accomplish this. Can you help? Thanks!
The easiest way now is to put them on the Restricted list. See this post on friends lists: https://debsanswers.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/what-are-facebook-friend-lists/
They will still see any posts you leave as public, but nothing that is marked only friends.
How can I avoid “friends of friends” seeing posts new and old of mine?
Don’t write on a friend’s wall. You have more control of what is on your own wall. Limiting the audience of past posts sets everything already posted to friends only. Whenever you make a new post set the audience selector (just to the left of the post button) to friends or to a specific list or whatever you like. You can also change the audience on any individual post to whatever you want.
How to change??
Do you know how to reverse these changes as I do not mind having old posts show anymore.
They can’t be reversed. You can only change the past posts individually.
How to do it..
I recently installed the Facebook timeline. I can only view posts on the timeline back to May 2011. Anything before that says there is no content. What is making all of those posts unavailable? Is there some privacy setting perhaps that could fix it?
Make sure you have it set to all stories and not highlights. What does it do when you click on each year on the right of the screen? You can also select years from the drop-down menu.
I haven’t installed timeline yet, because Goodreads doesn’t currently post to timeline. I have looked at other profiles that do have timeline installed and haven’t had any issues. Have you tried looking at the activity log?
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i do not want my new friends to see all my old statuses which i had uploaded with a customization of Friends.. ( as in really old ones)
is there a way for that?
thanks for the article:)
No, you would have to change the audience for each post individually to exclude a group of friends.
oh thats bad, anyway, than you deb 🙂
I limited all my past posts, but when I click “view as” there are two photo albums still visible to the public. Why is this, and how do I make them visible to friends only?
Limiting past posts doesn’t affect photo albums. Each album has to be secured individually. Go to each album, click on edit album, then change the privacy to friends or to whatever audience you want to allow to see those pictures.
That’s the weird thing. The albums are set to “friends only” so I don’t know why they are showing up in my timeline for people I am not friends with.
I like facebook but i have problems in how to upload more than one photo at a go and in private settings which to be simplied. my phone is a TECNO T8
I used this option and shortly after it made it to where no one can see any of my posts unless they or their friends are tagged. Help? I want all my friends to be able to see my status updates and they can’t. How do I fix this?
Make sure you didn’t accidentally add those friends to your restricted list. Friends on your Restricted friends list can only see your public posts.
How do you make new screened and approved tagged photos visible without all old tagged photos visible? Also when another friend checks you in how do you get that “check in” to show up without making all past photo tags visible? Another words going forward I dont’ want others to see my past photos I was tagged in but going forward I would like to have photos tagged approved and reviewed show up on my wall.
You can’t. You can remove old tags, one at a time, but that only removes your name from the picture and the picture from your profile. The picture still remains on your friend’s profile.
Facebook doesn’t offer that option.
Thank you for this post. So if I do NOT tell facebook to “Limit the Audience for Past Posts” and I basically do nothing… then all of my old presets will be retained? (I had most of my posts to “Friends Only” … with a few people in a limited profile list whom I didn’t know very well. If I do nothing… then all of my old posts will still be viewable to all of my friends, except the limited profile group I used?
Yes everything will stay the same. You can also test it. On the new timeline, click on the little arrow beside activity log and select view as. This will show you what is shown to the public and you can enter any friend’s name in the box at the top of the page to see which of your posts and pictures that particular friend can see.
Okay, thanks so much!!
You’re welcome! Thanks for reading and commenting.
How far back does the “past” in “past posts” go? An hour? A day? A month? I am inclined to limit past posts, but I want to know how far back this limitation extends.
Back to when you joined Facebook. It limits all past posts to friends only.
…but when does Facebook consider something to be “past”? Once it’s a few days old? A week? A month? I can’t seem to find this information anywhere… or does it just apply it to everything you’ve posted up to the point of setting this limit, even if it was only a second ago?
Yes, everything you’ve posted. The idea is that if you change your default settings to friends only, your new posts would be restricted to friends only, but things you posted before making the change would still be public. That’s why they created this option, to change past posts to friends only. It only changes posts that were previously public.
1). Why is it that when I like or comment on a persons status/pic, everyone can see? Is there anyway that it can be fixed so everyone cant see the comments/pics I like or comment on? Also 2). Is there anyway I can make my photo albums only visible to myself?? To where not even anyone on my friends list can see? I didn’t see an option for it!
Only things on your own wall are under your control. Things on someone else’s wall have to abide by that person’s privacy settings and you have different friends. If you could restrict your comments to friends only on your friend’s status and he replied to it, it wouldn’t make sense to his friends that could see his response and not your comment.
Yes, just choose the option “Only Me”.
HTH
On the new timeline, is there a way to limit how far back in time friends can look on my wall? I don’t mind if friends can see the last year or so on my timeline but I’d prefer that it didn’t go all the way back to when I joined facebook 4 years ago.
No, there’s no way to restrict anything by date.
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Hi,
thanks for the post, but I have a question, thats really wondering me:
I limited the audience for the old posts but now even I can´t see some of my old posts (from last year). Some of them are still there (the ones with comments on them), but others (I guess the ones with just “Likes”) are just gone, as if they’ve been deleted…!
I´m not using the timeline yet, I dont know if it´s gonna change.
Thanks in advance for your answer!
Limiting the past posts doesn’t change what you can see or what your friends can see. It only prevents non-friends from seeing those posts.
I doubt that they are gone, it could just be because you are still using the old display when everything else is on timeline. It’s also easier to find old posts once you switch to timeline.
Thank you for your fast answer! I´m gonna switch to timeline and see what happens.
hey,
this is a really usefull page and thanx in advance for the help..
my question is that when non friend person visits my profile, they can see my wall, as in just the little bits of information like what page i liked, when i changed my profile pic, who did i write to, and stuff like that.. but they cant see my actual wall where my posts are written (which is good).. the rest of the profile privacy is fine.. so i just want non friends to not see my wall info..so they shud see no information on my profile when they visit it, they can just see the profile pic, option to send me mesg and to Add me, thats it. can you help me out here, please..
p.s: It says, “recent activity”.. that is what i was talking about.. i want non friends to not be able to see my recent activity. thanx
Go to Privacy settings (in the home drop-down menu), make sure your default privacy setting is set to friends. You can also make changes in the activity log.
Hi! I have a question. I recently added a friend to my restricted list…last week I posted on her wall and I still haven’t recieved a reply. Is it possible that by adding her to my restricted list, that it has made it impossible for her to see my posts on her wall?
No, your settings don’t affect the settings on any other wall or page.
I can tell on my “Notification” icon that a friend has updated their status, but when i visit their page there are no posts. I used to be able to see all their activity on their timeline, but now i see nothing. their timeline is blank. i still have access to her photos, info, friends list, etc. What happened? Am I blocked, or restricted?
I don’t know. I wouldn’t think you would get a notification if you were blocked or restricted. Occasionally, something like this can happen if they delete a post. There are ways to adjust what shows in your feed, but if you can’t see anything on their timeline, it’s probably on their end. If it’s a good friend, you might want to ask them why you can’t see their posts. It could be they blocked you accidentally or added you to the wrong list or maybe they did delete a bunch of posts.
I have a question about Closed Groups in FB. I administer a Closed Group in FB and now I find out that people who are NOT in the group are somehow seeing everytime I make a comment in that Closed Group…How is this happening if the posts aren’t supposed to be in the New Feed and no one other than members are supposed to see anything on the group page?
Are you sure? How did you find out? I just looked at mine and if you hover over the lock, it says, “Closed group. Anyone can see the group and who’s in it. Only members can see posts.”
hello, i have used this app bt now i want to cancel that “limit old posts” which i have done. is this possible?
No, it’s a one time tool. It can’t be reversed.
Why am I getting the option “You can change the audience for each photo in this album” when I hover over the gear for a album? I use to be able to change the audience for a whole album not do it one by one.
On my own photos, the only place I see that message is on wall photos and profile pictures. Actual albums do have one audience selected for the entire album.
I like very very!
I want to make a comment, that now can see only my friends because I limited the audience of all my older posts, able to be seen by both my friends and the friends of my friends. Can you help me? It’s a comment on a page… Thank you a lot!
No, you can’t control the audience of comments you make on public pages, only things you put on your own wall (or timeline).
Can I ask the page manager to do it for me?
No, you can delete any comments you’ve already made.
Hi i did this by accident and now no one can see any posts or photos i upload unless they are tagged why? All my other settings are set to friends only yet no one can see any of my new posts. I thought this would only effect the old ones not new ones.
Not only does it only effect old posts, it doesn’t prevent your friends from seeing anything.
Well it obviously is because it is the only thing that has changed on my facebook and now none of my friends can see anything when my settings are set to friends??
Sorry, but I don’t agree.
Go to privacy settings and click on edit beside who can see my stuff. Even if it says friends on that page it could be omitting restricted or another list. You can also use the view as link under timeline and tagging settings to see exactly what a particular friend can see.
Hi there,
I was wondering if you can help. How do I prevent a new friend from seeing my old posts without adding them to restricted list? Thanks x
You can’t. There is no way to restrict the audience by date. Your friends can see all of your posts unless they are specifically omitted or in a list that is omitted from the audience of each status when it’s posted. You can only change the audience of old posts one at a time. Except for this one time function that allows you to change old posts from public to friends.
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Oh my goodness! Awesome article dude! Thank you, However I am experiencing difficulties with your RSS. I don’t know why I am unable to subscribe to it. Is there anybody else having similar RSS issues? Anyone that knows the answer will you kindly respond? Thanx!!
Thanks, but I’m not a dude. Do you use Chrome? The RSS button doesn’t work well with chrome, but most chrome users just get an extension that works from the URL box.
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So… I just realized that all of my information is available to the public. My settings have always been very restrictive and I’ve been trying to keep up with the fast security changes. However, the other day when I checked the “View as public” option, it appeared that everyone could see my posts, photos and information, even though everything is set only for “Friends”. I tried to solve the problem with “Limit the Audience…”, but even after I confirmed the option, I checked my profile again and it was the same – everyone could see everything. What’s left for me to do? Thank you!
I don’t know of anything else you can do, but that does seem very strange. I just tested view as public myself and most everything looked as I expected. Not real thrilled that my groups show up.
Ok… I will try again and see if anything has changed. If not, I will have to live with it. Thanks for your quick response!
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You have great answers. Thank you for this. If I limit my old posts and inly my friends can now see old or new then will they be able to share? Can they still share my photos or posts after? Currently, I have only friends and friends of friends can view pics so thats why, I guess, they are able to share. If I limit, will that prevent them from sharing my old?
Hi Deb,
When they say “old posts”, what does that mean? Everything from yesterday on back? They don’t really define “old” here. Ideally, i would activate this process so that new posts, however labeled, stay open for a few months, and THEN automatically and forever go under the restriction.
Thanks ahead; I know it’s an old post, and i can see you’ve already answered a thousand questions on it, so if you never get to mine i won’t be hurt.
Cheers. Have a good weekend.
Yes, old means everything already posted.