How to Make Your Facebook Friends List Private

To hide your full Facebook friends list, open Settings & privacy > Settings > Audience and visibility > How people find and contact you > Who can see your friends list? and select Only me. The change applies to your profile everywhere you use Facebook, so you only need to make it once.

This covers the Facebook website on a computer, the Facebook app for iPhone, iPad and Android, and Facebook in a phone browser. Meta moves menus often, so the app and the website may show the same setting in slightly different places. The setting controls the full list on your own personal profile. It does not hide every friendship on Facebook: people may still see mutual friends, and a friend’s public list can show that you are connected.

To limit your posts, photos and stories to friends as well, you can lock your Facebook profile.

Before You Change the Setting

Sign in to the Facebook account that owns the profile you want to change. If you use more than one profile, check the profile name and picture before editing its audience, because each profile has its own setting. You do not need to unfriend anyone to restrict the list, and Facebook does not tell your friends that you changed it.

Decide which audience you want before you start. The table below explains the choices Facebook shows for this setting. Some choices, such as Custom, may appear only on the website or only after you tap See all or More.

Audience	Who can see your full friends list
Public	Anyone on or off Facebook
Friends	Only people you are friends with
Friends except…	Your friends, minus the people you pick
Specific friends	Only the friends you pick
Only me	Nobody but you
Custom	People or friend lists you include, minus anyone you exclude

Only me gives the most privacy. Friends except… is useful when you only want to keep the list from a coworker, an ex or a relative who is also your Facebook friend. The audience applies to the whole list. Facebook has no option in this setting to hide one particular friend from the list while showing the rest.

This audience covers only your friends list. Posts and events have their own settings, such as the audience you pick when you create a Facebook event.

Make Your Friends List Private on a Computer

1. Open Facebook in your browser and click your profile picture at the top right. A menu opens with your profile name at the top.
2. Select Settings & privacy, then Settings. The Settings page opens with a list of sections on the left.
3. Find Audience and visibility and select How people find and contact you. You see several audience controls, including friend requests and your friends list.
4. Open Who can see your friends list? to display its audience choices.
5. Select Only me, or another audience from the table above. If Facebook shows a Save or Done button, click it.
6. Close the setting, then reopen it. Check that Only me is still the selected audience.

Meta’s friends-list privacy instructions describe this route and its limits. The old pencil and Manage buttons on the Friends tab of your profile no longer control this setting, so use Settings instead.

Change the Audience in the iPhone, iPad or Android App

1. Open the Facebook app and tap Menu. On iPhone and iPad it is usually at the bottom right; on Android it is at the top right. It shows three lines or your profile picture.
2. Scroll down and tap Settings & privacy, then Settings. In some versions you tap a gear icon at the top of the menu instead.
3. Under Audience and visibility, tap How people find and contact you.

4. Tap Who can see your friends list? and select Only me. If you see Save, tap it.

5. Go back, then reopen Who can see your friends list? to check that Only me is selected.

If you can’t find the setting in the app, update the app from the App Store or Google Play and look again, or use the computer steps while signed in to the same profile. Because the setting is stored with your profile, a change on one device shows on all of them.

Facebook in a phone browser

If you use Facebook in Safari, Chrome or another mobile browser instead of the app, tap Menu, then Settings & privacy and Settings. The rest of the path is the same as in the app: How people find and contact you > Who can see your friends list?

Another Route: Privacy Checkup

Facebook’s Privacy Checkup walks through common settings in one place, and its sharing topic usually includes your friends list. On a computer, open Settings & privacy and select Privacy Checkup. In the app, open Settings & privacy and tap Privacy Checkup. Choose the topic about who can see what you share, then look for the friends list question and pick Only me. Topic names change from time to time, so use the Settings path above if you don’t see the question. Meta’s privacy settings overview explains where Privacy Checkup and Settings fit together.

Related Settings on the Same Screen

While you are on How people find and contact you, two nearby controls are worth a look:

• Who can send you friend requests? Choose Friends of friends to cut down on requests from strangers. Only people who share at least one mutual friend with you can then send a request. The Pages you follow and your reaction counts have their own controls, covered in this guide to hiding likes and reaction counts on Facebook.
• Who can look you up using the email address you provided? and the matching phone number control. Narrow these if you don’t want people finding your profile from your contact details.

Facebook also has a separate control for the people, Pages and lists you follow. Hiding your friends list does not hide that list. Its location changes between versions, so use the search box at the top of Settings, type “follow,” and set the audience you want.

Can You Hide Mutual Friends on Facebook?

No. Only me doesn’t hide mutual friends. Meta says people may still see mutual friends when they visit your profile. If you and a visitor are both friends with the same person, Facebook can show that shared connection even when your full list is set to Only me.

You also cannot change somebody else’s friends-list audience from your account. Suppose you choose Only me and a friend keeps their list Public. A visitor can still learn about your friendship from that friend’s list. A friendship visible on another profile can also appear in Feed, Search and other places, such as a post where you are tagged together.

So if you still see a mutual friend on someone’s profile, that doesn’t mean your list went back to Public. If a particular connection worries you, ask that friend to restrict their own list too.

Check What the Public Sees With View As

On the desktop website, click your profile picture and then your name. Open Options (the three-dot button) below your name and select View As. Look at the Friends area of the profile, then choose Exit View As in the banner at the top.

View As shows the public view for people you are not friends with. It doesn’t show what a specific friend sees, and it doesn’t show how your friendship appears on someone else’s profile. Meta’s public-profile preview guide explains the feature. For more on what logged-out visitors can open, read about what you can see on Facebook without an account.

View As also can’t tell you who visited, because Facebook doesn’t let you see who views your Facebook profile.

If the Setting Is Missing or Looks Wrong

• No pencil or edit icon on the Friends tab: That control was removed. Open Settings and use How people find and contact you instead.
• No matching control in the app: Make sure you’re on your personal profile, not a Page you manage, then update the app or use the computer steps.
• You still see your own full list: That is expected with Only me. Your signed-in view is not the public view; check with View As.
• Other people can still see a connection: Check whether it is a mutual friend or a friendship shown on another profile. Those are documented limits of this setting.
• Your selected audience did not stick: Reopen the control, choose the audience, tap Save or confirm if asked, and check it again. Closing the dialog without saving can leave the old audience in place.
• The change shows on the computer but not the app: Close and reopen the app, or pull down to refresh your profile. The setting is the same on every device, so the app is showing an older copy.

How to Undo the Change

Return to Who can see your friends list? and pick a wider audience, such as Friends or Public. Save or confirm if asked, then reopen the setting to check the choice. Your friendships are not affected either way.

Frequently Asked Questions