If you want your old Facebook posts out of public view, Facebook gives you a one-click option: Limit Past Posts. It is fast and useful, but it is not the same as cleaning up your history. Your friends — including coworkers, old classmates, and anyone you accepted years ago — can still see every one of those posts.
This guide explains exactly what Limit Past Posts does, what it leaves behind, and when deleting old posts is the better choice.
What Does Limit Past Posts Do?
Limit Past Posts changes the audience of old posts on your profile. Any post you shared as Public or Friends of friends becomes Friends. Facebook describes it in choose who can see your previous posts.
Key points:
- It is one-way. There is no button to put everything back. To make a post public again, you edit it individually.
- It changes the audience, not the content. Every post is still there.
- It only covers your own posts. Posts other people shared on your profile, and posts you were tagged in, keep the audience chosen by whoever posted them.
How to Use Limit Past Posts
On Desktop
- Click your profile picture → Settings & privacy → Settings
- Open Privacy (or Audience and visibility → Posts, depending on your version)
- Find Limit who can see past posts and click Limit Past Posts
- Confirm
On the Facebook App
- Tap Menu → Settings & privacy → Settings
- Under Audience and visibility, tap Posts
- Tap Limit who can see past posts, then Limit Past Posts, and confirm
The change applies right away.
What Limit Past Posts Does Not Solve
This is where most people get caught out:
- Your friends still see everything. If your friends list includes your manager, clients, relatives, or people you no longer know, they can still scroll back to 2012.
- Your comments stay visible. A comment you left on a public Page or a friend's public post follows the audience of that post, not yours. Limit Past Posts does not touch it.
- Your likes and reactions stay visible. The same goes for likes on public posts.
- Posts in groups are not affected. In a public group, your posts remain visible to anyone who can see the group.
- Screenshots and shares already made stay out there.
Other Ways to Hide Old Posts
| Option | What it does | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Limit Past Posts | Public and Friends of friends become Friends | A quick shield from strangers |
| Only Me | Hides a single post from everyone but you | A few posts you want to keep privately |
| Archive | Hides posts from your profile but keeps them | Memories you want out of sight |
| Move to Trash | Removes posts, restorable for 30 days | Posts you want gone, with a grace period |
| Bulk delete | Removes posts, comments, and likes by filter | Years of history you want gone for good |
Facebook has no built-in way to switch every post to Only Me at once. On the Facebook app, Manage activity lets you archive or trash several posts at a time, screen by screen.
Limit or Delete? How to Decide
| Your situation | Best option |
|---|---|
| Strangers find old public posts through search | Limit Past Posts |
| You want to keep old posts as memories but not show them | Archive or Only Me |
| Coworkers or family are on your friends list | Delete the posts |
| Old comments on public Pages bother you | Delete the comments |
| You are preparing for a job search or public role | Limit first, then delete |
| You want a fresh start while keeping the account | Delete posts, comments, and likes |
The Best of Both: Limit First, Then Delete
For most people the strongest approach combines both:
The DeleteActivity steps below were verified with version 1.9.0 in September 2026.
- Run Limit Past Posts today. It takes seconds and immediately takes your old posts out of public view.
- Delete old posts by date. With DeleteActivity, select Posts, set a Date Range such as everything before 2020, and click Start Scan and Clean. Profile posts go to Trash, so you can restore anything you want to keep for 30 days.
- Delete old comments. Select Comments and use the same date range — this covers the public comments Limit Past Posts cannot reach.
- Remove old likes. Select Likes to clear reactions on public posts.
For the date-based part, the guide to mass deleting old Facebook posts by year goes into more detail.
FAQ
Does Limit Past Posts delete my posts?
No. It only changes who can see them. Every post stays on your profile for your friends.
Can I undo Limit Past Posts?
Not in one step. You would have to change the audience of each post back individually.
Does Limit Past Posts hide posts from my friends?
No. It changes Public and Friends of friends posts to Friends, so your friends can still see them.
How do I make all my Facebook posts private at once?
Limit Past Posts is the closest built-in option. There is no bulk Only Me setting. If you want posts gone rather than hidden, delete them in bulk with a tool like DeleteActivity.
Does DeleteActivity change post privacy?
No. DeleteActivity deletes posts, comments, and likes. It does not change audiences — use Limit Past Posts for that.
Go Beyond Limiting
DeleteActivity runs locally in your browser — no Facebook password, and your posts, comments, and likes are never uploaded to our servers.
Install DeleteActivity — Free on Chrome Web Store
Related guides: how to delete comments on Facebook, how to unlike all Facebook posts, and how to delete everything on Facebook without deleting your account.