How to Make Your Facebook Page or Group Private: 2 Methods

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Easy steps to hide your Facebook group or Page from the public

Written by Hannah Dillon

Last Updated: June 17, 2024 Fact Checked

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• Changing the Privacy of a Group
|
• Unpublishing a Facebook Business Page

|Show more |Show less

This wikiHow will teach you how to unpublish your business or organization's Facebook Page so it won't be visible to the public. If you're the administrator of a Facebook Group, you'll also learn how to make your group private. You can always republish your Facebook Page if you decide you'd like it to be visible again, but once you change the privacy of a Facebook Group, the change will be permanent.

Making Your Facebook Page or Group Private

To make your Facebook group private, go to the group's settings. However, once you make a Facebook group private, you can't make it public again. To make your Facebook Page private, you'll need to unpublish it. To do this, go to your Facebook Page's settings, select Access and control and select "Deactivate Page."

Steps

Section 1 of 2:

Changing the Privacy of a Group

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1. 
   1
   Go to https://www.facebook.com/ and log in. You can use any web browser to make a group that you're an admin for private.
2. 
   2
   Click Groups. It's in the panel on the left side of the group's name next to an icon of three avatars.
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3. 
   3
   Click to select your group. If you don't see it listed in the panel on the left, select See More.
4. 
   4
   Click Group Settings. You'll see this with an icon of a gear on the left side of your page.
5. 
   5
   Click

   

   next to "Privacy". This pencil icon is to the right of the "Privacy" text and it indicates what the current privacy is.
6. 
   6
   Click to select "Private" and click Save. Once you click to select "Private," the circle next to it will be filled to indicate that it has been selected.

   • Once you've made a group private, you can't make it public again.
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Section 2 of 2:

Unpublishing a Facebook Business Page

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1. 
   1
   Go to https://www.facebook.com and log in. You can use any web browser to unpublish your business or organization's Facebook Page.

   • Unpublishing your Page will temporarily hide it from the public so you can make edits without your fans seeing.
2. 
   2
   Click Pages. You'll see this in the panel that's on the left side of your browser.

   • If it's a Page you manage often, you might see it listed under "Shortcuts" instead. You can click it there instead and skip the next step.
3. 
   3
   Click to select the Page you want to unpublish. Your Pages are listed under the "Pages You Manage." header.
4. 
   4
   Click Settings. It's in the left-hand sidebar on your screen. When you click Settings, you may have to switch over to your Page before you can edit it at all.
5. 
   5
   Scroll down and click Access and control. This is under the "Your information" heading.
6. 
   6
   Select Deactivate Page. This will temporarily disable your page, but you can reactivate it at any time. None of your Page's content will be deleted.

   • Follow the on-screen instructions to deactivate your Facebook Page. To reactivate your page, click the arrow in the upper-right corner on your Facebook home screen, select Settings & privacy > Settings > Reactivate a Page. Click Reactivate next to the page you want to activate again.
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