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Hide Postings from Selected People on Facebook

Posted on October 12, 2017 by elfworld

Aren’t there times when you where you are itching to post a scatching status posting about something or someone? But you can’t do it, because you don’t want any persons involved to read your posting.

Luckily Facebook has a function not many people know about that lets you do just that: Post something and then tell what people should not be allowed to read neither the posting itself, or any likes or comments either.

This is how you do it:

Write your posting:

Status posting

 

To the left of the Post button you have a pulldown menu:

Visibility button

 

Click on this button:

Pulldown menu

 

Go to Friends except… and click on it. This screen pops up (I have anonymized people in my list, but you will see your friends’ profile photos, names and workplace):

Friends list

 

In the top of my list I have the two last persons I blocked from seeing a posting. You can see that they are active, because of the red circle behind their names. If I do want them to see this posting, I simply click on the red icon, so that it becomes white:

Uncheck

Now the person in the top of the list will not be included in this exception list.

To choose a person that should not see this new posting, you simply search for their name in the search field:

Search field

 

Type as many letters as needed in the search field until you see the name of the person listed. Then simply click on the circle to the right of their name:

Check name

 

After clicking on it, it will turn red:

Checked

 

If there are other people you want to hide this posting from, simply search for them as well and click on the circle icon behind their names.

When you have found all the names you simply click on the button Save Changes.

However, it can be a good idea to review the list of people you want to block. To do so, click on the little x to the right inside the search field:

Close search

 

Now you can see the list of all the people you have blocked for this posting:

List of blocked people

As you can see I have two people whom I want to block from seeing this posting. The person I removed from the block list is still listed among the others that I’ve chosen, but as we can see the icon behind the name is white, which means he won’t be blocked.

Click Save Changes. You will now return to this screen:

Chosen

 

As you can see on the pulldown button, this posting will now be shown to all friends, except the ones you just chose. You can even see the names of people it should be hidden for it you click on  the pulldown arrow in the button:

Friends except

 

If you change this to Public or Friends, the people you just picked will still see the posting, like everybody else. You choice has to stay on Friends except…

However, the next time you choose Friends except…, all the people you just added to this list will still be listed here. So if you want any of them to see the posting the next time you choose Friends except…, you have to actively remove them from the list.

So that’s how you hide a posting from selected individuals. Neat, eh?

26 thoughts on “Hide Postings from Selected People on Facebook”

  1. Tim says:
    August 22, 2018 at 07:29

    That’s as clear as mud.
    Maybe I’m thick but can you simplify?
    Red=people see the post ?
    White=people see the post?

    Reply
    1. elfworld says:
      August 22, 2018 at 07:36

      Yup! You’ve understood it correctly.

      Reply
    2. Missy says:
      November 7, 2018 at 18:56

      My question too

      Reply
  2. harry says:
    February 5, 2019 at 22:56

    what i would like to know is whether the people i DO share with will see who I did NOT share with or if that is only visible to me

    Reply
    1. elfworld says:
      February 5, 2019 at 23:12

      You are the only one who will see that you have hidden it from selected people.

      Reply
  3. Xiomara says:
    July 22, 2019 at 18:37

    Love it . Explain everything you want to know about blocking a person . Thanks

    Reply
  4. ebyn says:
    July 21, 2020 at 17:36

    This was the most hopeful posting. I literally spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to use the “friends except” because I was unsure what the red circle/white circle with line meant. My mind wanted to believe that the red circle with line meant they were excluded but it is not until that is clicked and it becomes a white circle that they will actually be excluded. Your post was clear and super helpful, thank you. Now I can move on.

    Reply
  5. Ann Jones says:
    September 1, 2020 at 17:27

    If I use the friends except… on my wall it shows a custom icon. Does the custom icon also show in friends newsfeed or does it look as if I am posting to friends icon? Thanks

    Reply
    1. elfworld says:
      September 2, 2020 at 07:15

      They will just see the friends icon, as if everything was normal. Good question, thanks.

      Reply
  6. Jeannie T Orlowski says:
    September 1, 2020 at 22:26

    If I am chatting with a person and it is personal how do I only chat with that person and no one else

    Reply
    1. elfworld says:
      September 2, 2020 at 07:14

      Umm… Messenger?

      Reply
  7. Debbie Aust says:
    October 18, 2020 at 05:08

    Do I have this correct? Make the friends except button appear white and those friends will not see my post unless they visit my facebook page. However, If I want my friend(s) to see my post which appears in the news feed then I click on the button until it turns red.
    Sorry for the redundancy but I need to get this correct and it seems like the reverse should be true.

    Thank you In Advance,
    New to Facebook

    Reply
  8. Debbie Aust says:
    October 18, 2020 at 05:26

    Suggestion to fix this confusion: (1) Friends except = red button with – means that friend(s) doesn’t see your facebook post.
    (2) Friends except = green button with + means that friend(s) does see your facebook post.

    Reply
  9. Krys S. says:
    October 21, 2020 at 04:45

    if you exclude friends from one of your facebook post but tag someone that may have a mutual friend you excluded On your Facebook will that friend see your post on the person’ account that you tagged?

    Reply
    1. elfworld says:
      October 21, 2020 at 07:58

      No, they won’t see it.

      Reply
  10. Alexandra says:
    December 24, 2020 at 10:40

    What does Most Relevant mean on a Facebook Page post, If a Facebook Page has comment ranking turned on, comments with the most likes or replies ranking for their Page, the Page will display comments chronologically by default. Newest to show all comments, with the newest comments first. If comment ranking is turned on for your Page or profile, comments with the most likes or replies as well as comments from friends or verified profiles and Pages will appear at the top by default. If you ve turned off comment ranking for your Page, your Page will display comments chronologically by default.

    Reply
  11. Shae says:
    January 12, 2021 at 18:01

    If I share a post to my timeline and exclude a specific person, can that person see this post if a mutual friend also shares the post on their own timeline?

    Reply
    1. elfworld says:
      January 12, 2021 at 19:22

      No

      Reply
  12. Pamela Iversen says:
    March 2, 2021 at 20:57

    When I open up FRIENDS EXCEPT I only see red squares with a white line going through the middle of the red squares

    NO CIRCULAR RED WITH WHITE LINE ‍♀️
    Why??
    You also refer to some icon behind their name? I only see an icon next to their name. How do I get behind their name? ‍♀️

    Lastly. In the beginning of your explanations you say WHITE means BLOCKED.
    Then in the next explanation you say WHITE means UNBLOCKED.
    I do not understand why the contradiction?

    Regards, Pamela

    Reply
    1. elfworld says:
      March 2, 2021 at 23:35

      No, I say “If I do want them to see this posting, I simply click on the red icon, so that it becomes white.” Which means that if I change from red to white, they will be unblocked. Ie: Red means blocked, white means unblocked.

      However, this description was made with the old FB design. I haven’t tested it with the new design.

      Reply
  13. Pamela Iversen says:
    March 2, 2021 at 23:27

    Where is my question?
    Where is my answer?
    So frustrating!!

    Reply
    1. elfworld says:
      March 2, 2021 at 23:52

      I have to approve all comments, because of huge problems with spam, before the comment is posted. I replied earlier. It seems you misread what I wrote.

      Reply
      1. Pamela Iversen says:
        March 3, 2021 at 02:19

        I just read this answer and the previous answer. Now, I got it.

        Thank you Elfworld

        Reply
  14. trellis massey says:
    September 6, 2021 at 09:25

    When you choose friends, then would a person that was on the friends except be blocked. In other words, do you have to change it each time you post if you don’t want to “friends except” anybody?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    1. elfworld says:
      September 6, 2021 at 09:33

      The next time you do a posting, and that posting is set to be shown to friends (and not the entire world upon which you would see a globe icon and not a people’s icon) you will actively have to remove the ones you added to the “friends except” list, yes. It’s stupid, I know.

      Reply
  15. Cheryl Parton says:
    November 24, 2022 at 17:12

    2 questions…
    1. Why is a friends name no longer showing up when I try to use this option even though it did 3 weeks ago. We are still friends and I can tag everywhere else
    2. How do I make it so my name doesn’t show up if someone else uses this option to search me?
    Thank you

    Reply

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