How to Lock Facebook Profile and What Does It Do?

Facebook is keen to provide the highest level of privacy to accounts. Three years ago they launched the profile picture protection feature. Now, they have introduced Facebook profile lock, which is the successor of the feature. In this article, we will tell you how to lock your Facebook profile on Android, iPhone and PC. We will also find out what is Facebook (FB) profile lock and what is it by unlocking FB profile.

Facebook already had several privacy options. However, if you didn’t want non-friends to view any of your posts or information, you had to customize them manually. To avoid this, Facebook has launched a single feature to lock your profile.

Let’s see how to lock profile on Facebook. Facebook profile lock may not be available for some people. If you are one of them, find out why in this article.

What is Profile Lock on Facebook?

In simple words, locking a Facebook profile limits what users who are not your friends see on your profile. Generally, your public posts, certain information in About (depending on privacy settings), cover photos, and profile pictures can be viewed by anyone, even if they are not in your Friends list. But profile lock changes everything.

Facebook puts your profile under a lock where people who aren’t your friends can only see small versions of your profile and cover photo, and a few items of your profile’s About section. Also, such viewers cannot view or enlarge these photos either. Nothing changes for the people on your friend list. They will still see your information, depending on their current privacy settings.

Note: The profile can always be unlocked.

Let’s see in detail what happens by locking a Facebook Profile.

What Does It Mean to Lock a Facebook Profile?

Posts, photos, profile picture, about etc. Let’s check various things.

What Happens to Posts on Timeline?

When you lock a Facebook profile, the privacy setting for your previous posts containing photos or albums changes from Public to Friends. So only people in your friends list can see them. Others cannot see such data in your profile. Similarly, you cannot post public stories. They can be set to Private or Friends and connection privacy setting.

Fly: Learn how to use Stories on Facebook.

Privacy will also be automatically kept as Friends only for new posts and stories. You can customize it further and limit it from certain friends as well.

In other words, you cannot publish to Public while the profile is locked. If you want to do this, you need to unlock your profile. You can find out what happens when you unlock your profile at the end of the article.

But that’s for pages, groups, marketplace, etc. It doesn’t mean that anything you post or comment on public places like Your posts in such places will still appear. But Donation Campaigns, Blood Donations etc. Posts without privacy settings such as

Note: Locking a profile enables Timeline and tag review for your profile.

What Happens to Profile and Cover Photos?

With profile lock, people outside of your friends list will see a miniature version of your current profile and cover image. Interestingly, they won’t be able to click or zoom them. For past pictures such as profile, cover, and featured, they have their privacy set to Friends. If a user who is not in your friends list tries to click on their cover or profile picture, they will be notified that this person has locked their profile.

Note: Your friends will be able to click and zoom your profile picture.

What Happens About Information?

Hometown, relationship status, current city, etc. Like information in the About section is also affected by locking your profile. Facebook will only show up to five general information details to strangers. If other details also have the General privacy setting, they can only be seen by your friends. Facebook did not clarify which five details will be made public.

Note: Locking a profile does not affect the settings for how people find and contact you on Facebook (email or phone number).

What Happens to Friend Requests and Messages?

Facebook profile lock does not affect your friend request settings. People can still send you friend requests, depending on your previous settings. Learn how to change who can send friend requests on Facebook.

Similarly, anyone can still message you. After locking the profile, the Message button will appear on your profile.

Fly: Learn the best tips for using Facebook Messenger.

Here’s a snippet from the official Facebook support page that eliminates the side effects of locking a profile.

Now that you know what happens by locking your Facebook profile, here is how to lock it.

How to Lock Your Facebook Profile?

Currently, the ability to lock your profile is only available in the Facebook Android app, Facebook Lite for Android, and Facebook’s mobile website – m.facebook.com. This feature is not available in the Facebook iPhone app or the desktop version of Facebook – Facebook.com. Facebook profile lock is also currently only available for UK, Bangladesh, India etc. limited to a few countries. For this reason, you may not be able to see Facebook profile lock on some profiles or in some countries.

If you desperately want to lock your profile from iPhone or a computer, open Facebook’s mobile website from your phone or PC browser and then lock the profile as shown below.

Note: Just because you can’t lock the profile from iPhone or PC doesn’t mean someone who locks their profile will appear unlocked on both. Profiles will remain locked.

Lock Facebook Profile Step by Step

There are two methods to lock your Facebook Profile from Android mobile apps or mobile website.

Method 1: Lock Facebook From Your Profile

This is the fastest way to lock your profile.

Stage 1: Open the Facebook mobile app and tap the three-bar icon at the top. Then tap your name.

Step 2: You will be redirected to your profile. Tap the three-dot icon.

Stage 3: Tap on Lock Profile. You will get the lock profile screen. Tap on Lock Your Profile.

Note: If you don’t see the Lock profile under the ellipsis icon, follow the next method.

Your profile will be locked instantly. Go to your profile and you will see the message Your Profile is Locked.

Method 2: Lock Facebook Profile from Settings

Stage 1: Launch the Facebook app and tap the three-bar icon at the top. Select Settings from the menu.

Step 2: Scroll down and tap on Profile Lock. Then tap on Lock your profile on the next screen.

Fly: See other hidden features you can use on Facebook.

View Profile as Someone Else

When you lock your profile, you can invite others to lock their profile or view your profile as someone else to verify how your profile will appear to people who are not in your friends list. To do this, open your profile screen and tap on Your Profile is Locked message. Tap on View as to see how it looks.

How To Unlock Facebook Profile And What Happens By Unlocking It?

To unlock your Facebook profile, open your Facebook profile screen. Tap the ‘Your Profile is Locked’ message. On the next screen, tap on Unlock.

If you don’t see the message, tap the three-dot icon next to your name on the profile screen and select Unlock Profile. Tap Unlock on the next screen.

Pro Tip: You can also unlock it from Settings > Profile Locking > Unlock.

Now when you unlock your profile, your previous privacy settings (before locking your profile) will be restored. For example, if any Facebook post is public, it becomes public again. Your current full size cover and profile picture will be visible to everyone. Also, the ability to publish public posts will be restored. However, any changes to the privacy setting you make on your profile while your profile is locked will not be affected by the unlock.

Protect Your Profile

Locking your profile is a useful feature offered by Facebook. By using this feature, you can protect your followers from prying eyes. If the profile lock is not available for your account, you must manually change the Facebook privacy settings to protect your information.

Next: Facebook offers many ways to disconnect from someone. Find out how features like unfollow, unfriend and take a break differ from each other using the next link.