How to Change the Privacy Settings for Things You Share to Facebook

how to change the privacy settings on things you share to facebook from other site
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If you are trying to share something from a website by posting it to your Facebook timeline through that site’s Facebook Like, Share, or Recommend button, and you can’t figure out how to change the privacy setting for that share from ‘Only Me’ to ‘Friends’ or ‘Public’, here’s how to do it. After all, if you’re sharing it, you probably want others to see it!

The problem: You are Trying to Like or Share Something from a Website to Your Facebook Timeline, but the Privacy Setting is Set to ‘Only Me’

how to change the privacy settings on things you share to facebook from other site

 

The Solution: How to Change the Privacy Settings on Things You Share to Facebook

This is crazy-obscure, which is why we were moved to write this article. Because the answer isn’t in your privacy settings, in fact it isn’t in any of your regular settings, and, if you haven’t got the ‘Likes’ section enabled to display on your timelines, you probably won’t be able to find it at all.

You ready? Here goes:

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Go to your Facebook timeline, and click on the ‘More’ section (if you do not see a More section, click on ‘About’, and you should see it from there).

facebook more section

 

When you click on the More section, you will get a dropdown menu that will say (perhaps among other things) “Manage sections”. Click on it. (NOTE: If your dropdown menu has a section called “Likes”, you can skip down to the next part.)

facebook more manage sections section

 

Clicking on ‘Manage sections’ will bring up this screen:

facebook manage section selections

 

Scroll down until you see the ‘Likes’ section, and click the checkbox next to it to enable it. Be sure to save it!

how to change privacy settings for likes and shares on facebook

 

facebook likes section enabled

 

Now, click on ‘More’ again, and you’ll see that you now have another section called “Likes”.

facebook manage likes section-1

 

Go to the Likes section, and click on the little edit icon (the pencil) in the upper right-hand corner.

facebook likes section edit privacy

 

edit facebook likes privacy settings

 

Click on ‘Edit Privacy’

facebook edit privacy settings for like likes section

 

This will bring up a list of all of the different types of things you can Like, and your privacy settings for each one. Scroll all the way down to the bottom.

edit privacy of likes on facebook list of options

 

There’s the culprit! Not, as you might think (assuming that your brain isn’t already numb by now) ‘Websites’ Likes, but ‘Other’ Likes.

edit like privacy to allow sharing and likes from third party websites

 

Change the privacy settings for ‘Other’ from ‘Only me’ to whatever you want it to be (Friends, Friends except Acquaintances, Public). (Facebook Acquaintances are people that you have designated as ‘Acquaintances’, instead of ‘Friends’ or ‘Close Friends’, from the dropdown menu you get when you click the ‘Friends’ button next to their name. Marking a person as a Close Friend or Acquaintance puts them on your ‘Close Friends’ or ‘Acquaintances’ list.)

facebook settings share like likes privacy

 

Inexplicably, this very important set of privacy settings (at least we think it’s important) does not require saving – once you have toggled it, just hit ‘Close’.

facebook other share like likes setting set to public

 

Now when you share something from a website outside of Facebook, to Facebook, people will actually be able to see it.

how to make facebook privacy share shares like likes public on your timeline

 

A huge tip of the hat to the people at Heateor, whose social sharing plugin we use on this very site, for helping us to figure this out!

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