Delete a photo from your timeline in three steps

Open Facebook and go to your profile. Find the photo you want to remove — you can scroll through your timeline or click the Photos section to see them all in one place. Hover your mouse over the photo (or tap and hold on a phone) until a three-dot menu appears in the top right corner of the image. Click or tap those three dots, then select Delete from the menu that appears. Facebook will ask you to confirm — click Delete Photo again, and the image is gone from your profile.

The photo disappears from your timeline when ready, but Facebook keeps a copy in its servers for a short time before fully removing it. If you change your mind within a few minutes, you can undo the deletion by clicking the undo button that appears at the top of your screen right after you delete.

If you posted the photo in a group or on someone else's timeline instead of your own profile, the same three-dot menu appears, but you can only delete it if you posted it yourself. Group admins and page owners can delete photos posted by others, but regular members cannot.

Key Takeaways

  • Find the photo on your profile, hover over it, click the three-dot menu, and select Delete to remove it from your timeline.
  • You can undo a deletion for a few minutes after you remove the photo by clicking the undo button that appears at the top of your screen.
  • Photos you posted in groups or on other people's timelines can only be deleted by you, the group admin, or the page owner.
  • Deleting a photo removes it from your timeline but does not remove tags of you from other people's photos.
  • If you want to hide a photo instead of deleting it, you can change who sees it by editing the privacy settings without removing it entirely.

Delete multiple photos at once

If you want to remove several photos, you do not have to delete them one by one. Go to your Photos section and look for a checkbox or selection tool — on most devices, you can click a checkbox next to each photo you want to delete, or tap and hold on a phone to start selecting multiple images.

Once you have selected all the photos you want to remove, a delete button or trash icon usually appears at the top or bottom of the screen. Click or tap it, confirm the deletion, and all the selected photos are removed at once. This is faster than deleting them individually, especially if you are cleaning up an old album or removing photos from a specific event.

Remove yourself from photos you did not post

If someone else posted a photo of you and you want to remove yourself from it, you cannot delete the photo itself — but you can untag yourself. Find the photo, click the three-dot menu, and select Remove Tag. Your name disappears from the photo, and it no longer appears in your tagged photos section.

If you want the photo taken down entirely and the person who posted it will not delete it, you can report it to Facebook. Click the three-dot menu and select Report Photo. Facebook will review it and may remove it if it violates their policies, but they will not delete it just because you ask — the person who posted it has the right to keep it up unless it breaks Facebook's rules.

Understand what happens when you delete a photo

When you delete a photo from your timeline, it stops showing up on your profile and in your friends' feeds. Comments and likes on that photo disappear too. However, anyone who saw the photo before you deleted it may have already screenshotted it or saved it elsewhere, so deletion does not may provide the image is gone from the internet.

If you posted the photo in a group, deleting it removes it from the group's timeline but does not remove it from members' phones if they downloaded it. The same applies to photos you shared in a message — deleting the original does not delete copies the person you messaged may have saved.

Facebook's backup servers may retain a copy of the photo for a limited time after deletion, but this is not visible to you or anyone else. The photo is effectively gone from Facebook as far as anyone can see.

Hide a photo instead of deleting it

If you are not sure whether you want to delete a photo permanently, you can hide it from your timeline instead. Find the photo, click the three-dot menu, and look for an option like Hide from Timeline or Archive. The photo stays in your account and you can still see it in your Photos section, but it no longer appears on your profile or in your friends' feeds.

This is useful if you want to keep the photo but do not want it visible to everyone right now. You can unhide it later by going to your Photos, finding the hidden photo, and selecting Show on Timeline. Hiding is reversible, while deletion is permanent after a few minutes.

Delete photos from a specific album

Photos are often organized into albums — like a vacation album or a birthday album. To delete a photo from an album, open the album, find the photo, and click the three-dot menu on that image. Select Delete, and the photo is removed from both the album and your timeline.

If you want to delete the entire album instead of individual photos, go to your Photos section, find the album, click the three-dot menu on the album itself (not on a photo inside it), and select Delete Album. This removes all photos in that album at once. Facebook will ask you to confirm before deleting the whole album.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I delete a photo if someone else tagged me in it?

No, you cannot delete a photo someone else posted. You can only untag yourself so it no longer appears in your tagged photos section. If you want the photo removed entirely, you can report it to Facebook, but they will only take it down if it violates their policies.

What happens to comments and likes when I delete a photo?

All comments, likes, and reactions on the photo disappear when you delete it. People who commented will not see a notification that the photo was deleted — the photo and all its interactions straightforward vanish from their view.

Can I recover a photo after I delete it?

You can undo a deletion within a few minutes by clicking the undo button that appears at the top of your screen. After that window closes, the photo is permanently deleted from your account and cannot be recovered through Facebook.

Does deleting a photo remove it from Google Images or other search engines?

Deleting a photo from Facebook removes it from Facebook's servers, but search engines may still have cached copies. You would need to request removal from Google Images or other search engines separately if the photo appears in their results.

If I delete a photo, can people still see it in their messages with me?

If you sent the photo in a Facebook message, deleting it from your timeline does not delete it from the conversation. The person you messaged will still see it in their message thread unless they delete it on their end.