How to retrieve featured photos on Facebook

As the old saying goes.. the first impression is the best impression. Sure, its legitimacy is debatable but you can’t deny the fact that you get a split second to make an impression on someone - be it good or bad!

The same applies to Facebook profiles. People take one look at your page on Facebook and immediately pass a judgment.

While this might not bother your personal page on Facebook, it can have a significant impact on your business. You can leave a great impression on your audience by regularly updating your Facebook featured photos. They appear at the top of your page.

In essence, they are designed to give visitors a snapshot of your page, the products/services you offer and much more. When left aside, Facebook automatically pulls out either the most recent or the most popular pictures on your page (based on engagement) into this section. However, such popular pictures might not be the best ones to showcase sometimes.

They may sometimes be low-resolution, or not in line with your social media goals for the given time period. But, here’s the good news. You can choose which featured photos your audience can view. Interested to know more? Read on.

Table of Contents

Facebook featured photos vs photo posts

A Featured photo is meant to be a tad more meaningful than ordinary photos on your profile. While the photos you post stay on your wall, Featured photos occupy a special place at the top of your profile. They are quite different from standard photos as they are shown similar to Facebook Stories.

Additionally, your Featured photo collection is not posted on your wall if you choose to add or remove entries. They just stay on your profile page, waiting to be explored by other Facebook users.

How to set Facebook featured photos?

1. How to set Facebook featured photos- PC

• Login to your business account on Facebook. Enter your credentials to sign in.
• Then, tap on your profile picture at the top right corner of your profile.
• Now, click on the ‘Add featured’ option. It is available below the ‘Intro’ option to the left.



• Tap on ‘Add new’ and choose the pictures you wish to add to the Featured section.
• Click on ‘Next’ and then ‘Save’.

You can add a new Featured photo in a jiffy.

• First, launch the Facebook app and tap on your profile picture thumbnail at the top-left of your screen.
• Scroll down and you will find your ‘Featured’ collection just above the ‘Edit Public Details’ button.
• Now, tap on the collection.
• Tap on the ‘Add new’ button.
• Now, tap on the ‘Add more’ button and Facebook will open your Camera roll for you.
• Tap on the photo you want to add to your Featured photos list and it will get marked.
• Then, tap on the ‘Next’ button.
• Finally, when you are done with it, tap on ‘Save.’

If the process is taking a lot of time it is probably because your Facebook is slow.

How to edit/remove the Facebook featured photos you have selected?

If you have changed your mind after adding a certain picture to your Featured section, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. All you have to do is follow the steps below to edit/remove them.

1. Desktops-

• Sign into your Facebook profile and tap on your profile picture at the top right corner.
• Now, click on the ‘Edit featured’ option available right below your profile picture.



• Click on the X mark on the photo to remove it. Alternatively, you can also click on ‘Upload photo’ to add new ones from your computer or choose from photos already on Facebook.
• Once you are satisfied with the changes, click on ‘Save’.

2. Mobile-

• Launch the Facebook app on your smartphone.
• Now, tap on your profile picture thumbnail.
• Next, scroll down and tap on your ‘Featured’ photo collection.
• Tap on ‘Edit featured collection.’



• Then, tap on the photos you want to remove from your collection.
• Lastly, tap on ‘Save’ to save the changes you have made to the collection.

Note: Removing a picture from the Featured section does not delete the original one. The photo will continue to remain where you have originally selected it from and it will be visible to the audience (based on your profile settings) as well. However, featured photos are public and are visible to everyone.

How to delete a featured collection?

In case you are not satisfied with removing one or two Featured photos, you delete your Featured photos collection altogether. Here is how to do it:

1. Delete Featured Collection- PC

• Launch any browser on your computer and go to Facebook.
• Log in with your username and password
• Click on the profile button at the top-right corner of your screen.
• Now, scroll down and click on ‘Edit featured.’
• Then click on the ‘Featured’ collection to edit its contents.
• Finally, scroll down and click on ‘Delete Featured Collection.’

Facebook will send a confirmation. To delete the Featured collection, hit ‘Delete.’ All photos would be promptly removed from your profile.

2. Delete Featured Collection- Facebook app

• Open the Facebook app on your smartphone.
• Next, tap on your profile picture thumbnail at the top-left corner.
• Now, scroll down and tap on the Featured photo collection.
• Tap on the ellipsis button on the top-right corner of any featured photo.
• Click on ‘Delete Feature Collection.’
• Lastly, tap on ‘Ok’ to confirm your action.

Your featured photo collection will be deleted at once.

Check who viewed- Featured photos Facebook

To know who viewed your featured collections on Facebook, you need to go to your profile and tap on one of your featured collections. After you’ve tapped on one of your featured collections, you can see how many people viewed it by tapping on the arrow icon.

There will be a couple of categories including “Viewers” and “Others”. “Viewers” are your friends on Facebook that viewed your collection.

On the other hand, “Others” are people that you’re not friends with on Facebook who viewed your collection.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to know the specific person that viewed your collection if you’re not friends with them on Facebook.

Here’s how to know who viewed your featured collections on Facebook:

• Open Facebook and tap on your profile picture
• View one of your featured collections
• Tap on the arrow icon
• Check your viewers
• Check your other viewers

When you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you may see an “Others” category. You can tap on “Others” to learn more about it. These featured viewers on Facebook are views from people who are not your friends on Facebook. The views from people who are not your friends on Facebook are anonymous and you can't tell who they are.

FAQs- Facebook featured photos

No, Facebook does not post on your news feed when you add a Featured photo. Your Facebook contacts are required to visit your Facebook profile to see all your Featured photos.

2. Can your friends see your Featured photos?

Yes, your friends can see all your featured photos by visiting your profile. Just click on the ‘Featured photos’ collection.

3. How do you get the featured images back on Facebook?

Facebook used to display Featured photos as still images. But now, in its modern avatar, all photos are compiled into a Story. Since the old look has been abandoned for good, there is no way to retrieve them.

4. What happens when a Featured photo is added?

When you pick a new Feature photo, it is not posted on your newsfeed. A new instance of the photo is created. Finally, the photo is added to your featured collection. It can be viewed by anyone who visits your profile — unless you lock it, of course.

5. Can you see who views your featured photos on Facebook?

Yes, you can see who viewed your featured photos. But this is possible only if the viewers are your Facebook friends. Those who aren't are listed under other viewers and you can't see who they are.

"Can you recover deleted Facebook photos? I have accidentally deleted some photos that I uploaded on Facebook, but now I can’t seem to get them back!"

Being the biggest social media platform globally, Facebook is used by millions of people to update photos daily. Though, there are times when we can end up losing our saved photos from Facebook due to different reasons. Don't worry. In this guide, we will let you know how to recover deleted Facebook photos differently. Besides that, we will also suggest some tips to avoid losing your Facebook photos.

Before I discuss things like how to recover deleted pictures from Facebook, it is important to cover some basics.

1. What happens to the deleted photos on Facebook?

Well, Facebook is a social networking platform where you can post your pictures and manage albums. When you delete a photo (or an album), it is removed from Facebook, and your friends can’t access it anymore. The location where it was hosted before becomes unavailable.

2. Where do deleted photos on Facebook go?

The photos will no longer be available on Facebook after deletion – neither you nor your friends can access them now. Even if they go to its URL, they get a prompt stating that the content is not available anymore.

3. Can you recover deleted Facebook photos?

While there is no definite answer or assurance, you can try some Facebook photo recovery solutions to get your data back. I have listed some of these solutions to recover deleted Facebook photos in the next section.

Part 2: Recover Deleted Facebook Photos in 4 Proven Ways

Now when you know that it is possible to recover deleted photos from Facebook, let’s discuss some of these feasible solutions.

Method 1: Find Deleted Photos from the Facebook Archive

You might not know this, but Facebook keeps track of all the media content you post and keeps it archive. Therefore, if you have recently deleted something from Facebook, the chances are that you might be able to retrieve it from the archive. Though, you would have to spend some time scanning your data manually to find deleted Facebook photos. To learn how to get deleted Facebook photos back from its archive, follow these steps:

Step 1. Firstly, just log-in to your Facebook account and go to its settings from the hamburger icon on the top-right corner.

Step 2. Now, browse to your general account settings and click on the "Download a copy" link from the interface's bottom.

Step 3. Facebook will load a dedicated page, informing you about the archive and how to use it. Just click on the "Download" icon and maintain a stable internet connection to save the archive file.

Step 4. In the end, access the file, right-click, and extract it to a secure location. Afterward, you can browse your archived data and find the deleted Facebook photos manually.

Method 2: Recover Deleted Facebook Photos from your Computer

The chances are that you would have uploaded photos to your Facebook from any other source, like your computer. In this case, you can check the original location and see if you still have your photos. If your photos are deleted from your Windows and Mac as well, then you can try Recoverit Data Recovery. It is an extremely secure and user-friendly DIY recovery tool that can extract your photos from several sources.

It doesn’t matter if your Facebook photos are deleted accidentally or the entire drive has been formatted. Recoverit will help you in every scenario. You can even preview your photos and select the media content you wish to recover. Here’s how to retrieve deleted Facebook photos from your Windows or Mac.

Download | Win Download | Mac

Step 1: Mark a location to scan.

First, launch the Recoverit application on your Windows or Mac and select a location to scan. Apart from a drive or partition, you can browse to selected folders or choose an external media as well.

Step 2: Sit back and wait.

After starting the recovery process, you can wait for a few minutes for it to be over completely. If you want, you can view the progress and halt/stop it in between.

Step 3: Preview and recover your photos.

After the data recovery process is completed, you can view the results (it will be listed under different categories). You can also use its inbuilt filters to handpick your photos further. Now, select the deleted photos from here, click on the "Recover" button, and save them to a secure location.

Method 3: Check Your System’s Recycle Bin or Phone’s Recently Deleted Folder

If you have deleted your Facebook photos from your system or phone’s storage, too, then this trick might come in handy. Before you take any drastic measure to recover deleted Facebook photos, make sure you have checked the Trash (or the Recently Deleted) folder on your device.

1. Check your system’s Trash/Recycle Bin.

If you use a Mac, then go to the Trash application and check if it has any deleted photos. On the other hand, Windows users can check the same on Recycle Bin. After finding your photos, select them, and right-click to get the context menu. From here, you can restore them to their original location.

2. Check the Recently Deleted folder on your phone.

Both iOS and Android devices have a Recently Deleted folder in the Gallery that stores the deleted photos from the last 30 days. You can go to your phone’s Gallery and visit the Recently Deleted folder from here. Now, select the images you have deleted by mistake, go to its options, and choose to restore them.

Method 4: Restore Deleted Facebook Photos from a Backup

In case you have already maintained a prior backup of your photos, you can recover your deleted Facebook photos from there. A lot of people prefer taking their backup on an external hard drive. You can connect the hard drive to your computer to find the deleted Facebook photos there.

Besides that, you can also check your Google Drive, iCloud, or any other cloud storage to check your backup. If you use Mac, then you could have taken a backup using Time Machine. You can connect the Time Machine drive, launch the application, and browse it to perform deleted Facebook pictures recovery.

Part 3: Bonus Tips for Facebook Photos Recovery

After learning how to recover deleted photos from Facebook, you would be able to retrieve your lost media back. Apart from that, I would consider going through these smart suggestions and frequently asked questions.

1. What happens to your photos when you delete Facebook?

Well, Facebook won’t delete your photos right away and would even provide an option to deactivate your account instead. If you have just deactivated your account, then you can log-in again whenever you want. In case you have deleted it permanently, then your photos will only be available for the next 30 days on its server.

2. How long will Facebook preserve my deleted data?

If your data has been deleted, then it would be preserved in the Facebook archive. Ideally, it would depend on the kind of data that you have lost. In most of the case, your data would be preserved for the next 90 days. Though, if you don’t take any actions, then it will automatically be deleted.

3. How to protect your Facebook security and privacy?

To protect your Facebook account from getting hacked or compromised, I consider following these suggestions:

• Make sure you keep a strong Facebook password that would be tough to crack.
• Keep changing your Facebook password every 3-4 months.
• Turn off the auto-saving of your Facebook credentials on your browser.
• Go to your Facebook settings and check the presently active sessions.
• Log-out of Facebook from all the devices you no longer use actively from its security settings.
• Also, turn on the two-factor authentication on your Facebook to ensure no one can access your account without your permission.

This brings us to the end of this extensive guide on how to recover deleted Facebook photos. Since there are so many ways to recover deleted photos from Facebook, you can easily get your lost pictures back. Though, if you don’t want to suffer from an unwanted loss of data, then keep a tool like Recoverit handy. As you can see, Recoverit Data Recovery supports all the major kinds of files and provides a hassle-free DIY recovery solution for both Windows and Mac. This makes it a must-have recovery tool for every Windows/Mac user out there!

Download | Win Download | Mac