Why Can I Not See People's Photos on Facebook?

By Kefa Olang

On Facebook, privacy settings for users, pages and groups can prevent you from seeing other people's photos.
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Privacy settings govern most of what you can or cannot see on Facebook, including pictures. Each Facebook user configures privacy settings for individual photos and albums to determine who will have access to them. If you can't see a person's photos, you are probably not on the list of people approved to view the photos. Other times, browser display problems can be the cause of photo display errors.

Privacy Settings

The audience selector tool includes options such as "Public," "Friends" and "Only Me" to control who can see albums and individual posts. You can see albums and individual photos with a "Public" or "Friends" privacy setting. Anyone on Facebook can view public photos. You won't be able to see photos customized with the "Only Me" privacy setting because they are restricted from everyone except the people who posted them.

Browser Problems

In some cases, Facebook photo display problems can be attributed to your browser. If your browser is running into display and loading problems, albums may appear blank. An individual image may also fail to load. Browser problems leading to Facebook photo display issues vary with different users and browsers. Refreshing the browser is a simple process that can reload content that cannot be displayed. Browser cache can also play a role in Facebook photo display problems. If you haven't cleared your browser's cache and history in a while, deleting saved information can solve photo display problems.

Facebook Friends

If you are not friends with someone on Facebook, you may not be able to see his pictures, especially if his photo and timeline settings have been configured to hide content from anyone other than friends. Every Facebook user has access to the audience selector tool to control what can or cannot be seen. If you open a Facebook timeline for a person who is not on your friends list, you may or may not be able to see his photos depending on his photo privacy settings. If the person's photo privacy settings are set to anything other than "Public," you must be friends to view each other's photos.

Groups

You might not be able to see the photos in a group if you don't have a membership, depending on the group's privacy settings. Groups, especially secret groups, require memberships to view the photos posted by members of the group. On the other hand, open groups are visible to anyone, which means that you can see photos other members have posted without joining. In a closed group, anyone can see the group and who's in it, but only members can view photos. If a group is privatized or closed, you must join to see other people's photos.

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