You can change your account settings in order to update your information or make your account more secure. You can control your passwords, notifications, basic information, and more.
To change Facebook account settings
To modify your settings, click the arrow button (
) next to the Privacy Shortcuts menu in the top-right corner and select Settings.
Note the different categories of settings on the left side of the screen. Below the screenshot, we’ll explain what each of them do, in order.
1. General – Allows you to change your basic information, such as your password, primary email, and your name.
2. Security – You can add an extra level of security to your account by modifying these settings. For example, you can have Facebook send you an email if someone else is trying to access your account, or you can choose friends who can send you information that allows you to access your account in case you can’t log in for some reason.
3. Privacy – Control who can see what you post, who on Facebook is allowed to send you messages or friend requests, and who is able to look you up on Facebook based on your information (either within Facebook itself or with a common Internet search engine).
4. Timeline and Tagging – Timeline and Tagging allows you to manage who can tag you and see posts that you’re tagged in, as well as who can post and see items on your Timeline. If you’ve followed our tutorials so far, the recommended settings should already be in place.
5. Blocking – This prevents other users, pages, and applications on Facebook from contacting or interacting with you. This is useful if someone keeps inviting you to events or to use applications that you have no interest in, or is outright harassing you.
It’s also useful if something keeps showing up on your News Feed or Timeline, even though you haven’t liked it and aren’t interested in it. To block all of a user’s activity towards you, click the text box next to “Block Users”, enter the person’s name or email, and then click Block. If you change your mind, click Unblock beside the person’s information.
You can also simply block a user from sending you event or application invites, block an application from asking you for information, or block a page from contacting you or appearing on your News Feed or Timeline. Simply type the person, page, or application’s name into the appropriate box, and then click to select it. You can also Unblock these things using the above method.
6. Notifications – Manage your notifications here. You can choose whether or not you want to receive notifications that you get on Facebook also on your email or your mobile phone, or choose what kinds of activities on Facebook you want to be notified about.
7. Mobile – Select Add a Phone to be able to have Facebook send you notifications via text messages to your mobile phone. If you have allowed Facebook to do so, you can receive notifications for messages, friend requests, status updates, and more. You can also update your own status from your mobile phone if you have installed the Facebook mobile application on your mobile phone.
8. Apps – Here you can manage all of the external applications with which you have connected to Facebook. Some computer and mobile applications have the option to “Log in with Facebook,” such as LinkedIn or Skype. If you do so, the application will end up here.
9. Payments – While Facebook is free, some of the third-party applications that can be used on Facebook sometimes cost money. If you decide to use any of these applications, you can enter your payment information here.
And that’s an overview of the types of settings that you can change on Facebook!
