Updated on October 30, 2022 Go to your profile to select a new Facebook cover photo
What to Know
This article explains how to change your Facebook cover photo using a computer or the Facebook mobile app. It includes tips and information related to changing your cover photo.
Change Your Facebook Cover Photo on a Computer
Changing your cover photo is easy and will immediately revamp how your Facebook profile looks. The cover photo is different from your profile image; it's much larger and sits above and behind your profile picture.
Open Facebook and select your name to get to your profile page.
Scroll to the top of the page to see the entire cover photo area.
Choose Edit cover photo.
If it's a Facebook Page you're updating, choose Edit.
Choose an appropriate option:
- Select Photo lets you pick an existing image from your Facebook page.
- Upload Photo is for just that: select a photo from your computer that you want as the cover photo.
- Reposition lets you change how the existing cover photo looks. You might do this if it's not showing the whole image, or you want to refocus on a different part of the photo.
- Remove is for deleting your cover photo.
There are additional options for pages: Choose From Videos and Create Slideshow.
Follow the directions for the option you chose. For example, if you picked Select Photo, choose an image you've already uploaded.
Drag the cover photo to position it how you want.
Select Save Changes.
Change Your Facebook Cover Photo via the App
Follow these steps to change your cover photo from the Facebook app:
Specific steps may differ based on the operating system version you're running, but the basic process will be the same.
Select the menu button at the top right of the app.
Tap your profile picture.
Select the camera icon at the bottom of your existing cover photo.
Select one of these options:
- Upload photo to pick an image from your device.
- Select photo on Facebook to make a previously uploaded image the cover photo. This might be called Select from album on some devices.
- Create cover collage to choose images on your device that you want to combine into a collage for your photo.
Locate and select the image you want to use for your Facebook cover photo.
Drag the image if you need to so that it fits correctly in the cover photo area, and then tap Save or Use.
Tips for Changing Your Facebook Cover Photo
As you can see above, changing the cover photo is easy. What you'll probably find more difficult is choosing a great photo.
You don't want to select just anything from your page or a random photo from your computer. Beyond the image having a purpose for your specific page, it should also fit correctly on the screen.
Follow these tips to make the best cover photo for your Facebook page, but also remember that you're restricted in some ways on what you can do.
- The picture must be 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall, at minimum. Ideally, it should be 851x315 pixels. To ensure fast load time, make the image less than 100 KB. See the other Facebook cover photo dimensions here.
- You can't make the current cover photo private; it must be public. However, you can make older ones private by locating them in the Cover photos album and changing who can see them [e.g., certain friends only or only you].
- Pictures with a logo or text are best saved as PNGs, whereas "real life" images look best saved as JPGs.
- All Facebook friends will get a notification on their News Feed that you uploaded your cover photo. The only way to stop this is to quickly change the post's visibility to Only me after you changed the photo or to uncheck the post option if you're changing it from the app. Or, before the change, adjust your privacy settings so that nobody can see your future posts.
- Add a watermark to your image to make sure your brand stays with it if it gets stolen.
The 14 Best Tips for Facebook Cover Photos
FAQ
What size is a Facebook cover photo?
Facebook recommends that the best viewing format for cover photos on a computer is 820 width x 312 height and 640 width x 360 height for smartphones. Following these guidelines will make your cover photo more appealing.
How do I make a temporary cover photo on Facebook?
To add a temporary cover photo on Facebook that expires after a set amount of time, select the camera icon on your current cover photo and choose Upload Photo or Add Frame > Make Temporary and set the time length. On the app, tap your profile picture > Select Profile Picture > Make Temporary.
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How do I resize a Facebook cover photo?
You can resize your photo to optimize it as a Facebook cover photo with an image-editing tool like Canva, PicMonkey, or Photoshop. The tool you choose will have an edit or crop option that allows you to resize the photo so it works as a Facebook cover photo.
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