When I look at my web stats to see what's driving people to this blog, BY FAR the number one source is a Google search asking how to unhide friends on Facebook. I've written a couple of posts previously addressing this issue, but it seems like new bugs keep appearing on a regular basis. So I'm writing this one, which will be the one-stop-shop for all the latest info I have about the situation. I'm going to change previous posts so they direct people here.
Basic Steps
If you just have no idea how it's supposed to work:
On your home page, highlight the filter in the left-hand panel that says News Feed.
- Scroll to the bottom of the News Feed and click the link that says "Edit Options".
- In the box that appears, click the Add to News Feed link for everyone you want to unhide, then click Close.
Note: The reason I said to highlight the News Feed filter is because, if you had another filter highlighted, but your hidden friend(s) didn't fit that category, the Edit Options link would not appear. For example, if you selected the Photos filter, but your friend had never posted any photos, s/he would never have had an update in that list to unhide.
Update 08/24/09: Reader Julie sent me information about another way to solve this frustrating problem. I think this is a fairly recently feature addition that happened when they changed their All Friends page layout.
Update 11/22/09: It seems like the News Feed link no longer appears on my Friends page, so this step may not work. However, I'm leaving it here because it wouldn't be the first time that some Facebook users have options that others don't, so it wouldn't hurt to see if you have it.
- From the top nav bar, click Friends > All Friends.
- In the left-hand nav bar, under Lists, click News Feed.
- Click the Edit List button at the top of the page. This will pop up a window that lists all the friends, Pages, and applications that you've previously hidden. Simply click the Add to News Feed button beside any one that you want to add back.
I have high hopes that this might actually work for most people but, just in case it doesn't, there are more suggestions below.
Thanks so much for sharing, Julie! I'm sure many people will benefit from this information.
Troubleshooting
Now that all seems very straightforward but, unfortunately, not so much. Some people have reported that there is no Edit Options at the bottom of the page and others have had the option, but it didn't work, i.e. after clicking Add to News Feed, the person wasn't added back. If you have one of these problems, here are some things you can try to fix it.
- Double-check you've selected the News Feed filter from the left-hand panel and see if that brings it back.
- If you're using Internet Explorer, sometimes right after you hide or unhide someone's updates, that link disappears. But if you refresh your browser page, it may come back.
- Update 07/19/09: Reader Kim reports that when she clicked on the Older Posts link in the same bar, it brought back a link to "Hidden Friends," which brought her to a place where she could unhide people. I haven't been able to recreate this exact fix, but that doesn't mean anything, since most Facebook bugs and solutions are inconsistent for different users on different browsers.
- Another possible solution is a bit weird (and contradicts something I said above), but it worked in the past for a specific IE problem. Click one of the other filters in the left-hand panel and then try using the Edit Options link to add your friends back again.
- You can also try hiding another person's updates by mousing over one of them and clicking the Hide link that appears. After you do that, a box should appear that confirms the action and also provides a link to the Edit Options box.
WARNING: Someone tried this and the Edit Options DID come up, but it only had the name of the person she just hid on it, and when she clicked "Add to News Feed", it didn't add that person back. So if you try this, you might want to choose a friend you don't mind "losing" until the problem is solved. - If the above doesn't work, try using a different browser, e.g. if you normally use IE, try Firefox, or vice-versa. If you don't have another browser on your computer, but have access to a different computer that does, log in to your FB account from there and unhide the updates (if possible). Then, when you go back to your computer and browser, they should be there again.
That's as much as I've been able to figure out so far. If you try all these steps and it still doesn't work, please let me know and I'll see if I can find any other possible solutions.
Alternatively, you can contact Facebook to see if they have a solution. I've done this with a couple of issues and you probably won't be surprised to learn that I haven't found them exactly responsive to date...
If you do find a solution to your problem that's not listed above, I'd really appreciate it if you'd pass it along to me so I can share it with other T4L readers.
Posted in Bug Alert, Facebook, How To, Social Media, Updates
{ 75 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for tackling this, Elizabeth.
FWTW, I hate the all-or-nothing approach of the hide / unhide option. I preferred the more/less option since some people post frequently and “hog” the feed. I want less of these people not necessarily none. I’m sure Facebook will sort our the bugs eventually, but with all the changes and glitches, I find I’m spending less and less time there.
Once again, you are a timely lifesaver, Elizabeth. I just decided today to unhide somebody and couldn’t see how to do it (the scrolling-all-the-way-to-the-bottom-to-find-the-control method that Facebook has set up is obviously counterintuitive to me! Facebook should have some kind of pop-out when you click on News Feed, in my opinion).
Once I found the option to Edit Options, it was easy-peasy.
Thanks again!!
Just a thank you for taking the time to write all this up and post it…
Your a dumbass. That don’t work.
Thanks so much, it was much easier following your advice.
Thanks to all of you who have left comments. I’m glad the post has helped you.
Andy, I’m sorry it didn’t work for you. If you want to contact me at F1@TechForLuddites.com, I’ll see if I can find another solution for you.
Fantastic tip! Facebook does not provide an intuitive interface to this process, and I thank you for explaining it!
Glad it was helpful, Lucky. Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know!
Thanks so much. I searched at Facebook and found nothing. As for Andy who called you a dumbass, you are much kinder to him than I would be. He does not have enough brain power to be a Luddite, so that is why he cannot understand.
Thanks for the support, Kerfuffles! I’m glad the post was able to help you.
Thank you for this helpful post! My instinct was to go through my friends list and profiles to try to recover somebody I’d hidden, and there was no obvious guidance on the site. I guess the help was hidden too.
I’m glad it helped, Sean. Having a button on your friend lists or an individual’s profile would definitely make more sense. Even changing the link from “Edit Options” to “Unhide Friends” would be a big help, especially since that’s the only option you have anyway!
Nope. Didn’t work. There is no “edit option” choice under the news feed.
I didn’t realize you had a troubleshooting section. I did hide another person, which brought me to the edit options. That worked. Thanks.
Glad you got it to work Jim!
Thank you for a well written, easy-to-follow “how to”!
I’m glad you found it helpful. Thanks for the comment!
Thank you for that unhide by person fix. Worked first time!
Glad it worked for you Ron!
Your suggestions worked like a treat – thank you!
Glad it helped!
“BY FAR the number one source is a Google search asking how to unhide friends on Facebook.” That’s an indication that the way Facebook does it is not user-friendly.
Also, who would ever think of their friends as a news feed???
No argument from me here, Dot! :)
Thanks for your post. I’m sending you an email.
Thanks for those explanations, they’re brilliant!!
But I’ve discovered that my problem is different, the friend I thought I had accidentally hidden is not in my list of hidden friends, and yet I suddenly no longer get his news feed.
Any ideas what happened there?
Thanks!!
Erika
I’ve been having problems with my “Edit Options” popup box not working. I searched around and found your webpage. Here’s my issue: I have the Edit Options link everywhere it should be, but when I click on it, the box pops up but there’s nothing displayed on the “Pages” tab. When I try to click the “Applications” tab it either closes the box and goes to some random FB page I previously visited or it just shows the App tab as blank as well. I know I have multiple apps blocked and I want to unhide a couple of them. I have tried looking at the options in multiple places (the news feed page, from the friends page, etc..) in FF and Safari on my Mac and FF and IE on my PC. All end up with the same result. I cleared history, cookies, cache, etc… still the same result. I have no idea what else I can do other than decipher the page source and well… I don’t really want to go down that road. I don’t know if you have a fix/solution or if you’ve heard of other people with the same problem? I thought I’d send this note your way just in case.
Thank you for this!
Thanks so much. It worked for me just fine. Well done!!!
Ok, there is a difference between the news feed and the live feed. I accidently hide a friends news feed, but following your tips I did everything and they are showing up under the edit options as being on the list to see their news feed, but I still don’t see anything from them and I especially don’t see their live feeds. Any clue?
thank you for the “unhide friends”. I am not sure I am a Luddite, but it is certainly true that I don’t explore enough features of any of the software I use.
They took away the news feed option!!! Now what!!! I can’t unhide anyone!
Deborah, I’m not sure what you mean by “took away the news feed.” If you mean you can’t see the Edit Options link at the bottom of the page, maybe this post will help you:
http://www.techforluddites.com/2009/10/bug-alert-friends-are-missing-from-the-new-facebook-live-feed.html
If that isn’t the problem, feel free to send me an e-mail directly at elizabeth@techforluddites.com with more details and I’ll see if I can find a solution for you.
My problem is trying to “unhide” an application from posting to the news or live news feed, after I inadvertently hid it (FarmVille). The edit options only allows unhiding friends. In the Q&A it tells you how to allow 1 line messages from the various applications (like FarmVille, Farkle, etc.) but I haven’t found the option to unhide the full posts that show up with pictures.
“”"”"”"My problem is trying to “unhide” an application from posting to the news or live news feed, after I inadvertently hid it (FarmVille). The edit options only allows unhiding friends. In the Q&A it tells you how to allow 1 line messages from the various applications (like FarmVille, Farkle, etc.) but I haven’t found the option to unhide the full posts that show up with pictures.”"”"”"”"
i think i’m having almost the same problem with this….i accidently hide an application “castle age” and i did’t manage to undo it… Then i can’t unhide it back from “Edit options” usually i can unhide any application but now i can’t…
For those of you who are having trouble unhiding applications or Pages, the first thing you should check is that you’re on News Feed, not Live Feed. The box that comes up when you click Edit Options at the bottom of the page is different in the two views. The one for Live Feed only gives you the option to unhide friends. The one for News Feed should offer the Page and Applications lists as well.
If you’re still having problems, send me an e-mail at Elizabeth@TechForLuddites.com
I tried getting under News Feed (not the live news feed) and when I clicked on ‘more’ to get the whole list, there was no ‘edit options’. However, my 17-year-old daughter figured out how to undo hide and it worked. Go to your homepage. Find a recent post by someone and click on ‘hide’ for them. Under their name will appear something along the lines of ‘In the future you won’t see any further notifications from this person’ and “edit options”. Click on edit options. This will take you to a page of anyone you have hidden. You can click ‘add to newfeed’ next to anyone who is hidden…including the person you just hid to help you get to this page. Yay!
I hide a friend of mine, and now they do not appear. I can still go to their face, if i type in there name. I have already went to edit options, and there are lots of other people i have hide, but not this one friend. I refreshed, deleted my cookies, i hide another friend and i was able to see there name in the edit options, but this one friend will not show up, to unhude them, please help.
Heather, I’m not sure I understand what your issue is. Feel free to send me an e-mail at Elizabeth@TechForLuddites.com with more details and I’ll see if I can help.
Thanks for the help. It worked just like you said.
Glad it helped, Marilyn. Thanks for letting me know.
Thanks!!! It worked for me & for the person who called you a dumb ass– they must be simple minded because it worked for me the first time. I hide someone by accident & all the time I thought they blocked me. thanks again
You ROCK! I looked EVERYWHERE on how to “unhinde” friends on Facebook, but nobody explained it as well as you. Seriously, thanks.
If you click on Status Updates in the upper left corner and then click on Edit Options at the bottom right of the page, it will give you the option of adding hidden friends.
i think my problem started after facebook wanted me to confirm my privacy settings and of course im not sure what exactly i did. but after that none of my friends (i think none only bc ive asked two friends to check for me) can see my application posts. ie, when a lonely animal appears on my farm in farmville and i publish it no one can see it. it doesnt appear in the live feed or the news feed or even on my profile!! but i posted a wall picture and the were able to see that. they were not in any lists that blocked them from viewing my wall or anything and ive allowed the applications i use to publish so i have no idea what to do. HELP!!
I found it on the ‘Home’ Tab, then News Feed, then Edit Options at the bottom. This gave me a pop up box that let me “add to newsfeed.”
Nora, somehow the setting to publish posts was probably turned off. Try this:
- Go to Settings > Application Settings and scroll down to Farmville in the list (if it’s not showing, choose Authorized from the dropdown list at the top of the page)
- Click the Edit Settings link beside it
- Click the Additional Permissions tab
There should be an option there to Publish Recent Activity — it needs to be checked to have your posts related to that app show up. If you’re having the same problem with other applications, you’ll need to manually fix the settings for each one separately.
I hope that helps. If not, feel free to e-mail me at F1@TechForLuddites.com and we can try some more troubleshooting.
Thanks.
I actually was able to unhide by going to another link on the left (besides newsfeed)– as u suggested…and getting to edit options through there. Thanks!
THanks a LOT ! It worked, damn thats was so simple I should have figured it on my own.
not bad
Make sure you’re on “Top News” (not “Most Recent”).
Scroll to the bottom.
At the bottom (kinda middle/right), you’ll see “Edit Options.” Click that.
Click “Applications.”
Click “Add to News Feed.”
Click “Close.”
Can you please answer how to unhide for the most recent version of Facebook?
It’s the same as on the old version. Go to your home page and make sure you’re on the news feed using the link at the top of the left-hand column. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Edit Options. You’ll see a list of your hidden friends that you can add back to your feed. If you’re trying to unhide applications, you’ll have to make sure you’re using the Top News view on your home page. The Edit Options link from the Most Recent view doesn’t include applications in the list.
Thank you, sweetie.
Ted…thanks so much! I was looking at the bottom left so when you said,”kinda middle/right” I figured it out!
wow. thank you
Thank you very much!! With the new FB, suddenly I couldn’t get to those friends I’d temporarily hidden. Your page was a lifesaver for me.
Worked beautifully for me. Thank you.
i have somehow hid all my farmville posts. i can not see feed from anyone on these and have tried everything to get them to come back up. if you have any tips i would greatly appreciate it.
The most effective solution seems to be to hide another application and, when the message comes up that it’s hidden, to click the Edit Options link in the message. Then you get the correct box that has the option to unhide applications. Have you already tried that?
Perfect advice. Thank you!
OMG… all your good ideas about unhiding friends didn’t help me because the “edit options” does NOT always show up. ONE TIME it randomly did but only for applications, so I unhid that Farmville thing, thinking that THAT was the problem,since a lot of my friends play it and other similar apps that I have no interest in, but NOOOOOOOOOO! THAT didn’t show me if I had inadvertently hidden people or give an “edit” option for people either. I’m on a MAC using ,alternately, Safari and Firefox. Same prob both browsers. Could it be they are all hiding ME? (once again confirming my thought that this whole site is just high school all over again……) likely I missed a previous post. Maybe you could re-direct me? please help!
I’m sorry I don’t have any additional suggestions beyond what’s in this post. The one that seems to have been most successful for people is to hide someone else and then a message pops up with a link to the right Edit Options box. But if you tried that and it didn’t work, I’m not sure what else to suggest. But just in case the problem is slightly different, you might also want to check out this post, which has a little more information: http://www.techforluddites.com/2009/12/t4l-redux-unhiding-friends-on-facebook.html.
We just found out that the simple fix DOES work. You MUST have it set to “top news” not “most recent”. Good luck!
If you go to Home, friends, then click status updates it seemed to work. Be SURE you are on HOME and not Profile. Thanks for your help, this is a great site! Faceplant is such a pain……
Muchas Gracias, me ayudo mucho.
Awesome.
Thanks everyone! Especially Ted (from Feb)! :D
Ted is correct but now has changed!
1. Make sure you’re on “Top News” (not “Most Recent”).
2. Scroll to the bottom and click “Edit Options” on the right hand side.
3. A window pops up to show you “Hidden from News Feed”
4. It has “Pages” and “Applications” links above a scrollable list of each.
a. In each line item (application blocked) Click “Add to News Feed” to re-add items to the list again.
THANK YOU for the info! After trying for the last week to unhide a friend and getting totally frustrated with nothing working I tried your steps one by one and finally got it to work! YOUR HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED! Thank you for having this website! : )
Glad it helped!
This was great. With my crew, sometimes you just have to suppress the stuff for a bit. But then I lost contact because there is zero info on facebook on unhide. It is really clunky
Thank you :)
Excellent thanks! That worked.
You are awesome, thank you!
I’m one of those – thanks for the quick & easy help :)!