If you have been running a public Facebook group but you want to get the benefits of a public Facebook group, fortunately, you can change a public Facebook group to a private one.
In this Facebook group tutorial, we are going to show you how to change a public Facebook group to a private group.
We are also going to explain what are the benefits of changing your group to a private Facebook group and what are the cons.
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
How to change a public group to a private Facebook group?
Here is how to change a public Facebook group to a private group:
- Open the Facebook group you want to make a private one
- Click on ‘Settings’ on the left column
- Under the ‘Set up Group’ section, search for the ‘Privacy’ row.
- Click on the pencil icon.
- Select the Private group option.
- Click on ‘Save’.
Once you have clicked on the ‘Save’ button, there are three days for the Facebook group admins to cancel this change. If they don’t, the group will be converted to a closed Facebook group after 3 days.
If you prefer to watch a video tutorial on how to change a public group to a private Facebook group, check out this one:
Every member in the Facebook group will get notified that the group has been changed to a closed, private Facebook group.
Can’t change a public group to a closed Facebook group
If you can’t change the public group to a closed, private Facebook group, the most likely reason is that you don’t have the access level to do so.
Only Facebook group admins can change the privacy of a Facebook group. Moderators don’t have access to this feature. So make sure you have Facebook group admin access before trying to change the privacy type in a Facebook group.
Why you might want to change to a closed Facebook group?
We have a separate tutorial, where we explain the main differences between private vs public groups, especially when it comes to business Facebook groups.
If you have a more niche type Facebook group then a private Facebook group can be a better option than a public Facebook group, especially if it a business-related Facebook group.
If less than 1% of Facebook users are interested in the topic of your Facebook group, you won’t get the benefits of a public, open Facebook group. Although non-members could see all the Facebook group posts, it is unlikely that any posts would go viral.
However, a private, closed Facebook can increase the chance of people joining the Facebook group, as they can’t see the posts in the group without joining.
How to change a private Facebook group to a public group?
Unfortunately, only a public Facebook group can be changed to a private group. So you can’t change a private Facebook group to a public group.
In this case, your only option is to start a new public Facebook group.
This also means that if you were running a public group then switched to private, after three days you cannot change your mind. So think it through before you would go through the process we have shown above.
