How to Approve Tags on Facebook

Seeing an unexpected (and maybe unflattering) photo of yourself appear on your Facebook profile can be jarring, but you have complete control over what shows up. Activating Facebook's tag approval feature is the best way to manage your online reputation and decide exactly which tagged photos and posts appear on your timeline. This guide will walk you through setting up tag and timeline reviews, explain how to manage incoming requests, and share some best practices for maintaining a clean and professional profile.

What Exactly is Tag Approval and Why Does It Matter?

On Facebook, approving tags means that whenever someone tags you in a post or a photo, it won’t automatically appear on your timeline. Instead, you'll receive a notification and the post will go into a private pending queue. From there, you get to decide whether to make it visible on your profile, hide it, or remove the tag entirely. It’s essentially a moderation tool for your own identity.

For entrepreneurs, marketers, and creators building a brand, this isn't just a privacy feature - it's an essential brand management tool. Here’s why activating it is a smart move:

• Reputation Management: You get the final say on the content associated with your name. This prevents unprofessional photos, spammy marketing posts, or content that doesn't align with your brand's image from cluttering your profile.
• Control Your Narrative: Your Facebook timeline is part of your digital storefront. By curating what appears on it, you create a more cohesive and intentional story for followers, clients, or potential employers who look you up.
• Prevent Spam and Unwanted Associations: It's common for accounts to tag dozens of people in contests, giveaways, or low-quality ads to expand their reach. Tag review stops this content from ever hitting your feed, protecting both your reputation and your followers from irrelevant clutter.
• Enhance Personal Privacy: Even if your profile is for business, you have a right to privacy. Tag approval stops friends from unintentionally sharing photos from private events or less-than-flattering angles without your consent first.

How to Turn On Tag and Post Review: A Step-by-Step Guide

Enabling this feature only takes a minute, and the settings are available on both the desktop version of Facebook and the mobile app. The process is nearly identical on both platforms.

The key is understanding that Facebook separates this into two distinct controls:

1. Timeline Review: This controls posts you're tagged in from appearing on your timeline.
2. Tag Review: This controls tags others add to your own posts.

For maximum control, you should enable both.

Enabling Tag Review on a Desktop Computer

If you're at your computer, here’s how to quickly get everything set up:

1. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner of the screen.
2. From the dropdown menu, select Settings & privacy, then click Settings.
3. In the left-hand navigation menu, click Profile and Tagging.
4. You will now see a section called Reviewing at the bottom. This is where the magic happens.
5. Find the setting titled: “Review posts you're tagged in before the post appears on your profile?” Click the Edit button next to it and toggle the feature On. This activates Timeline Review.
6. Next, find the setting titled: “Review tags people add to your posts before the tags appear on Facebook?” Click Edit and turn this feature On. This activates Tag Review.

That's it. Your review queue is now active. No tagged photo or post will appear on your profile without your explicit permission.

Enabling Tag Review on the Mobile App (iOS and Android)

The process on your phone is just as straightforward and gives you the exact same control.

1. Open the Facebook app and tap the Menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the bottom-right corner (iOS) or top-right corner (Android).
2. Scroll down and tap Settings & privacy, then tap Settings.
3. Under the Audience and Visibility section, tap Profile and Tagging.
4. Scroll down to the Reviewing section.
5. Tap on “Review posts you're tagged in before the post appears on your profile?” and toggle the switch to On.
6. Go back one screen and tap on “Review tags people add to your posts before the tags appear on Facebook?” and toggle that switch to On as well.

Managing Your Pending Tags: The Approval Workflow

Once you’ve turned on the review features, what happens next? When someone tags you, you won't see the post on your timeline right away. Instead, you'll receive a notification like, "John Doe tagged you in a post. To add this to your profile, go to Timeline Review."

1. Accessing Your Review Queue

There are two primary ways to see your pending tags:

• Via Notification: The easiest way is to simply tap on the notification when it comes in. It will take you directly to the specific post waiting for your review.
• Via Activity Log: If you miss the notification or want to review multiple items at once, you can find them in your Activity Log. Go to your profile > click the three-dots menu (...) > select Activity Log > in the left menu, find Timeline, photo and tag review. Here you will see both "Posts you're tagged in" and sometimes a "Photos of you" section.

2. Making a Decision: Add, Hide, or Remove

For each item in your Timeline Review, you'll see the post or photo itself and a few options. Here’s what they mean:

Add to Profile

This is the approval button. Clicking this makes the post or photo appear on your timeline, just as it would have if tag review was turned off. It becomes visible to the audience you’ve selected for your timeline (e.g., Friends, Public).

• When to use it: Use this for flattering photos, positive brand mentions, content from partners or colleagues, and any post you're genuinely happy to be publicly associated with.

Hide

This dismisses the post from your review queue and keeps it from appearing on your timeline. However, hiding is not the same as removing the tag.

Important: Even if you 'hide' it, the post is still visible on the original poster's wall, in their friends' news feeds, and in search. Your name is still tagged. Hiding simply keeps it off your personal page.

• When to use it: This is a good middle ground. Use it for photos you don’t dislike but don't feel need to be showcased on your curated profile - like being one of 20 people tagged in a group photo from a casual event. It keeps your timeline clean without offending the person who tagged you.

Remove Tag

This is the most powerful option. Removing the tag breaks the link between the post and your profile entirely. Your name will no longer be clickable on the post, and it won’t be associated with you anywhere on Facebook. The original photo or post will still exist, but without any mention of you.

• When to use it: Use this for unflattering photos, spam, posts from people you don't know, or any content you absolutely do not want to be associated with. If you ask a friend to take down a photo and they don't, this is your next step. You can also report the post from this screen if it violates Facebook's standards.

Best Practices for Smart Tag Management

With your approval system in place, follow these simple strategies to get the most out of it.

Develop Clear Approval Criteria

Decide what your "rules" are for public-facing content. For a brand or personal brand, this might mean only approving:

• High-quality images.
• Posts related to your industry or professional achievements.
• Mentions from reputable clients, partners, or media outlets.
• Content that aligns with your brand voice and values.

Having clear guidelines makes the decision to approve or hide instantaneous, turning tag management into a quick, easy task.

Check Your Queue Regularly

Don't let your review items stack up for weeks. If you do, you lose the opportunity to engage with positive mentions in a timely manner. Make it a habit to check your review queue daily or every other day. A quick scan is all it takes to keep your digital presence current and professionally maintained.

Communicate with Your Network (When Necessary)

If a good friend repeatedly posts blurry or unflattering photos, it's okay to have a gentle, private conversation with them. A simple, "Hey, I appreciate you sharing photos of our time together, but I'm trying to keep my Facebook profile a bit more professional. Would you mind not tagging me in casual shots?" can go a long way.

Remember Your Audience

Before approving any tag, pause and ask yourself: "Who will see this?" Even if your account is locked down to "Friends Only," is this a post you'd want your boss, a potential client, or your grandmother to see? Thinking through the audience is the final filter that helps you maintain a consistent and appropriate online image.

Final Thoughts

Taking control of your Facebook tags is a simple but powerful act of digital hygiene. By enabling and actively using Timeline Review, you move from being a passive participant in your online identity to an active curator, ensuring that your profile accurately showcases you and your brand exactly how you want to be seen.

Managing this is one piece of the much larger puzzle of building a consistent brand on social media. At Postbase, we designed our platform to solve these kinds of daily workflow challenges. Instead of flipping between apps and trying to keep track of everything, we provide a unified space with a clear visual calendar for planning your content, a centralized inbox for all your comments and DMs, and analytics which tell you what's actually working. Postbase helps streamline your entire social media presence so you can focus on creating great content, not getting lost in the chaos.