Where Facebook Stores Your Location and Why It Matters

Facebook stores your location in two separate places, and changing one does not change the other. Your city or hometown is the information you entered in your profile — the place that appears on your timeline and in search results when someone looks you up. Your current location is where Facebook thinks you are right now, based on your phone's GPS, your internet address, or a location you manually set. Both can be edited, but the steps are different.

Your profile location is visible to anyone who visits your page, depending on your privacy settings. Your current location appears in posts you make and in Facebook's ad targeting — advertisers can narrow their audience by geography. If you have moved, changed your phone's location services, or straightforward want more privacy, you will need to update one or both of these.

Key Takeaways

  • Your profile hometown and your current location are stored separately on Facebook, and you must change each one individually.
  • To change your hometown or city, go to your profile, select "About," scroll to "Basic Information," and edit the location field.
  • To change your current location on a post, tap the location button before publishing, or edit the post afterward to remove or change it.
  • You can turn off location services in your phone's settings to prevent Facebook from tracking your real-time location.
  • Your privacy settings control who can see your location, so check those after making changes if you want to limit visibility.

Changing Your Hometown or City on Your Profile

Open Facebook on your phone or computer and go to your profile by tapping your name or photo. On a phone, tap the three horizontal lines at the bottom right (Android) or top right (iPhone), then tap your name. On a computer, click your name in the top left.

Tap or click "About" below your cover photo. Scroll down to "Basic Information" and look for the "Hometown" or "Current City" field. Tap or click the pencil icon next to it to edit. Type the new city name and select it from the dropdown menu that appears. Tap or click outside the field or press Enter to save. The change takes effect when ready.

If you do not see a location field, your privacy settings may be hiding it. Go back to "About," scroll to the top, and look for "Who can see your basic info?" — change this to "Public" or "Friends" if you want the location field to appear and be editable.

Removing or Changing Location on Individual Posts

When you create a new post, Facebook may offer to add your current location automatically. Before you publish, look for a location button (usually a pin icon) below the text box. Tap or click it to see the location Facebook detected. You can remove it entirely by tapping the X next to the location name, or tap the location itself to search for a different one.

If you have already published a post with a location, you can edit it. Tap the three dots in the top right corner of the post and select "Edit Post." Tap the location button again to remove it or change it to somewhere else. Save your changes.

Posts you make without adding a location manually will not show a location tag, even if Facebook knows where your phone is. Location tags are only added when you explicitly select them or when you have location tagging turned on in your settings.

Turning Off Automatic Location Detection

Facebook can detect your location through your phone's GPS, your internet address, or your phone's Bluetooth and WiFi signals. If you want to prevent Facebook from knowing where you are, you can turn off location services for the app itself.

On an iPhone, go to Settings, scroll to "Facebook," tap it, and select "Location." Choose "Never" to stop Facebook from accessing your location. On Android, go to Settings, tap "Apps" or "Applications," find Facebook, tap "Permissions," and toggle "Location" off.

Turning off location services does not delete your profile location or change past posts — it only stops Facebook from detecting your real-time location going forward. You can still manually add a location to posts if you choose to.

Controlling Who Sees Your Location

Your profile location visibility is controlled by your privacy settings. Go to your profile, tap "About," and scroll to the top. Look for "Who can see your basic info?" — this controls whether your hometown or city appears to the public, friends only, or nobody.

For posts with location tags, the privacy setting on that individual post controls who sees the location. When you create a post, you can set it to "Public," "Friends," "Friends Except," or "Only Me" before you publish. The location tag respects that setting.

If you want to hide your location from everyone but still keep it on your profile for your own reference, set "Who can see your basic info?" to "Only Me." Your location will not appear on your timeline, but you will still see it when you view your own profile.

What Happens When You Change Your Location

When you change your hometown or city on your profile, the change is visible when ready to anyone who can see that information based on your privacy settings. Old posts do not update — if you posted from "Boston" five years ago, that post still says Boston even if you move to Seattle.

Changing your current location on a post only affects that post. Other posts keep their original location tags. If you remove a location from a post, the location disappears from that post but remains on any other posts where you tagged it.

Facebook's ad targeting updates based on your current location (where your phone is) and your profile location. If you change your profile location, advertisers may see you as being in a different area, which can affect what ads you see. This change takes effect within a few hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I hide my location from Facebook entirely?

Yes. Turn off location services for the Facebook app in your phone's settings, and set your profile privacy to "Only Me" so your hometown does not appear publicly. You can still manually add a location to posts if you want to, but Facebook will not automatically detect where you are.

Does changing my location on Facebook change it on Instagram or WhatsApp?

No. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are separate apps with separate location settings. You must change the location in each app individually if you want to update all of them. However, if you use the same phone and turn off location services globally, it affects all three.

Why does Facebook keep showing my old location?

If you changed your profile location but old posts still show the previous location, that is normal — Facebook does not retroactively update past posts. If your current location keeps reverting to an old city, check that location services are off in your phone settings, or that you have not accidentally turned on location tagging in Facebook's settings.

Can someone else see my real-time location on Facebook?

Only if you have turned on location services for Facebook and you manually tag your location in a post. Facebook does not share your real-time GPS location with other users. Friends can only see the location you explicitly add to a post or the hometown you put on your profile.

What is the difference between hometown and current city?

Hometown is where you grew up or where you consider home — it stays the same unless you change it. Current city is where you live now. Both appear on your profile, and both can be edited separately. You can have a hometown of Boston and a current city of Seattle, for example.