Edit Your Facebook Profile Picture Thumbnail

Love your Facebook profile picture but don’t love your thumbnail? You can go into your Facebook profile and edit your thumbnail to include all the best parts of your larger profile picture, which especially helpful if you have a logo as your profile picture.

Steps

Editing Your Facebook Thumbnail on a Computer

  1. Go to your Facebook profile page. You can find your profile page by going to Facebook and then clicking on your name in the navigation bar at the top of the page next to your photo.
    • Note: This is the only method that truly lets you edit only your thumbnail. While you can edit your profile picture on the Facebook app, or via the mobile site, you can’t edit only the thumbnail with those methods.
    • Alternatively, in your browser, type “www.facebook.com/[your name].
    • You can also click your name on the top of the left sidebar from your homepage.
  2. Hover your mouse over your thumbnail. An option to “Update Profile Picture” should pop up. Click on your profile picture.[1]
  3. Navigate to the “Edit Thumbnail” Option. Once you click on your thumbnail a box will pop up with several options. You will have the option to upload a photo, take a photo, a pencil icon, and you should see all of your photos below.
    • Next to the “Take Photo” option is a pencil icon. Click that to edit your thumbnail.
  4. Edit your thumbnail. Once you’ve clicked the pencil, a new box will pop up with your current profile picture as it currently looks. You will have the option to zoom in or out with a scroll bar the bottom, and then you can reposition it to show the area you want.
    • If you zoom in your profile picture, the area of the photo that will be shown will remain clear inside the square box. The area that will be cut out will be faded.
    • Make sure that your original profile picture is large enough to be resized and zoomed on so it looks clear. The smallest your profile picture can be is 180 pixels wide.[2]
  5. Click and drag on your photo to reposition it. Once you are zoomed in to your liking. Click and hold on your photo, then drag it around until you have the parts of the photo you want inside the box.
    • Once you are satisfied, click the blue “Save” button.
    • You will be automatically redirected to your profile page where you can make sure that the photo looks correct.

Editing Your Facebook Thumbnail on the Facebook App

  1. Open up your Facebook app on your smartphone. Navigate to the homepage of your Facebook App.
    • Note: While you can zoom and reposition your picture on the Facebook app, it will make these changes to your profile picture as a whole. There isn’t currently a way to only edit the thumbnail on the Facebook app.
    • If you are on a page where you don’t have the “News Feed”, “Requests”, “Messenger”, “Notifications”, and “More” options, for example, if you’re looking at someone’s photos, click the “X” in the upper left hand corner.
  2. Tap the “More” button. On the bottom right of your screen you will see an icon with three lines stacked vertically above the option for “More”.
    • Tapping this button will bring you to a page that lists your profile and name, any pages you manage, and other options like friends, events, and groups.
    • If you’re using an Android phone, you may not have the “More” option, instead you will tap on your phone’s menu button.[3]
  3. Tap on your profile. At the top of the “More” page is your name and a thumbnail of your profile picture. Tapping on that will bring you to your profile page.
    • Once on your profile page, you should now see your cover photo, name, profile picture thumbnail, and options below.
    • You will also see two slightly transparent camera icons. One on the bottom right of your cover photo, and one on the bottom right of your profile thumbnail. You want to make sure you tap your profile thumbnail and not your cover photo.[2]
  4. Tap on your profile picture. You will see a pop up with three options: “Upload From Camera Roll”, “Choose Tagged Photo”, “View Profile Picture”. You want to click the “Choose Tagged Photo” option.
    • Clicking the “View Profile Picture” option will bring to your current profile picture, but you cannot edit the thumbnail from here.
  5. Find your current profile pic. Once you tap the “Choose From Tagged Photos” options, you will be brought to a screen with all the photos of you. Navigate to the picture you are using, and tap it.
  6. Move and scale your photo. You can now pinch and zoom your Facebook profile picture and move it around to your liking.
    • Once you have your photo the way you want it, tap “Done” in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Editing Your Facebook Thumbnail on Facebook Mobile

  1. Go to your profile page. To get to your profile on your mobile browser, go to Facebook and then tap on the three stacked lines in the top right hand corner of the navigation bar at the top of the page.
    • Note: This method, like the app method will only let you make changes to your actual profile picture which will be represented in your thumbnail.
    • Once you tap, you will be brought to a page that shows your profile picture and name at the top.
  2. Tap on your name to go to your profile. Once on your profile page, click on your profile picture.
    • You will be brought to a screen with your profile picture and links below it.
  3. Tap the “Edit Photo” link. You will now be brought to a page that displays your profile picture, and has options to rotate the photo left, right, or delete.
    • While this isn’t a permanent fix, you can quickly upload a new photo clicking the “Change Profile Picture” link instead of “Edit Photo” and upload a photo you edited either on your iPhone/iPad, or Android phone.
    • This will allow you to have a version of your photo that you like until you can properly change the thumbnail via your computer using Method 1.



Tips

  • Go to Facebook’s Help Center if you are having any trouble modifying your Facebook thumbnail.
  • Try to have profile images/logos with the important stuff towards the center of the picture.
  • Currently, the only way to truly edit your thumbnail without editing your entire photo is to use method 1 on your desktop computer.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/help/146846195386449
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.facebook.com/help/388305657884730/
  3. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/help/android-app/163248423739693
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