Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

Facebook is rolling out new ways for users to customize their feed, the social network announced on Wednesday. Beginning today, you will start to see new “Show more” or “Show less” buttons on posts from the people and communities that you’re connected to or on posts that are recommended to you. Facebook is also going to start testing the the new feature with Reels.

The company says that if you select the “Show more” option, it will temporarily increase the ranking score for that post and similar ones. If you select the “Show less” option, you will temporarily decrease its ranking score. A spokesperson from Facebook told TechCrunch that the selections you make influence the posts you see for 60 days. The company says it chose this time frame because its research showed that people want these preferences to last for at least a few weeks, and also because Facebook wants to keep up with peoples’ changing preferences.

Currently, Facebook only lets you hide posts from people you follow or those it suggests. Now, the company is rolling out tools for posts from your friends and recommended posts.

Facebook will periodically show the “Show less” and “Show more” options to users. Soon, users will be able to access the buttons at any time by tapping into the three-dot menu in the upper-right hand corner. The social network says that by giving users a new way to provide direct feedback about ranking, it will be able to make its AI systems smarter and more responsive.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

Image Credits: Meta

Facebook also announced today that it’s testing new settings to allow users to customize how much content they see in their feed from the friends and family, Groups, Pages and public figures they’re connected to. The new settings will allow users to select which posts they want to see more or less. For instance, you can choose to see a “normal” amount of posts from your friends and family, while choosing to see “less” posts from the pages and public figures you follow.

“Features like these can help you discover more of the content that’s valuable to you, so you can see more of what you want and less of what you don’t,” the company said in a blog post. “As with every product change we make, we’ll use direct feedback to continually refine our approach.”

With the changes announced today, it’s possible that Facebook is looking to address complaints from users who say their feed is filled with too many posts that they’re not actually interested in. The new user controls should help address these issues by giving users more control over the content that appears in their feeds.

It’s also worth noting that Facebook likely wants to better train its algorithm to learn which posts and Reels people actually want to see, especially as its parent company Meta competes with TikTok, which is notorious for its game-changing algorithm. Considering that Facebook will test the new controls with Reels, Facebook likely is looking for ways to get more people engaged with its short-form video product.

You are here: Home / Facebook Tips / How to See More Friends Posts on Facebook: Take Control!

What’s in your Facebook newsfeed?

Bunch o’ junk you don’t care to see?

Do you miss seeing posts from friends, and the Facebook Pages you adore?

Take control NOW! Here’s how.

UPDATED September 2022 with NEW Feed Preferences.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

We’ll run through some newsfeed basics, then delve into how you can see what YOU want to see!

What Shows Up on Facebook Newsfeed?

Facebook Feed is the constantly updating list of stories on your Facebook home page.

It includes status updates, photos, videos, links, app activity and likes from people, Pages and groups that you follow on Facebook.

Posts that you see in your Facebook Feed are meant to keep you connected to the people, places and things that you care about, starting with your friends and family.

Adam Mosseri, “Head of News Feed,” will clue you in on how FB determines what to show you:

Facebook shows you what they decide to show you

Here’s the deal. When the average Facebook user logs on, there are potentially thousands of posts from their friends and “liked” business Pages that could be shown to them.

In 2013, Facebook said the average was 1,500 stories, and in 2014, they said it could be up to 15,000. Who knows how many by now!!

For many years, Facebook has NOT been showing you ALL those posts. In fact, there’s no way you could find them all, even if you spent all day and tried really hard 🙂

The FB feed is NOT a waterfall feed, like Twitter, where the most recent posts are shown at the top, and all posts from everyone you follow are shown in chronological order. Nope.

Facebook uses a mysterious Ranking algorithm (formerly called Edgerank) to determine which posts you get to see.

The Facebook Feed algorithm attempts to figure out which posts you most want to see.

Posts that you see first are influenced by your connections and activity on Facebook. The number of comments, likes and reactions a post receives and what kind of story it is (example: photo, video, status update) can also make it more likely to appear higher up in your News Feed.

Posts that you might see first include:

  • A friend or family member commenting on or liking another friend’s photo or status update.
  • A person reacting to a post from a publisher that a friend has shared.
  • Multiple people replying to each other’s comments on a video they watched or an article they read in News Feed.

This screenshot shows what Facebook purports to show you as of September 2022:

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

Keep in mind that if you feel you’re missing posts you’d like to see, or seeing posts in your Feed that you don’t want to see, you can adjust your settings. We’ll dive into that below!

If there’s a friend or Page whose posts you want in your newsfeed, be sure to to interact with the posts that you do see.

If you’re not seeing any, go to their page and leave likes and comments on a few recent posts.

If you want to see their posts, never hide their posts.

P.S. Please don’t ever hide Fan Page posts – if you don’t like what they post, it’s better for the business if you “unlike” or unfollow the Page.

It’s an algorithm thing 😉

You might also like: Why Can’t I Send a Friend Request on Facebook?

How Can I Fix my Facebook News Feed?

We will first cover how to see the most recent posts, then go into fine-tuning exactly what you do and don’t want to see!

How to see the most recent posts on Facebook

The Facebook News Feed default is to show you the “Top Stories.” That means you’re going to see the posts that have a lot of comments and likes, not what was posted most recently.

Even worse, the more comments and likes they continue to get, the more likely you’ll see the same stories again at the top of your Facebook news feed.

But you can easily change this priority to “Most Recent.” Note: This content was checked on September 19, 2022 and still works.

On desktop, just go to the home page (newsfeed) and click “See more” in the left sidebar.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

Then scroll down, down, down until you see “Most Recent.”

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

Click this and your News Feed will instantly change to the most recent post instead of the most popular post. You can see in the first screenshot, the top post was posted 12 hours ago, and in the second screenshot, it was posted “Just now.”

How to see the most recent posts on Facebook mobile

This is equally easy to set up on mobile. Note that you have to redo this every time you open the app!

From the Facebook news feed or your profile, tap the hamburger menu in the bottom right corner.

Under All shortcuts, scroll down until you see Recent and favorites. You may need to tap See more for it to show.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

Simply tap it and you’ll be taken the Recent feed. From here you can also choose to view the Favorites feed.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

You can set more granular preferences to see more posts that you want to see, and fewer of those you don’t.

Here’s how: “Favorite” up to 30 friends and Pages, unfollow others, and reconnect to ones you miss later. Or you can “Snooze” them for a time.

Note: Finding the preference settings has been completely changed as of September 19, 2022.

How to edit your Facebook Feed preferences on desktop

1 | Click your mini profile picture in the top right corner of any Facebook page.

2 | Choose Settings & Privacy.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

3 | On the next tab, choose Feed. (It seems they no longer call it News Feed).

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

4 | Uh oh, Facebook is trying something new!

Now you can test out more ways to better control your News Feed. We’ll let you know if this feature goes away.

Well, I did not find better ways to control my feed. What I did find was that my previous preferences had disappeared.

Posts from friends and Pages added to Favorites are prioritized, or shown higher, in your News Feed. Some friends and Pages are already prioritized based on info like your past interactions and things you have in common on Facebook. Adding them to Favorites prioritizes them even more.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

I was given 23 Friends and 24 Pages to choose to Favorite. That’s it.

There were Friends from a group I’m active in, and recently added Friends. But none of my old buddies and family members. All 23 choices are new Friends from the past year.

Included were a few Pages I interact with. No idea how they chose the other ones, or why my choices were mostly Pages!

I hope this is a glitch of the change and will be sorted soon.

How to edit Facebook News Feed preferences on mobile

As of September 2022, I could not find Preference settings anywhere on mobile.

1 | Prioritize who to see first in your Facebook feed

Go to the Favorites option. When you add friends and Pages to your Favorites on Facebook, their posts will be shown higher in your News Feed.

Choose whose posts you want to see first, from Facebook friends and “liked” Pages. You can click on the “ALL” button to choose whether to prioritize only friends or only Pages.

Select up to 30 friends you want to see at the top of your news feed! Your selections aren’t ranked. For example, your first selection isn’t seen first, your second selection isn’t seen second.

Once you’ve made your selections with the blue star, click the arrow to go back to set other preferences, or the X if you’re done. Your choices will be saved.

Alternatively, you can click the blue star to un-favorite someone. No worries, they won’t know either way!

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

If you like, you can choose to see ONLY posts from your Favorites. They’ll show newest first, instead of most popular.

  • Go to your News Feed.
  • Click Favorites in the left menu. You may need to click See More to see this option. Now your feed shows ONLY posts from your Favorites.
  • To see posts from everyone else again, click the house icon at the top of Facebook.

The “Favorites feed” resets to “all posts” every time you open Facebook.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

For some reason, you can’t Favorite groups.

2 | How to see all friends’ posts

The way to see ALL friends’ posts on Facebook is to Unfollow people, Pages, and groups you don’t want to see. Leaving just friends!

Click on the next section to choose what you want to stop seeing. When you unfollow someone, you won’t see their posts in News Feed, but you’ll still be “Facebook friends” with them.

Again you can choose to see all kinds at once, or click the “ALL” button to unfollow FB accounts in one category:

  • Friends – but not necessarily the friends you want to see!
  • Pages – business or Fan Pages you “Liked.”
  • Groups you’re a member of.

Either way, you can keep scrolling until you’ve selected all the ones you want to unfollow. Click the blue check to make it gray.

The people, Pages, and groups won’t be notified that you’ve unfollowed their posts.

Click the arrow or the X and move on.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

Another option is to unfollow someone when you see a post of theirs in the feed.

  • Click the 3 dots on the top right of their post.
  • Select Unfollow [Name].

Easy peasy, one and done. Next!

3 | Reconnect with people, Pages, and groups you unfollowed.

If you wish, you can use the next section to re-follow any accounts you previously unfollowed.

You might want to take a minute here to decide if you even want to be connected to these accounts at all.

If you do want to unfriend or unlike, you could right-click to open another browser window and  be done with them once and for all. Totally up to you.

When you’re done with this section, click the arrow or X.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

How to temporarily unfollow a person, Page, or group

The Snooze section prevents you from seeing certain accounts’ posts in your FB Feed for 30 days. The profile, Page, or group won’t know that they’ve been snoozed.

Snooze someone directly in the feed by clicking the 3 dots to the top right of their post. In the preferences, you can only UNdo the Snooze.

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

How to Get Notifications when your friend posts

This used to be a thing, but seems to have been removed with New Facebook.

Previously: To get notified when a friend posts on Facebook, hover the “Friends” button and click on “Get Notifications.”

It’s no longer there.

Time to take control!

We covered a lot:

  • How the news feed works on Facebook.
  • How to see Most Recent posts instead of Top Stories.
  • How to see all friends’ posts on Facebook.
  • How to unfollow and refollow people, Pages, and groups.

Scroll back and review as needed.

Share this post with a friend if you found it useful!

Let us know in a comment if you have any more tips.

You might also enjoy: How to Find a Facebook Account by Phone Number

Why is Facebook only showing a few posts 2022

How do I refresh my Facebook feed 2022?

Click the three horizontal lines menu icon on the top left corner of the screen. Tap on See More. Scroll down and select Most Recent. Refresh Facebook.

How do I get to see all my friends posts on Facebook?

How to See More Friends Post on FB.
On Facebook via your browser, look on the left hand side of the screen and click Most Recent. If you can't see this option, click See More for it to display..
On the Facebook app, tap Menu..
Tap Recent and Favorites to see the most recent posts..

Why are my Facebook posts not showing up?

If Facebook posts aren't showing up on your app, make sure that you are using a Facebook page and not a Facebook personal Timeline (private profile). Click here to read more about Facebook pages.

What happened to Facebook News Feed?

The main news feed will now be known as “Home,” and will act as more of a “discovery engine” based on people's online habits, the company said.