When you use Mastodon, your public profile and posts are visible to anyone by default. Search engines can index your profile, and users on other instances can find your posts in the federated timeline. If you want to limit who can see your posts and profile details, you can lock your account to followers only. This article explains how to change your privacy settings so your Mastodon account is discoverable only to people you approve as followers.
Key Takeaways: Lock Your Mastodon Account for Follower-Only Visibility
- Preferences > Account > Make posts private: Toggle the “Lock account” option to require follower approval for all new followers.
- Preferences > Privacy and reach > Default post privacy: Set the default to “Followers only” so all new posts are hidden from non-followers.
- Preferences > Privacy and reach > Advanced web interface: Enable the advanced interface to quickly switch post visibility per post without changing the default.
Understanding Mastodon Account Privacy and Discoverability
Mastodon offers four visibility levels for your posts: public, unlisted, followers-only, and direct. By default, your account is set to public, meaning anyone on the internet can see your posts and profile. When you lock your account, new followers must be approved by you. Existing followers remain unaffected. Locking does not hide your existing posts retroactively unless you change their visibility individually. The discoverability setting affects how your profile appears in search results, both on Mastodon and external search engines like Google. To make your account discoverable only to followers, you must combine locking your account with setting your default post visibility to followers-only.
What Happens When You Lock Your Account
Locking your account adds a padlock icon to your profile. New users who want to follow you must send a follow request. You receive a notification and can approve or deny the request. Existing followers keep their access. Your public profile page still shows your avatar, header image, display name, and bio. However, your posts are not visible to users who are not approved followers. The federated timeline no longer shows your posts to users on other instances unless they follow you.
What Happens When You Set Posts to Followers-Only
When you set your default post visibility to followers-only, every new post you create is automatically hidden from non-followers. These posts do not appear in the public timeline, the federated timeline, or search results. They are only visible to your approved followers. You can still change the visibility of individual posts when composing them. For example, you can make a specific post public even if your default is followers-only.
Steps to Lock Your Mastodon Account and Set Posts to Followers-Only
Follow these steps to make your Mastodon account discoverable only to followers. You need to be logged into your Mastodon instance. The steps are the same for the web interface on both desktop and mobile browsers.
- Open your preferences
Click the gear icon in the right sidebar or go to Preferences from the user menu in the top right corner of Mastodon. - Go to Account settings
In the left navigation menu, click Account. This page shows your display name, bio, and account-level settings. - Enable Lock account
Scroll down to the Lock account section. Check the box next to “Require follow requests.” This locks your account. New followers must be approved by you. - Save changes
Click the Save changes button at the bottom of the page. Your account is now locked. - Go to Privacy and reach settings
In the left navigation menu, click Privacy and reach. This page controls post visibility and discoverability. - Set Default post privacy to Followers-only
Under Default post privacy, select “Followers only” from the dropdown menu. This makes all new posts visible only to your approved followers. - Disable search engine indexing (optional but recommended)
Below the default post privacy setting, uncheck the box that says “Include public posts in search results.” This prevents search engines like Google from indexing your public profile and posts. - Save changes
Click the Save changes button. Your account is now set to followers-only visibility.
Common Issues When Making Mastodon Account Follower-Only
Even after locking your account and setting posts to followers-only, some visibility issues may remain. Below are the most frequent problems and how to fix them.
Existing Public Posts Still Visible to Non-Followers
Locking your account and changing the default post privacy only affects future posts. Existing public posts remain public. To hide them, you must change their visibility individually. Go to your profile, open each post, click the three-dot menu, and select Change visibility. Choose “Followers only” or “Direct.” This is tedious for many posts. Alternatively, you can delete and repost them with the new default setting.
Profile Page Still Shows Public Information
Your profile page, including your avatar, header image, display name, and bio, remains visible to everyone even when your account is locked. Mastodon does not allow hiding profile metadata from non-followers. If you want to keep your identity private, do not include personal information in your bio or profile images. Consider using a pseudonym.
Direct Messages Still Visible to Recipients
Direct messages are always visible to the recipients, regardless of your account privacy settings. Locking your account does not affect direct messages. To ensure a direct message stays private, only send it to trusted followers. Remember that instance administrators can see direct messages on their server.
Mastodon Account Visibility Options: Public vs Locked vs Followers-Only
| Item | Public Account | Locked Account | Followers-Only Posts |
|---|---|---|---|
| New follower approval | Automatic, no approval needed | Requires your approval | Requires your approval |
| Default post visibility | Public | Unchanged from your setting | Followers-only |
| Posts in public timeline | Visible | Visible if set to public | Hidden |
| Posts in federated timeline | Visible | Visible if set to public | Hidden |
| Profile page visibility | Visible to everyone | Visible to everyone | Visible to everyone |
| Search engine indexing | Indexed by default | Indexed by default unless disabled | Indexed by default unless disabled |
Now you can control who sees your Mastodon posts by locking your account and setting the default post privacy to followers-only. Start by enabling the lock account option in your account settings. Then change the default post privacy in the privacy and reach settings. For complete privacy, disable search engine indexing and change the visibility of any existing public posts you want to hide. To quickly toggle post visibility per post without changing the default, enable the advanced web interface in Preferences > Appearance > Enable advanced web interface. This gives you a per-post visibility dropdown in the compose box.