How to Change Your Birthday on Facebook

Facebook stores your birthday as part of your profile's basic information — and yes, you can change it. But depending on how many times you've edited it before, what device you're using, and how your account is set up, the process can look slightly different. Here's what you need to know.

Why Your Birthday Matters on Facebook

Facebook uses your birthday for a few distinct purposes:

• Profile display: It can be shown to friends, a limited audience, or kept private entirely
• Birthday reminders: Friends get notified on your actual birthday (based on what's saved)
• Age verification and ad targeting: Facebook uses your birth year internally, even if you hide it from others
• Account recovery: In some regions, birthdate is used as a verification signal

Getting it right — or correcting an error — is a reasonable thing to want to do.

How to Change Your Birthday on Facebook (Desktop)

The most reliable way to edit your birthday is through a full browser on a desktop or laptop.

1. Log into your Facebook account
2. Navigate to your Profile page
3. Click Edit profile (below your cover photo)
4. Scroll to the Basic Info section and click Edit
5. Locate the Birthday field
6. Update the day, month, and/or year using the dropdown menus
7. Adjust the audience setting (who can see your birthday) if needed
8. Click Save

The change takes effect immediately on your profile.

How to Change Your Birthday on Facebook (Mobile App)

The steps are slightly different on iOS and Android, but the path is essentially the same:

1. Open the Facebook app and tap your profile picture to go to your profile
2. Tap Edit profile
3. Scroll down to find Basic info and tap Edit
4. Tap your birthday to expand the field
5. Adjust the date using the picker
6. Tap Save

📱 The mobile app interface does get updated periodically, so the exact labels or button positions may shift slightly between app versions. If you can't find it immediately, look for an "About" section or a pencil/edit icon near your bio area.

The Birthday Edit Limit: What Facebook Actually Restricts

This is where things get more nuanced. Facebook places a limit on how frequently you can change your birthday. Specifically:

• You can only change your birthday a limited number of times within a set window (typically a small number of edits per year)
• Once you've hit that limit, the fields become locked, and Facebook will prompt you to submit a request for review

If you see a message saying you can't change your birthday right now, it means you've reached that threshold. In that case:

• Facebook may ask you to submit identification documents to verify your correct birth date
• The review process can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks
• There's no guaranteed outcome — Facebook's support team makes the final call

This restriction exists primarily to prevent misuse of age settings, particularly around features that are restricted to users above a certain age.

Controlling Who Sees Your Birthday

Changing the date and controlling visibility are two separate settings. Even after you update your birthday, you control how much of it is shared:

You can mix and match — for example, showing your month and day to friends while keeping your birth year private. These settings live in the same Basic Info section where you'd edit the date itself.

When the Edit Option Doesn't Appear

A few situations can make the birthday field harder to find or temporarily unavailable:

• Older app versions: If your Facebook app hasn't been updated recently, the UI may differ significantly from current documentation
• Account restrictions: Accounts flagged for policy violations may have limited profile editing capabilities
• Business or creator accounts: If your personal profile is linked to a Page or has certain professional features enabled, some personal info settings may be in a different location
• Regional differences: Facebook's feature rollouts aren't always simultaneous globally

🔍 If you're having trouble locating the field at all, trying the desktop browser version often gives you more consistent access to profile settings than the mobile app does.

What Doesn't Change Automatically

Updating your birthday on Facebook doesn't automatically:

• Update your birthday on Instagram (even if accounts are linked — Meta accounts share some data but birthday settings are managed separately per platform)
• Change information on any third-party apps that pulled your Facebook birthday via login permissions
• Alter any historical posts or birthday wall posts already made by friends

Each platform and connected service maintains its own stored data.

The Variable That Makes This Personal

Most people update their Facebook birthday once and are done. But for users who've already hit the edit limit, or who are dealing with account restrictions, or who are trying to manage birthday visibility across linked Meta products — the right path depends on exactly where your account stands right now. The same steps apply to everyone, but how much flexibility you actually have at the moment you try to make the change is something only your own account history and current status can tell you.