Dating and Facebook, Photos, etc

My wife and I separated in February and she filed for divorce in June - we are cordial but very much separated in all regards.

I've started seeing someone and the topic of Facebook came up. I've done the obvious like change/hide my relationship status and old profile pictures, but unsurpisingly my timeline and photos are full of my ex. I'm not really sure what to do about this. My marriage lasted most of my adult life and I'm not going to pretend it never happened, or that we didn't have good times.

Equally, I can totally understand no new partner wants to be FB friends when all that is there, any more than they would want me to have my house full of photos of me and the ex! We've talked about it fairly maturely and for now simply agreed not to connect on FB but that's not exactly a solution.

Are there any tools to help with this, rather than going through all my posts and photos one by one and adjusting the privacy?
For those who divorced without hating your exes, how did you handle this?

Could you set up a new account?

Technically you're not supposed to but many do this. Perhaps it's easiest. It would be nice if you could say to FB "archive all content before this date" which would set it all to private. I could still see it all but a new partner wouldn't.

FB does let you download all your content (not widely known) which is very useful. I probably should do that and migrate photos to my main Google account

It's already possible on Facebook. That then means only you can view them and they are removed from your visible profile

Go to your profile > Activity Log > Manage Posts > Filter by date > Archive

Well that's very useful - thanks!

Rickoshea wrote:

It's already possible on Facebook. That then means only you can view them and they are removed from your visible profile

Go to your profile > Activity Log > Manage Posts > Filter by date > Archive

Although looking at this on my browser I don't see a "manage posts" option. I can see a way to archive individual posts and view everything that was already archived but not do anything bulk?

Changing visibility on everything to private (me only) would also work. For that matter, I could add the new lady as a friend and then set previous posts to "all except <new girl name>" but I can't see any tools to do this en masse.

That’s a really relatable dilemma, and it sounds like you’re handling it with a lot of maturity. It makes sense not to erase the past, but also to be mindful of how it might feel for a new partner. There’s no magic tool to wipe the slate clean instantly, but Facebook does allow you to limit visibility on past posts in bulk—check out the “Limit Past Posts” option in settings. You can also create custom friend lists to control who sees what. As for moving forward, online dating could help expand your options, introducing you to people who might be more understanding of your situation. A wider pool of options means you’re more likely to find someone who truly gets where you are in life. If you're looking to meet new people casually, you might find hookup local useful. Keep things at your own pace, and good luck!