How Do I Add an Admin to My Facebook Page?

Short answer: open your Page, go to Settings, then Page setup, then Page access. Next to People with Facebook access, click Add new. Type in their name or email, hit Next, then flip on the toggle for full control before you click Give access. Facebook makes you type your own password to confirm it. That's it. That person is now an admin.

The reason this trips everybody up is that the word admin barely exists in the settings anymore. There used to be a tidy little dropdown with Admin, Editor, Moderator, Advertiser and Analyst in it. That's gone. Now it's split into two buckets with names nobody would guess, and if you don't flip the right toggle you've handed somebody a job title with none of the keys.

Where did the admin setting actually go?

Page access is the screen you want. Getting there from a desktop browser is the shortest path, and I'd tell anybody to do it that way even if they hate computers.

Log into Facebook and switch into your Page using the profile icon in the top right. Then Settings and privacy, then Settings, then look down the left side for Page setup, and inside that, Page access. If you live in Meta Business Suite instead, the same list shows up under Settings and then People, which is a second door into roughly the same room.

You'll see two groups on that screen. People with Facebook access on top, people with task access underneath. Both have their own Add new button, and picking the wrong one is where most of the confusion starts.

What's the difference between Facebook access and task access?

Facebook access means the person works on the Page as themselves, from their own profile, the way you do. Inside that there's a toggle for full control. Toggle on is the old admin. Toggle off gives them most of the day to day stuff but not the keys to the building.

Task access is narrower. You hand out specific jobs like content, messages, community activity, ads, or insights, and that's all they can touch. Somebody with task access never manages the Page from their own profile the way an admin does, and they can't add or remove anybody.

Here's the part worth sitting with for a second. Full control means they can remove you. Not just leave, remove. Anybody with full control can strip access from everybody else on that list, and there is no undo button and no phone number to call. So the person who writes your captions doesn't need it. The kid who answers your DMs doesn't need it. Task access exists exactly for them, and it takes the same thirty seconds to set up.

If you want the ugly version of what happens when this goes wrong, I wrote about getting a hacked Facebook business page back, and almost every one of those stories starts with too many people holding full control.

Why can't I find the person I'm trying to add?

Search by email instead of name. That fixes it maybe eight times out of ten.

Name search leans on your friend connection, so if you've never friended this person, Facebook is showing you a wall of strangers with the same name and none of them are the right one. Their email address is exact and it doesn't care whether you're connected. Get the one attached to their Facebook login, not their work email, unless those happen to be the same.

Also worth knowing: brand new Facebook accounts and accounts that are locked or under review often can't be added at all. If the person you're trying to add just made their profile last Tuesday, tell them to go use it like a normal human for a week first.

Why is the Add new button greyed out?

Almost always because you don't have full control yourself. Plenty of business owners find out this way that they were never actually the admin of their own Page, because the web guy who set it up seven years ago is still the only one on the list.

The other common one is the app. The Facebook mobile app buries these menus in a different place depending on which version you're running, and sometimes the option just isn't there. Open business.facebook.com in a browser on a real computer. I know that's annoying advice. It's still the fastest way through.

If your Page belongs to a business portfolio, permissions can also be getting set at that level instead of on the Page, which means the switch you need is one layer up in Business Manager rather than on the Page screen you're staring at.

They accepted the invite, so why can't they remove anybody?

Because Facebook holds new full control accounts back for about a week before they can strip access from other people. They can post, run ads, answer messages, all of it. They just can't reach over and remove an existing admin yet.

That's on purpose, and it's a good thing. It's the guardrail that stops somebody who phished their way onto your Page from locking out the real owner five minutes later. Annoying when you're doing a legitimate handoff. Worth it every other day of the year.

And before that, there's the pending step. Adding somebody creates an invitation, and it shows up as a Facebook notification rather than an email, which is why so many of these sit untouched for days. Their name will appear in your Page access list looking official while they have no permissions whatsoever. Tell them to log in on a desktop and check their notification bell.

How do I give my agency access without handing over my Page?

Don't add us as an admin. Use partner access instead.

In Meta Business Suite, go to Settings, then Partners, then Add, then the option about giving a partner access to your assets. They'll ask for the partner's business portfolio ID, which is a long number your agency sends you. Then you pick which assets they get, meaning the Page, maybe the ad account, maybe the Instagram, and you save it.

The difference matters. With partner access, your business still owns everything. You're loaning out permission, and you can pull it back yourself from that same screen without asking anybody. With an admin add, you've given a person the ability to remove you from your own Page. When we take on a new client at SFM this is the setup we ask for every single time, and honestly, if an agency insists on being added as a personal admin instead, ask them why. You can see how we handle the whole thing on our social media management services page.

How do I take somebody's access away?

Same screen you added them on. Page access, click the person, and there's a remove option in there. Facebook will ask for your password again.

Go do this once a quarter. Open the list and read it out loud. Most local businesses I look at have two or three people sitting on there who quit years ago, plus a vendor they stopped paying in 2023. Every one of those is a live door into your Page and nobody has thought about it since the day it was opened.

If somebody with full control has gone quiet on you and won't hand things over, that gets ugly fast, and you're looking at a Page ownership dispute with Meta rather than a settings change. Which is the long way of saying it's much easier to keep the list short than to clean it up later.

One last thing while you're in there. Turn on two factor authentication for every account with full control, not just yours. Your Page is exactly as secure as the least careful person on that list, and it's usually not you.

Common questions

How many admins can a Facebook page have?
Facebook doesn't publish a hard cap, and in practice you'll never hit one. The real question is how many you should have. Two or three people with full control is plenty for a local business. Everybody else can sit on task access. Every extra full control account is another way in for somebody who shouldn't be there.

Does adding an admin give them access to my personal Facebook profile?
No. They get access to the Page and nothing else. They can't read your messages, see your photos, or post as you. They will show up publicly as a Page admin in some spots, so if somebody wants that kept quiet, tell them upfront.

Can I add an admin from the Facebook app on my phone?
Usually yes, but desktop is worth the trouble. The mobile menus move around, the setting hides in a different spot depending on your app version, and half the time the option you need just isn't there. If you're stuck on your phone, go to business.facebook.com in a browser instead of the app.

Why does it say the invitation is pending?
Because they haven't accepted it yet. The invite lands as a Facebook notification, not an email, so most people never see it. Tell them to log in on a computer and check their notifications. Until they click accept they have zero permissions, even though their name is sitting right there in your list.

Can I add someone who isn't my Facebook friend?
Yes. Type their email address instead of their name. Friend status has nothing to do with it. Searching by name is just easier when you're already connected, because otherwise you're guessing which of the eleven people with that name is the right one.

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