Guide
How to make a Pinterest board public.
Updated · Lucas Viegas · Menu paths checked on pinterest.com
To make a Pinterest board public, open the board, click the ellipsis (…) icon, choose Edit info and settings, toggle Make this board private off, and click Done. The board is readable within seconds.
Everything below is the version-by-version detail: the exact path on the web, on iPhone and on Android, what a secret board actually blocks, and what to do if you would rather keep your original board private.
“Secret” and “private” are the same switch
Pinterest renamed secret boards to private boards. Board settings now read Make this board private, while the board-creation screen still says Keep this board secret. Both control the same thing, and Pinterest offers no third option, a board is either public or private, with no unlisted or link-only setting in between.
How do I make a board public on the web?
This is the shortest path, and the one to fall back on whenever the mobile app moves something.
pinterest.com in a browser
- 1Log in to Pinterest and click your profile picture in the top-right corner of the screen to open your profile.
- 2Click the board you want to make public.
- 3Click the ellipsis icon (…) at the right of the screen.
- 4Click Edit info and settings.
- 5Scroll down and toggle Make this board private off.
- 6Click Done.
To check it worked, open the board’s URL in a private browsing window while logged out. If the pins load for a logged-out visitor, the board is public.
How do I make a board public on iPhone or Android?
The Pinterest mobile apps hide the same switch behind different menus, which is where most people give up. On Android you go through the Boards tab first, and the menu item is called Edit board and header image rather than Edit info and settings.
iPhone (Pinterest for iOS)
- 1Open the Pinterest app and tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner.
- 2Tap the board you want to edit.
- 3Tap the ellipsis icon (…) in the top-right corner, then select Edit info and settings.
- 4Toggle Make this board private off.
- 5Tap Done.
Android
- 1Open the Pinterest app and tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner.
- 2Tap Boards at the top of the screen.
- 3Tap the board you want to edit.
- 4Tap the ellipsis icon (…) in the top-right corner, then select Edit board and header image.
- 5Toggle Make this board private off.
- 6Tap Done.
If a Pinterest app update has moved these menus, open pinterest.com in Safari or Chrome and use the web steps above instead. The switch is the same one either way.
What does a secret board actually mean?
A secret board, now called a private board, is visible only to you and to the people you have invited to it. It does not show on your Pinterest profile, in Pinterest search, or in anyone else’s feed.
Pinterest publishes public boards through a public widget system: the same mechanism that lets any website embed a Pinterest board. That endpoint is addressed by username and board name, and returns a batch of roughly 50 of the board’s pins. Ask it for a board it cannot see and it answers Board not found.
VisionWall reads boards through exactly that endpoint. So do Pinterest embeds on other websites, and so does every other third-party wallpaper, screensaver or gallery tool. None of them can read a private board, because Pinterest never serves one publicly. This is a Pinterest design decision, not a limitation of any single app.
| Board type | Who can see it | Readable by the public widget API | Works with VisionWall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public board | Anyone with the link | Yes | Yes |
| Private board (formerly “secret”) | You and invited collaborators | No, returns “Board not found.” | No |
| Public group board | Anyone with the link | Yes | Yes |
| Private group board | Owner and invited collaborators | No, the invite is not public access | No |
| A section inside a public board | Anyone with the link | Not addressable on its own | No |
What if I don’t want to make my board public?
Make a second board instead. Create a new board, leave it public, and save the images you actually want on your desktop into it. Your original board stays private and untouched, and you point VisionWall at the public copy.
This is the honest workaround rather than a trick: a public board on Pinterest is genuinely public, it appears on your profile and can turn up in Pinterest search. A wallpaper board is usually a subset of a bigger private board anyway, so splitting it out tends to produce a tighter composition on screen as well.
Can a collaborative or group board be public?
Yes. A group board on Pinterest is an ordinary board whose owner has invited collaborators to it, so its privacy setting is separate from its collaborators. A public group board is readable exactly like any other public board.
A private group board is not. An invite lets a specific person join the board inside Pinterest, but it does not publish the board, so an invite-only board behaves exactly like a secret board for VisionWall and for every embed. Only the board’s owner can change the privacy setting, if you are a collaborator rather than the owner, you will need to ask them.
Can I use a single section of a board?
No, VisionWall reads whole boards, not sections. A section URL looks like pinterest.com/username/board-name/section-name/. VisionWall keeps the username and the board name and ignores the rest, so pasting a section URL quietly loads the entire parent board. There is no error message, just more images than you expected.
Pinterest’s public widget endpoint addresses a board by username and board name only. There is no section parameter, so no third-party tool can target one section through it. If you want a single section on your desktop, give it its own public board.
Using a public board with VisionWall
Copy the board URL from your browser’s address bar, a pin.it share link works too, and paste it into VisionWall. Your Mac’s wallpaper becomes a rotating masonry composition of that board’s pins, reshuffled on a timer you set anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 hours.
You can flip the board back to private at any time. The wallpaper already on screen stays put, because VisionWall composes from images it has already downloaded to your Mac; later refreshes simply stop finding new pins.
“Board not found, make sure it’s set to public on Pinterest.”
Pinterest refused to hand over the board. Either the board is still private, or the username and board name in the URL don’t match a real board.
“That’s a link to a single pin, open the board it belongs to and copy that board’s URL instead.”
You pasted a pinterest.com/pin/… URL. Open the pin, click through to the board it lives on, and copy that URL.
“Couldn’t read that board URL. Expected pinterest.com/user/board-name/”
The text in the field isn’t a Pinterest board address at all, usually a search results page, a profile page, or a truncated paste.
Pinterest board as a Mac wallpaper
The full setup, from copying the board URL to tuning the layout.
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