What the profile control actually changes
The task has two parts, and they are often confused. The first is the list of groups that appears on your Meetup profile. The second is what a group’s own pages show about who belongs to it. Turning off the profile list addresses the first and not, by itself, the second.
Meetup lets members hide the group list on their profile through the Show Meetup groups privacy control. Source
That gives you a clear scope: the control is about the profile list, not a global membership switch. The next section explains why the difference matters before you decide you are done.
Why hiding the list is not the whole task
A profile list is a summary someone can read in one place. Membership information attached to a group is a different surface, and it can remain visible even after the summary is gone.
Hiding that profile list does not necessarily hide membership elsewhere on Meetup; group visibility still affects what others can see. Source
So the honest position is: you can hide the list, but you cannot assume that act hides attendance or membership everywhere. Whether a given group page still shows you depends on that group’s visibility, which is why the checklist below asks you to look rather than assume.
Step 1: Turn off Show Meetup groups
- Sign in and open your own profile settings, where profile privacy controls are listed.
- Find the control labelled Show Meetup groups.
- Switch it off, then save if the interface requires saving.
- Reload your public profile view and confirm the group list is no longer shown there.
If you cannot find the control, treat that as unresolved rather than guessing. Menu placement and labels can differ by app version, platform and account type, and the reviewed claims do not establish a single current menu path. Note what you see and check again later, or use Meetup’s own help resources, rather than assuming the setting does not exist.
A second failure path: you toggle the control but the list still appears. Possible causes include a cached view, a different profile surface (for example a mobile app view versus a browser view), or a save step you missed. Re-check in a fresh view before concluding anything.
Step 2: Check what each group page still shows
Hiding the profile list does not answer the group-page question, so check the groups that matter to you one at a time. This is a proposed reader checklist, not a test we ran; the results depend on each group’s own visibility.
| Check | What to look at | Possible result | How to record it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your profile list | Your public profile as others see it | List hidden / list still visible | Confirmed hidden, or unresolved |
| Group member directory | The group’s member list or members page | You appear / you do not appear / no list visible to you | Record exactly what you saw |
| Group activity surfaces | Places in the group where members are named | Name shown / not shown / cannot tell | Leave unresolved if unclear |
| Your group profile | Any per-group profile or intro visible to members | Visible / not visible / unknown | Note which group |
| Other people’s view | Ask someone you trust to look, only if you choose to | Reported result | Second-hand, not proof |
Keep unknown results unknown. “I could not tell” is a valid entry and is more useful than a guess, because it tells you where to look again. Do not convert a missing member list into proof that you are hidden; the list may simply not be shown to you while you are signed in.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating the toggle as a full privacy reset. It covers the profile list, not membership everywhere.
- Reading group membership as a belief. Joining a group does not establish a person’s opinions, politics or intentions, and you should not infer them from a group name.
- Contacting other members to ask what they can see. That is not required by this task and puts the question to people who did not ask for it. Checking your own view and, if you wish, one trusted person’s report is enough.
- Assuming absence means deletion. A hidden list is a display change, not evidence that any record was removed.
Where a username lookup fits, and where it does not
If your wider concern is which public profiles are associated with a name or handle, the related task is to review the related account task. That is a different question from Meetup privacy settings, and the two should not be mixed.
TraceSeek is a separate public-username lookup app. It searches publicly accessible profile candidates using a supplied username, across 3,000+ platforms, with a free first scan and a documented username scan stated at 20–30 seconds. It cannot change your Meetup settings, recover private accounts or verify identity. A public username match is a lead, not proof that two accounts belong to the same person, and no result should be read as a complete account inventory.
A realistic order of work
- Hide the profile group list and confirm it on your public profile.
- Walk the group checklist for the groups that matter, recording confirmed and unresolved items separately.
- Re-check unresolved items later in a fresh view, noting the date and what you saw.
- Only then decide whether anything further is needed, and keep the limits above in mind.
This order keeps a display change separate from membership visibility, so you do not mistake one for the other.