A week after Facebook introduced a tool to add a French flag filter to profile photos, many are seeing their pictures automatically lose their overlaid colours. But for those that didn’t use the special tool are finding it more difficult to change their picures back.

Facebook now allows people to opt to add the filter only temporarily, adding options including those to have the picture for just one hour or one week. But that setting can only be used when changing the photo.

Instead, the quickest way to change the profile picture back is to go to your Facebook profile photo and hover over it. That will bring up an option to “Update Profile Photo”, where you can choose to select a new one or a picture that has been used before.

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The unfiltered version of your profile photo should be the second one along, found immediately after the one featuring the red, white and blue of the French flag.

Users can change their picture to an entirely different one using the same menu, choosing to upload or take a new photo in the same way.

Facebook’s support pages have a number of users complaining that it is too difficult to remove the filter from profile photos. The site gave an easy option for adding the filter but there is no obvious way to remove it again.

The tool has been highly popular since it was introduced in the wake of the Paris attacks last week, when Facebook also turned on its Safety Check feature. But it was controversial, too, with some even arguing that the site was celebrating white supremacy.

Shape Created with Sketch. World's monuments show solidarity with Paris Show all 30 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. World's monuments show solidarity with Paris 1/30 National Portrait Gallery, London, UK 2/30 London Eye, UK 3/30 Sydney Opera House, Australia 4/30 The Christ the Redeemer statue, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 5/30 The Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt 6/30 The HSBC building, Hong Kong, China 7/30 California State University, Long Beach, USA 8/30 US Embassy, Paris 9/30 The Swiss Parliament, Bern, Switzerland 10/30 Chhatrapati Shivaji train station building, Mumbai, India 11/30 The Eiffel Tower, Paris 12/30 Wembley Stadium, London 13/30 The fortress 'Tsarevets', Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria 14/30 The SSE Hydro arena, Glasgow, Scotland 15/30 The Story Bridge, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 16/30 The Perth Council house, Perth, Australia 17/30 Plaza Francia (France's Square), Caracas, Venezuela 18/30 19/30 Penshaw Monument, Sunderland, UK 20/30 St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, Australia 21/30 Chile's presidential palace La Moneda, Santiago, Chile 22/30 23/30 24/30 25/30 De La Salle university, Manila, Philippines 26/30 The Greenland Centre, Jinan city, China 27/30 Calagary Tower, Alberta, Canada 28/30 The Senate building, Mexico City Reuters/Tomas Bravo 29/30 One World Trade Centre, New York, USA 30/30 The Angel de la Independencia monument, Mexico City 1/30 National Portrait Gallery, London, UK 2/30 London Eye, UK 3/30 Sydney Opera House, Australia 4/30 The Christ the Redeemer statue, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 5/30 The Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt 6/30 The HSBC building, Hong Kong, China 7/30 California State University, Long Beach, USA 8/30 US Embassy, Paris 9/30 The Swiss Parliament, Bern, Switzerland 10/30 Chhatrapati Shivaji train station building, Mumbai, India 11/30 The Eiffel Tower, Paris 12/30 Wembley Stadium, London 13/30 The fortress 'Tsarevets', Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria 14/30 The SSE Hydro arena, Glasgow, Scotland 15/30 The Story Bridge, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 16/30 The Perth Council house, Perth, Australia 17/30 Plaza Francia (France's Square), Caracas, Venezuela 18/30 19/30 Penshaw Monument, Sunderland, UK 20/30 St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, Australia 21/30 Chile's presidential palace La Moneda, Santiago, Chile 22/30 23/30 24/30 25/30 De La Salle university, Manila, Philippines 26/30 The Greenland Centre, Jinan city, China 27/30 Calagary Tower, Alberta, Canada 28/30 The Senate building, Mexico City Reuters/Tomas Bravo 29/30 One World Trade Centre, New York, USA 30/30 The Angel de la Independencia monument, Mexico City

The automatically removable filters feature was added soon after the huge success of the rainbow profile photos that were created to support Pride. Many people added those pictures, but were unable to remove them easily – and the question of when to do so caused some anxiety.

Facebook wasn’t the only site to have added the red, white and blue flag to its site. Others including Uber changed their logos or other parts of their products to include the colour.