Download Facebook Videos For Free
Found a video on Facebook that you just have to save? Afraid the person is going to remove it before you have a chance to really enjoy it? Want to transfer the video to your phone to watch later? To do any of this, you’ll need to download the video from Facebook. Follow this guide to download any video that someone uploads to Facebook, even if it’s set to private!
Contents
Steps
Downloading Facebook Videos
- Determine if the video is hosted by Facebook. Facebook allows the linking of videos from a variety of sites, and users can also host videos directly on Facebook. You can see what the host is underneath the preview and title of the video. If there is no host listed, then the video is being hosted on Facebook.
- If the video is being hosted on another site, such as YouTube, follow Download YouTube Videos-in-High-Definition.
- Right-click on the link to the video. Select “Copy link address” from the menu that appears. Alternatively, you can load the video and then copy the URL from your browser’s address bar.
- The address is typically similar to “https://facebook.com/photo.php?v=xxxxxxxxxxxxx” or “https://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=xxxxxxxxxxxxx”.
- Visit a Facebook video downloading service. There are several available online. These sites are ad-supported, and often try to trick you with fake download buttons. Only click the download button directly next to the text field. You will have the best experience using these sites if you set your browser to block ads.
- Paste the URL into the field. Click the download button to the right of the field. This will take you to the download page of the video requested.]
- If you receive a message that the video you are trying to download is Private, just Click the Private Video Downloader and follow the steps there.
- Right-click on the provided download link. Again, depending on the video requested, there would be a Low Quality and a High Quality links, just choose the appropriate link. Right-click on the download link and select “Save link as…”. You can then name the file and set where you want it to download on your computer.
- The video file would be under .mp4 format maybe you'll need a Video Player to play it on your computer.
Downloading Private Facebook Videos
- Open Facebook in Google Chrome. You will need to use the Chrome Web Developer tools to find the link for the private video. Chrome is a free browser that can be downloaded from Google.
- Open the link to the video you want to download. The video should open in its own page.
- Click the Chrome menu button. This is located in the upper-right corner of the window. It looks like three horizontal lines. Hover your cursor over Tools, and then select “Developer tools”. You will see a small bar appear at the bottom of the webpage.
- Click the “Undock” button in the bottom-left corner to open the Developer tools in a separate window. This will make it easier to navigate.
- Click the Network tab in the Developer tools. This will open a list of all of the items on the current webpage.
- Play the video. In order for the video to appear, you will need to play it from start to finish in the Facebook window. Once the video is complete, click the “Type” column to sort the list of objects by their file type. Scroll down until you find one labeled “video/mp4”.
- If you play the video and don’t see the file, keep the Developer tools open and refresh the Facebook page with the video. Play it again from start to finish, and check the list. You may have to do this several times for it to appear.
- Right-click on the video address in the “Name” column. Select “Open link in new tab”. A new tab will open with just the video.
- Right-click on the video. Select “Save video as…” and then choose where you want to save the video and what you want to name it.
Tips
- You will need a video player that is capable of playing the videos that you download. If you are having difficulty playing the files, try using VLC media player.
