A computer is the comfortable place to do this. Bigger screen, a real file manager, plenty of storage, and a browser that puts downloads where you expect them.
Download a Facebook video on PC in 3 steps
Copy the video link
Click the date under the post to get its address, or open the … menu and choose Copy link. If the video has its own page, the address bar works too.
Paste it into the extractor
Open the Facebook downloader in another tab and paste. Every kind of Facebook link works, fb.watch included.
Save the MP4
The best available quality is picked for you. Your browser drops it into your usual downloads folder.
Download on your computer now
Works in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari. Nothing to install.
Open the downloaderWhere the file goes
| System | Default place |
|---|---|
| Windows | C:\Users\you\Downloads |
| macOS | ~/Downloads, and the Downloads stack in the Dock |
| Linux | ~/Downloads, or wherever your browser is set to |
If you do this often, set your browser to ask where to save each file. Chrome and Firefox both offer it. Sorting as you go beats digging through four hundred files called video(37).mp4 six months later.
Why you should not install a downloader
Search for this on a computer and half the results push a program to install. That deserves a plain warning.
Getting a public video needs one thing: fetching a web address. A web page does that perfectly well, inside the safe box your browser keeps it in.
A program you install asks for far more. It can read and write anywhere on your disk. It can start with your computer. It can update itself without asking again.
That gap between what the job needs and what the software asks for is the whole problem. It is why this kind of program has such a long history of bundled toolbars, ads and worse. The download is the excuse. The install is the product.
An add-on that downloads Facebook videos needs permission to read the pages you visit. Add-ons also change owners: a useful one gets sold, an update arrives, and the permissions you gave years ago now belong to someone else. Only grant that when a web page genuinely cannot do the job.
Check it is public before you start
The most common failure on a computer has nothing to do with the tool. A video you can see while logged in is not necessarily public. Friends-only posts and closed-group videos look exactly the same in your feed.
Open the link in a private browsing window. If it plays without a login screen, it is public and you can save it. If Facebook asks you to log in, no tool will change that, and any that says otherwise wants your password.
For your own videos, Facebook gives you the file
Check first whether the video is yours. The desktop site has built-in ways, and they give you the real file.
A live you hosted can be downloaded from your video library once the stream has ended, as long as you have not deleted it. Click your profile picture, open your videos, pick the one you want, then the download option in the top-right corner. (Facebook Help)
And if you want everything rather than one video at a time, the download-your-information export includes the media you have shared. Slow, and it arrives as a zip file, but complete.
Which link to copy
Facebook makes different link shapes depending on where you click, and they all lead to the same video:
| Where you clicked | What you get |
|---|---|
| The date under the post | A full address — the most reliable |
| The … menu, Copy link | A share link, often shortened |
| The address bar on a video page | facebook.com/watch/?v=… |
| The Share button on a phone | fb.watch/… |
When something fails, go back to the date link. It carries the post number directly and needs no redirect.
Several videos in a row
Collect the links first, in a text file, then work through them. It is faster than going back and forth, and you end up with a record of what you took.
Rename each file as it arrives too. Facebook gives its videos no useful name, so a batch downloaded today is impossible to tell apart by next week.
Not everything in your feed is a Facebook video
Plenty of failed downloads come from a misunderstanding rather than a fault. The video playing in your feed is not always hosted by Facebook.
When someone shares a YouTube link, Facebook shows an embedded player. The post is on Facebook; the video is not. Same for Vimeo, Twitch, or a news site with its own player.
The clue is easy on a big screen. A Facebook video fills the post and shows Facebook's own controls. A shared link shows a preview card with a website name under it. If you see a website name, use that site's downloader.
If HD is not offered
Facebook keeps several versions, but not every video has an HD one. Clips filmed on old phones, or reposted many times, may only exist in low quality.
Facebook also tells publishers to upload at 1080p or below, so 1080p is realistically the ceiling. Do not expect 4K from a platform that does not ask for it.