How to Download Facebook Videos and Reels the Right Way (2026)

Your church streamed Sunday's service to its Facebook Page. Your kid's team posted the championship highlights as a reel. A local news Page shared a clip you want to cite in a report. All three live on Facebook, and Facebook doesn't make keeping a real copy easy. The Save video button only bookmarks it inside the app, and since February 2025, Facebook deletes new Live broadcasts 30 days after they air. This guide covers every legitimate way to download a Facebook video or reel in 2026: Facebook's own tools for videos you posted, a no-login option for public videos, and what to do about group posts and friends-only videos.

Have a Facebook link ready? Paste it into TubePull or go straight to the Facebook video downloader. Public videos and reels download as MP4 at up to 1080p, or as MP3 audio, with no login, no app and no ads. The rest of this guide explains which method fits which video, which link types work, and how to save a Live replay before Facebook removes it.

The short answer

To download a Facebook video, copy its link (Share → Copy link, or the address bar on desktop), paste it into a downloader that supports Facebook, choose MP4 or MP3, and save the file. For a video you posted yourself, check the video's three-dot menu first, because Facebook offers a download option for many of your own uploads and for ended Live videos. Group posts and friends-only videos are only shown to signed-in viewers, so a downloader needs a signed-in session to fetch them. If a video is a Live replay, save it within 30 days of the broadcast. After that, Facebook removes it.

The sections below cover each step, the link formats that cause trouble, and the mistakes that leave you with a blurry 360p file or nothing at all.

Start with Facebook's own tools

If the video is yours, Facebook's built-in options come first. They're official, they need no third-party tool, and for Live video they're the only route Facebook supports for broadcasters.

"Save video" is a bookmark, not a download

The most common mix-up: tapping Save video in the three-dot menu doesn't put a file on your phone. Facebook's Help Center describes it as saving something to view it later, and those videos show up in your Saved items list inside Facebook. If the uploader deletes the video, makes it private, or Facebook removes it, your "saved" copy goes with it. You can't edit it, move it to another device, or play it offline.

Downloading a video you posted

For videos and reels you uploaded, open the post and check the three-dot menu for a Download video option. For ended Live broadcasts, Facebook documents the steps directly: on a computer, open your video library, choose the video and click Download Video (Facebook Help Center). Pages can also download Live videos from the Live tab or from Meta Business Suite, which offers Download SD and Download HD (Meta Business Help Center).

Facebook only offers this to the original broadcaster or to someone with full-control access to the Page (Meta Business Help Center). If you're a volunteer helping a church or nonprofit and you don't have full-control access, you won't see it.

Exporting everything at once

To back up a whole account, use Export your information in Meta's account settings. You can choose the categories, the date range, and the media quality of the photos and videos in the export (Facebook Help Center). It's thorough but slow: Facebook builds the archive in the background, and you sort the videos out of a large ZIP afterward. Great for "back up my whole account," wrong for "I need this one reel now."

How to download a public Facebook video or reel

For public videos, a link-based downloader is the fastest route. Here is the workflow with TubePull's Facebook downloader. It takes about 20 seconds:

1. Copy the link. In the Facebook app, tap Share → Copy link. On desktop, copy the address bar while the video is open, or right-click the post's timestamp and copy that link.
2. Paste it into TubePull. TubePull resolves share links to the real video and lists the resolutions Facebook actually stored for it.
3. Pick MP4 or MP3 and download. MP4 gives you video and sound in one file at up to 1080p. MP3 gives you just the audio, which is handy for sermons, talks and interviews you want to listen to on the go.

There's no extension or app to install, and public videos don't need a TubePull account. Facebook is included in the free tier, which covers 3 downloads per rolling 24 hours. The Pro plan is $4.99/month and removes the daily cap.

Check whose video it is

Downloading your own uploads, or your organization's broadcasts when you're authorized to manage them, is just keeping a copy of your own work. Saving a public video for personal offline viewing, or keeping footage the creator gave you permission to use, is ordinary personal use. Quoting a short excerpt for commentary, news or teaching can fall under fair use, which U.S. law weighs with four factors (U.S. Copyright Office). Re-uploading someone else's video as your own, removing credit, or redistributing it commercially is not okay, and no downloader can make it lawful. Our guide on whether it's legal to download videos covers the framework in more detail.

Facebook link formats that work

Facebook uses many URL formats for the same kind of content, and many downloaders handle only one or two. These all work in TubePull:

Short and share links (fb.watch, /share/v/, /share/r/) redirect to the video, and TubePull follows the redirect for you. Some fb.watch links only resolve for signed-in viewers; the next section covers those.

Saving to your phone

TubePull runs in your phone's browser, so the file lands wherever the browser saves downloads. On iPhone, Safari puts it in the Files app under Downloads. Open it there and use the share button to save it to Photos. On Android, it goes to your Downloads folder and most gallery apps pick it up automatically. If you're cross-posting your own clip somewhere else, our guide to reposting your videos to Reels and Shorts covers the formatting and music checks that protect your reach.

Group posts, friends-only and restricted videos

This is where most Facebook downloaders give up without telling you why. Some videos are only shown to signed-in viewers:

• Posts inside groups, including many groups that look public from the outside
• Videos shared with Friends or a custom audience
• Pages with age or region restrictions

Facebook doesn't send those videos to an anonymous request at all. A tool that promises "private Facebook videos" without a login is either asking you to paste page source code or not being straight with you. For these videos, a tool can only download what a signed-in account could already watch.

TubePull handles this with a one-time, optional Facebook account link. From your TubePull account page, you export your facebook.com cookies with a "cookies.txt" browser extension while signed in to Facebook, then paste the file contents into the Facebook section. A few rules apply:

• Anonymous first, always. TubePull tries every Facebook download without your session first. It uses your session only when Facebook asks for a sign-in.
• Stored encrypted, used narrowly. The session is stored encrypted and is used only to fetch the videos you ask for. TubePull never uses it to like, comment, share or post.
• Private results stay private. A video fetched with your session is kept private to you. It's never served to another person who pastes the same link.
• No access you don't already have. A linked session can only see what that account can already see. It doesn't get around group membership, privacy settings or anything else Facebook enforces.
• Free and reversible. Linking is free on every plan. Disconnecting deletes the stored session, and if Facebook expires it, your account page shows Reconnect needed so you can paste a fresh cookie.

Treat an exported cookies file like a password. Paste it, then delete the file from your computer. If you've linked Reddit to TubePull, the flow will look familiar. We explained why some platforms require a signed-in session in our Reddit download guide.

Quality, formats and file size

Facebook stores most recent uploads as a ladder of resolutions up to 1080p, with the audio kept as a separate track. That's why so many "HD" downloaders hand you a silent file, or fall back to a low-resolution file that already has the audio baked in. TubePull lists the resolutions that exist for the video you pasted and merges the picture and sound into a single MP4.

What to expect:

• Recent reels and videos: usually 720p and 1080p options. Reels are vertical (9:16), so a "1080p" reel is 1080 pixels wide.
• Older uploads: often only Facebook's "SD" and "HD" files exist. TubePull can't create resolution Facebook never stored.
• MP3: audio only, ideal for sermons, lectures and talks recorded as Facebook Live.
• GIF: short loops through the same clip workflow behind TubePull's meme and GIF tools.

Long videos and Live replays

Facebook Live replays are often long: a 90-minute service, a two-hour city council meeting, a three-hour tournament stream. On the free tier, a single download can be up to an hour long, but the source video can be longer. Use Clip Range to set a start and end time and download only the part you need, such as the sermon without the pre-service countdown. Pro removes the output-length cap if you need the whole broadcast in one file.

As a rough guide, 1080p Facebook video often works out to about 1 to 2 GB per hour, depending on how much motion is on screen. A full Sunday service is a big file but manageable on a phone. A season of game streams belongs on a computer or in cloud storage.

Save Facebook Live replays before they're deleted

This is the change many Pages and creators missed. Starting February 19, 2025, new Facebook Live broadcasts can be replayed, downloaded or shared for 30 days, and then Facebook removes them automatically (Meta Newsroom). Older Lives were removed in waves after a notice period, and owners could postpone deletion only once, for six months (Meta Business Help Center). There are a few exceptions, such as memorialized accounts and Live videos protected through Rights Manager. For most churches, schools, clubs and small businesses, though, the 30-day clock applies.

If Facebook Live is how your organization records services, meetings, recitals or games, set up a routine:

1. Pick a regular save day. Download each replay within a week of the broadcast, well before day 30.
2. Use the official download if you can. If you're the broadcaster or a full-control admin, Facebook's own Download video option or the Meta Business Suite HD download is the most direct route.
3. Use the public link if you can't. Volunteers, media team members and family members who can watch a public replay but aren't Page admins can paste its link into the Facebook downloader, with the organization's permission.
4. Clip what you'll reuse. Turn the moments people share most, like the message, the winning goal or the announcement, into reels before the replay disappears. Meta notes that reels created from a Live stay up after the 30-day window (Meta Newsroom).
5. Store the files somewhere you control, such as a shared drive, so the archive doesn't depend on one volunteer's phone.

Twitch creators deal with the same problem, and we broke down the expiry rules there in Twitch clips vs VODs: what expires and how to save both.

What won't download, and quick fixes

TubePull doesn't download:

• Facebook Stories, photos or photo albums. TubePull downloads Facebook video only.
• Live broadcasts that are still live. Wait until the broadcast ends and Facebook publishes the replay.
• Deleted or removed videos. If Facebook no longer serves it, nobody can fetch it.
• Messenger attachments. Those aren't public web links.
• Anything your account can't see. A linked session doesn't change who has access.

If a download fails, try these fixes:

• "This video needs a sign-in." It's a group, friends-only or restricted video. Link your Facebook account once, or ask the uploader for the file.
• The link opens a group or Page, not the video. Open the specific post and use its own Share → Copy link.
• Only SD and HD options appear. It's an older upload; HD is the best copy Facebook has.
• You hit the daily limit. Wait for the rolling 24-hour window to reset, or upgrade to Pro.
• Your linked session stopped working. Facebook expired it. Paste a fresh cookies.txt from your account page.

How TubePull fits in

TubePull is a browser-based downloader built on yt-dlp, the open-source extractor archival projects rely on. When Facebook changes its pages, upstream fixes usually arrive quickly and we pick them up on our next deploy. For Facebook:

• Public videos and reels: paste and download. No login, no app, no extension.
• Every common link format: reels, watch links, Page videos, posts, fb.watch, Share-button links and mobile links.
• Real 1080p with audio: the full resolution ladder merged with its audio track, not just the fallback SD file.
• MP4, MP3, Clip Range and GIF: the whole video, the audio only, a specific section, or a short loop.
• Group and friends-only videos: an optional, encrypted, anonymous-first account link that keeps files you fetch with it private to you.
• No ads: no interstitials, fake download buttons or pop-up redirects. If you've used the ad-heavy single-purpose Facebook downloaders, see why we run a downloader without ads.

The same free tier and Pro plan cover Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit and more, so you don't need a separate tool for each platform. If your organization streams to Facebook, TubePull Live can also broadcast a prerecorded service or event as a scheduled live stream to Facebook, YouTube, Twitch or a custom RTMP destination, without OBS or a computer running all day.

Ready to save one? Open the Facebook video downloader and paste your link.

Disclaimer: TubePull is built for legitimate uses: backing up your own uploads and broadcasts, archiving content you're authorized to manage, saving public videos for personal offline viewing, and using material you have permission or a fair-use basis to use. TubePull doesn't bypass Facebook privacy settings, group membership or other access controls. Respect the rights of the people who made the video, credit creators, and don't redistribute content you don't have the right to share. This guide is general information, not legal advice. See our safety page for how we handle requests.