Facebook Video Downloader
Download Facebook videos from public Pages, posts and Watch links, saved as the MP4 Facebook actually serves.
Videos, reels and photos — paste any public Facebook link and all media downloads.
How to use the Facebook video downloader
VideoCatch is a free Facebook video downloader for public videos: Pages, public posts, Watch and fb.watch share links. Paste the URL, and VideoCatch reads the post the way a signed-out visitor sees it, then hands back the progressive MP4 that Facebook's own player streams, in HD when the upload has an HD rendition and in SD otherwise. Nothing is re-encoded and no logo is added, so a Facebook to MP4 conversion here is really just a straight copy of the file Facebook already has. Private videos, friends-only posts and closed Group videos cannot be fetched, because VideoCatch never logs in on your behalf. Reels have their own page, the Facebook Reels Downloader, since Facebook serves reels through a different pipeline than Watch videos.
- Open the video on Facebook, tap Share, then Copy link. On desktop, right-click the video and copy the address bar link instead.
- Paste the link in the box above. Watch pages, public post links and fb.watch short links all work the same way.
- Press Download and pick HD or SD. HD only appears when Facebook actually has an HD copy of that upload.
Facebook video downloader FAQ
Do I get HD or SD quality when I save Facebook video files here?
Whichever renditions Facebook itself stored for that upload. Most Page and Watch videos carry both an HD and an SD progressive file, and VideoCatch lists both so you pick. Older uploads, or ones the uploader posted at low resolution, sometimes have only SD. VideoCatch never upscales a file to fake an HD row that Facebook does not have.
Can I download a private, friends-only or Group video?
No. VideoCatch only reaches what a signed-out visitor can already open: public Pages, public posts, Watch and public Group posts that are not behind a join wall. A friends-only post, a closed or secret Group, or a video from an account set to private will fail, because VideoCatch holds no Facebook login and cannot see past that wall.
Do fb.watch links work?
Yes. fb.watch is just Facebook's own short link for a Watch video, and it resolves to the same post as the full facebook.com/watch/ URL. Paste either one and VideoCatch follows it to the same video. Links copied from the mobile app and the desktop site both use this format interchangeably, so there is no difference in how they are handled.
Can I save a Facebook Live video after the broadcast ends?
Yes, once the Page has finished the broadcast and it sits on the timeline as a normal video post. While a stream is still live there is no finished file to fetch yet, so VideoCatch cannot pull anything from it. Give it a minute or two after the broadcaster ends the stream, then paste the same post link.
Does this work on iPhone?
Yes, from Safari or any other iOS browser. Copy the link inside the Facebook app with Share, then Copy link, switch to your browser, and paste it in. Because Facebook's own player often opens the MP4 in the browser instead of saving it straight away, iPhone needs one extra tap after Download, covered in the how-to steps above.
Is it legal to download a Facebook video?
Saving a copy for personal, offline viewing is normal browser behavior and is what this tool automates. Reposting someone else's video as your own, monetizing it, or ignoring a creator's stated terms is a copyright matter regardless of which tool was used to save the file. When in doubt, ask the original poster or stick to your own uploads.
Do I need a Facebook account to use this?
No. VideoCatch reads a public post the same way a signed-out visitor's browser would, so no account, no password and no app permission is ever requested. That is also the reason the tool cannot reach anything behind a login wall: it deliberately has no session with Facebook to hand over in the first place.
Why does a Facebook link fail here?
The three usual reasons: the post is private, friends-only or inside a closed Group; the video was deleted or the Page removed it; or the link is a profile or Reels URL rather than a Watch or post link. Reels need the separate Facebook Reels Downloader page. Copying the link fresh from Share, rather than from the browser's URL bar mid-scroll, clears most other failures.
What the Facebook video downloader can and can't reach
Facebook splits its content behind two very different walls, and VideoCatch only ever sees one side of it. Anything a signed-out visitor could open by clicking around, a public Page's videos, a public post shared to Facebook's main feed, a Watch page, or a public Group's posts, resolves through the same anonymous request VideoCatch makes. Anything requiring a login, a friend connection, or membership in a closed or secret Group, does not resolve at all, and the tool reports the failure rather than guessing at a workaround.
This is a deliberate limit, not a bug to route around. VideoCatch never asks for a Facebook password or stores a session cookie on your behalf, so it genuinely cannot see what a logged-in friend of the poster would see. A video that looks perfectly ordinary in your own feed, because you follow the Page or are friends with the poster, can still fail here if the underlying post is not actually public. Checking the post's own privacy setting, not who currently sees it in their feed, is the reliable test.
Live broadcasts are a related edge case rather than a separate rule. A stream in progress has no finished file yet, so nothing is fetchable until the Page ends the broadcast and Facebook turns it into an ordinary video post, typically within a minute or two.
Facebook video downloader quality: HD, SD, and Facebook's own limits
Facebook stores a progressive MP4 for most uploads, sometimes two: an HD rendition and a lower-bitrate SD one, and VideoCatch lists whichever of the two actually exist for that post rather than presenting a fixed menu. An HD Facebook video download shows up whenever Facebook itself encoded an HD copy; an older upload, or one the poster shared at low resolution to begin with, may only have the SD file, and there is nothing to upscale that into HD without inventing pixels that were never there.
The numbers in the table below come from Facebook's own published limits for a video upload, not from VideoCatch's behavior. They set the ceiling on what a Page or profile can post in the first place, which is a useful reference for what a downloaded file can look like on the other end: nothing served will ever exceed what Facebook itself allows in.
Facebook also recompresses most uploads on its side rather than storing the original file byte for byte, so the file this tool hands back is the platform's encode, not a bit-for-bit copy of whatever the poster originally exported from their camera or editor.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Max video length | 241 minutes (1 second to 241 minutes), per Meta's Ads Guide video specs |
| Max file size | 4 GB, per Meta's Ads Guide video specs |
| Recommended minimum resolution | 1440 × 1800 px, per Meta's Ads Guide video specs |
| Recommended aspect ratio | 4:5, per Meta's Ads Guide video specs |
| Recommended file format | MP4 or MOV, per the Facebook Help Center's video format list |
| Recommended codecs | H.264 video, AAC audio at 128 kbps or higher, per Meta's Ads Guide video specs |
| Renditions VideoCatch lists | 1 progressive MP4 in HD when Facebook stored one, plus the SD file |
| Watermark added by VideoCatch | None; the file streams unchanged from Facebook's CDN |
Saving Facebook videos on phone and desktop
The file downloads straight from your browser to Facebook's content delivery network, so what happens after you press Download is your browser's own save behavior, not something this site controls.
- iPhone and iPadTap Download. Safari often opens the MP4 in its built-in player instead of saving it. Tap the Share icon at the bottom of the screen, then Save Video, and it lands in Photos.
- AndroidTap Download and Chrome saves the file to the Downloads folder with a notification. If it opens in a video tab instead, long-press the video and choose Download video.
- DesktopClick Download and the MP4 saves directly in most browsers. If it opens in a new tab, right-click the Download link and choose Save link as to name and place the file yourself.
Sources
- Meta Business Help Center, Video specs for Awareness campaigns on Facebook Feed
- Facebook Help Center, What video file formats can you upload on Facebook
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