How to Download Video from Facebook to Computer? Get Viable Strategies Here!

Although Facebook is a social media platform, video is at its core. With roughly 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook naturally ranks among the largest video sites. It's easy to discover videos on Facebook relevant to popular topics and trends. That's why the demand for downloading Facebook videos on Windows PC or Mac keeps climbing.

After much trial and error, I've finally come up with comprehensive and workable methods on how to download video from Facebook to computer. Read my article and hope it proves valuable to you.

 

How to Download Video from Facebook to Computer with the Best App

To download videos from Facebook to computer, the most reliable and effective way is to use a professional-grade program. Cisdem Video Converter is precisely the right Facebook video downloader. It lets you download an individual or multiple Facebook videos to any video and audio format without login. Also, it supports downloading full-resolution videos from channels and playlists on YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Dailymotion, Bilibili, TikTok, Reddit, etc.

As an all-in-one tool, it can do more. For example, trimming a Facebook video to delete specific segments, adding subtitles/watermarks/effects to Facebook videos, playing downloaded Facebook videos, digitizing a DVD or Blu-ray, and more.

Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7 Free Download macOS 10.13 or later

Download Facebook videos to 1080p to computer in 3 easy steps:

1. After installing Cisdem Video Converter, launch it and go to the “download” interface (the third icon).
2. Copy the Facebook video link.

   Open a Facebook video, click on the “Share” button > “Copy link”. If the option isn't available, copy its URL from the address bar.

3. Paste the link and start downloading.
   Paste the FB video link to Cisdem’s bottom box, click “+” to analyze it. Once the link analysis is done, pick a format and resolution, and hit “Start” to download videos from Facebook on PC or Mac.

Expert tips: upgrade your use

① Download all Facebook videos to computer at once

Click the add  icon , copy & paste FB URLs to the type-in box, one link per line, then click "OK" to load them all at once.

② Convert Facebook to other video formats or audio only

Click the succeed "√" button to locate your downloaded Facebook videos. Drag-n-drop them to Cisdem’s “convert” interface (first tab). Open the format panel and choose any digital format you want.

 

How to Download a Video from Facebook to Computer Online

#1. Using an Online Facebook Video Downloader

SnapSave.app is an online tool providing the ability to download Facebook videos, including Facebook reels, to computer without installing the app. It can also download videos from Instagram and TikTok. And it is friendly to people from different regions as it provides 25 languages.

It is, however, limited to downloading videos from Facebook in 720p, despite the fact that the original video is in 4k. And MP4 is the only output format supported. Sometimes, when you copy the link from the top right “three-dot” button or “share” button, it says that the video is private and fails to grab the video. In this case, you need to switch to copy the link from link address bar.

Steps:

1. Go to facebook.com and copy the URL of the video you wish to download.
2. Visit the website https://snapsave.app/.
3. Place the Facebook link into the URL field. Click “Download”.
4. Choose video quality and click the green “Download” button to start to download video from Facebook online, just ignore the popped-up unrelated window.
   

 

#2 Using Web-based Plug-ins

On Google Chrome

Video Downloader for Facebook, powered by downloaderforfb.com, is self-explanatory in its name. It can detect all Facebook videos with titles on a page, no need to copy and paste links, allowing people to choose to play, locate or download the analyzed videos. Moreover, it prompts a download button on the top right corner of each video, permitting people to save any videos at will.

Unfortunately, it has the same downside as SnapSave.app mentioned above, which is the inability to download video from Facebook to 1080p, but to 360p or 720p.

Steps on how to download a video from Facebook to computer using Google Chrome extension:

1. Find Video Downloader for Facebook in Chrome Store and install it on your browser.
2. Open the web page that embeds the Facebook video you want to save. The extension will auto-detect the video.
3. Click on the icon of Video Downloader for Facebook at the top right corner of the Chrome browser.
   Note: If you don't see its icon, click the “Extensions” and pin it to the toolbar.
4. Hit the download icon to save Facebook video to MP4 format.Alternatively, ignore the step 3, directly move to the target video, which can also make it by clicking the appearing “Download” button on the video.

On Firefox

The Firefox browser's plugins for downloading Facebook videos to computer are less mature than Chrome's. It took me several plugins to save a Facebook video, yet most of them couldn't do so.

OFFMP4 - Online Video Download Helper by sudovijay is a treasure trove of Firefox add-ons. It can download HD and 4k Facebook videos but at a snail's pace. There is an "External" option in the output. It will take you to the 9xbuddy website to download the video, but sometimes it will prompt you to say, "This Page has no download links or temporarily blocked".

Steps on how to download video from Facebook to computer with Firefox Add-on:

1. Go to the official Firefox add-ons website. In the search bar, search for OFFMP4 - Online Video Download Helper and add it to Firefox.
2. Open a Facebook video you would like to download. It will start playing automatically.
3. Click the plugin icon next to the Firefox URL address bar. A pop-up will appear with different output options.
4. Choose one output and begin the Facebook video download on Firefox.
   Note: The resolution of each output is not explicitly shown, you can only judge by the size. Generally, the bigger the size, the higher the resolution.

 

How to Download a Facebook Video to Computer without Tools or Plugins

By using these two methods to download 1080p Facebook videos, the result is 426p, which is evidently a loss of quality.

#1 Via "Inspect"

Your browser's integrated inspectors can assist in obtaining embedded videos from websites, except for encrypted source code-protected sites such as Netflix and YouTube. The operation steps are similar in Chrome and Firefox. Just recently, I attempted to make video download tests using DevTools in Firefox, but it failed. Below I'm only showing Chrome browser instructions.

Steps how to download video from Facebook to computer on Google Chrome:

1. Play a Facebook video you desire to download on Chrome browser.
2. Right-click on the webpage and select “Inspect”.
3. Navigate to the “Network” > “Media” tab.
4. Reload the page and make sure the FB video is playing.
5. Right-click media file it detects, choose “Open in new tab”.
6. Place the cursor on the video, the "⋮" button will display in the lower right corner, click it and select “Download”.

 

#2 By Changing URL

It’s simple! You need to change www in URL to mbasic.

Steps:

1. Copy a FB video link and paste it into a new browser tab. Press “Enter”.
2. In the address bar, delete the "www" and change it to "mbasic". The page will be presented with an ugly retro version of Facebook.
3. Click the video to open it in another tab.
4. Right-click the video and select “Save video as” to put Facebook video to your computer. Or click the bottom right three-dot icon and choose “Download” can also grab the video offline.
   

 

How to Download Your Own Facebook Videos

If you upload videos on FB platform, including Facebook live videos, whether public or private, you can download them directly.

Steps:

1. Head to the “Videos” tab in your profile.
2. Select the video you'd like to download and open it.
3. Click the three dots in the upper right-hand corner and choose "Download video".

 

How to Download Private Facebook Video to Computer

Currently, you are only able to download your own private Facebook videos. Since someone else’s private videos are invisible, you can't access them. Even if you are one of the friends who have permission to view the video, in my experience, it isn't possible to download other people's private Facebook videos to computer.

I follow the steps some authors suggest for downloading private video:

1. Copy-n-paste the private video URL to a new tab on your browser.
2. Change www into m in the URL, and then refresh this page.

It only show “This content isn't available right now”.

 

QA

1. How to download video from Facebook group to computer?

It is also easy for people to download a video from a Facebook group to computer. The crucial lies in that you have to join the group in advance. Then, you can follow the guides below.

At first, click “Media” and choose “Video” section to access to the videos in the group. Next, open any video, replace “www” with “mbasic” and then reload the video with new link. Then, click to open it, right-click on the playing video and choose “Save video as...” to save it to your computer.

2. Can we download Facebook live videos to computer?

To download Facebook live videos, remember to download live video that has already completed. Otherwise, you can only get part of the live that has already come out. For the sake of security, it is highly recommended to use a desktop software, which possesses more powerful and stable technology supporting and shows greater performances from all respects. Cisdem Video Converter is a superior tool that can also get the live video by obtaining the URL. For more details, please read the article at: https://www.cisdem.com/resource/how-to-download-facebook-live-video.html.

 

Last Say

Facebook offers a "Save video" option. Despite this, the video is only saved on Facebook for later viewing, not for offline viewing. You can think of it as bookmarking a video.

The above shows workable ways on how to download video from Facebook to computer. And you can also transfer downloaded Facebook videos to iPhone or Android phone. To stay on the safe side of the law and use Facebook videos legally, I recommend downloading videos for personal purposes.