Decoding facebook's blob video url

This method will get the video and its audio AS SEPARATE FILES. The downloaded video will have no sound, but you will be able to download its audio file and connect it to the video in some video editing program if you need to.

  1. In Google Chrome, go to Facebook.

  2. Open the Chrome Developer Tools (F12).

  3. Go to the Network tab in the Developer Tools (it's at the top of the Developer Tools window) Network tab

  4. Play the video you would like to download on Facebook. Let it play for a few seconds and look at the Network tab during that. Long strings of numbers will appear every couple of seconds.

  5. Right click one of those strings, then go Copy>Copy link address enter image description here

  6. Paste (CTRL+V) the link you copied somewhere (eg Notepad) and remove "&bytestart=3684046&byteend=3862768" from the end.

    So I have a link like:

    https://scontent-waw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t66.18014-6/46772657_738781116188283_6399514850013601801_n.mp4?_nc_cat=107&efg=4yJ7ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6ImRhc2hfb2VwX2hxMl9mcmFnXzJfdmlkZW8ifQ%3D%3D&_nc_ht=scontent-waw1-xx&oh=91a5abdd5608768a05fd884773a45802&oe=5C29B042 &bytestart=3684046&byteend=3862768

    After you cut the bold part out, the link that points to the full .mp4 or .webm of the video is:

    https://scontent-waw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t66.18014-6/46772657_738781116188283_6399514850013601801_n.mp4?_nc_cat=107&efg=4yJ7ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6ImRhc2hfb2VwX2hxMl9mcmFnXzJfdmlkZW8ifQ%3D%3D&_nc_ht=scontent-waw1-xx&oh=91a5abdd5608768a05fd884773a45802&oe=5C29B042

  7. Open the modified link, right click the video inside and select "Save video as..." Right click video to save-as

Sometimes, when you open the link you may get just the audio of the video instead of the video itself.
That's because Facebook downloads the audio and video separately. Just try repeating steps 5-7 with a different string of numbers till you get it right. Instructions to reduce the chance of accidentally picking an audio link are below.

If you need to download many videos and don't want to guess whether your link points to audio or video, type larger-than: 50k (or more) in the Filter field in the Network tab. You can also click the XHR button in Filters so it doesn't show non-video files like FB images.

Helpful filters for Chrome to show only video links


You can download an FB video in a chrome browser with no plugins / other software required. (As long as you are logged into FB and have permission to view the video).

  1. open up the video and r.click for Get Video URL (copy it) -if you have the option "Copy URL at current time", use that option instead of "Show video URL"
  2. paste that address into another tab and replace the www with m e.g. https://m.facebook.com/MusicIsMagico/videos/2645908645633407/?t=0
  3. play the video, while it's playing open the dev tools and go to the elements tab

  4. search for mp4 till you find a source address that's inside the video tags - which will be inside a div that also contains another address with forward slashes and .mp4 in it. e.g. FB video URL

    https://video.fmel5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t42.9040-2/10000000_1804934796220974_2070197824632389632_n.mp4?_nc_cat=1&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InN2ZV9zZCJ9&oh=785f223b80388c820f79b9a49c1dfc39&oe=5B73B10B

  5. copy this source address. When you copy the address, chrome (if that's what you are using) does the html replacement for the ampersand characters. You will need to put them back. So replace the "& a m p ;" (< had to space that so it doesn't get converted here) separators in the address with just & - use notepad find and replace or something ) and paste in another tab. Drop any parts of the URL that have frame sizing etc.. so you address should look like this:

https://video.fmel5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t42.9040-2/10000000_1804934796220974_2070197824632389632_n.mp4?_nc_cat=1&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InN2ZV9zZCJ9&oh=5f241d3c08d5c819b0c3810d0e21d73b&oe=5B73BF1B

  • this will load your browsers default html video player which has a download button
    • this will all only work if you are logged into FB and have permission to view the video (doesnt' work incognito)

Getting the right URL can take a bit of playing around but it works when you've got it right

enter image description here


Add this extension to your chrome browser to download FB videos:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fbdown-video-downloader/fhplmmllnpjjlncfjpbbpjadoeijkogc

Once installed, go play the video and click the fb downloader icon (Downward Arrow icon) and choose your desired resolution.

Tags:

Facebook

Decode

Blob

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