Facebook updates its frontend every few weeks. To keep your script download Facebook video repack working:
Graph API alternative:
curl -X GET "https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/VIDEO_ID?fields=source&access_token=YOUR_TOKEN"
This returns a direct download URL.
When you download a Facebook video without repacking, you may end up with:
Repacking means:
FFmpeg does this in one line:
ffmpeg -i video_only.mp4 -i audio_only.m4a -c copy final_repacked.mp4
The scripts above automate this.
If you don’t want to maintain a fragile script, use yt-dlp – a command-line tool that already handles Facebook repacking perfectly:
yt-dlp -f best "https://fb.watch/xxxxx/" -o "repacked_%(title)s.%(ext)s"
It automatically finds the HD stream, repacks it, and handles cookies. script download facebook video repack
To build an effective download script, you must understand Facebook’s delivery architecture:
Repacking is critical because raw downloaded segments are often not playable as-is. Here’s why:
| Raw downloaded content | After repack |
|------------------------|---------------|
| video-init.mp4, video-seg-1.m4s, video-seg-2.m4s … | Single output.mp4 with correct moov atom |
| Separate audio/video files | Muxed together |
| Fragmented MP4 (no seeking table) | Fast-start / web-optimized MP4 |
Using a script to download Facebook videos falls into a gray area. Always consider: Facebook updates its frontend every few weeks
Do NOT:
Do:
Facebook’s Terms of Service (3.2) prohibit scraping without permission. However, personal, non-automated use for a single video is rarely enforced. If you run batch scripts on a large scale, use proxies and rate-limiting delays.