Good Facebook video download software?

[Davis]

Been trying to find some software that actually works to download Facebook videos. It's not something I do very often at all, but I need to download a funeral that I streamed live and discovered that the recording on my memory card is corrupt. Everything I try doesn't seem to work except for one program called FlixGrab. It will only capture 1 minute without activating. Quality was just like the original and easy to use. I purchased the activation key but never received it by email. Unfortunately, they are in France.

I'm just wondering what anyone else may use that works.

Thanks,
Marty

[lordsmurf]

I've not been tempted to download a FB video in years.

Every time I wanted to save a local copy of a video from FB, or Youtube, or CNBC, or wherever, it was almost always a case of what I used last time didn't work anymore. It's an unending war.

There's always some cheap junk (usually Chinese) software claiming to "download" it, but more often pulls down a bad conversion, or is just a screen recorder. Or it's just a scam, as you unfortunately experienced.

Or some shady website.

Last time, I thought youtube-dl (then yt-dlp) worked, or a fork, using a GUI. But that stuff changes almost monthly it seems. I just Google searched "download Facebook yt-dlp" and that apparently broke in 2024.

The entire "download video" scene reminds me of various scenes from decades past. There are people that have methods, but will not share them, for fear of that loophole being closed up. However, they will offer to help in private. Sadly, most of the "DM me" comments are just as likely to be a hacker or scammer, so be wary.

You can also post the link here, and see if others can find a way to rip*/download it.

("Rip" is used appropriately here, because in most cases, the video is held in a non-standard format/container for the stream, and is muxed into something common like .mp4 when done.)

I find myself overloaded by content these days, and rarely need (or want) to download anything for a second viewing. It has to be something really special for me to go to all the effort required here.

[Davis]

Thanks for the reply. Not something I really need or like to do usually. I just needed to get a copy of this funeral since it was corrupted on my memory card. You are right, the software that is supposed to work changes all the time. I have sent a message to the company about not receiving the activation key. Maybe they will respond. It worked great but could only download one minute of video. The video looked identical to viewing on Facebook also. I was streaming at 720p. I just need to put it on a DVD and also get the audio, which I can capture by playing the video and capturing the audio from the PC.

Marty

[latreche34]

Just use online apps like this one, paste your link and download the file.

[Davis]

I tried that one earlier and just tried it again. Even when I select force HD download the 48 minute video is only 55MB and the quality is terrible. I think I have come up with a solution to try that will probably give me decent quality. I can go full screen HDMI from the PC into my DAC70 and convert to SDI. I can then run that into my Tricaster and capture as SDI while it plays. I think that will work, unless I hear something about why I didn't receive the Activation Key for FlixGrab, which I payed for. That gave excellent quality, but would only capture the first minute.

Thanks,
Marty

[latreche34]

The quality is whatever the original upload is, I have never had a problem with it. Sure you screen capture but you are just bloating the file size and resizing it for no obvious reason.

[lordsmurf]

There's a few guys over at videohelp.com that keep on top of the latest download trends. I forget who they are. Beware of the "PM me" or unsolicited PMs, I know Baldrick has had to ban scammers more than once. But they'll need to know the link. Otherwise, you'll get the same advice there that you're getting here. That site is more about downloading video, and newbie conversions -- and less about capturing, editing, restoring.

[sverholm]

I use yt-dlp, and have done for years. Just checked two random videos today and the download went smooth. On my MAC, I install yt-dlp via homebrew and upgrades regularly. yt-dlp is used from terminal, the command is pretty basic:
yt-dlp url inside quotation marks

I’ll be willing to try if you can’t make it work. Just send the url in a PM and I’ll give it a go.

Sverre