There is no doubt that digital video is impacting content consumption, digital marketing as well as how video content is created in recent years. Networks such as Google Hangouts, Snapchat and now Facebook Live have pushed the digital video transformation to new levels. But for me, the challenge with Facebook Live video and its ability to be a top video content creation tool was that it did not save your Facebook live video on your device -OR- give you the ability to easily download your video from Facebook.
Why is downloading Facebook Live video content important?
If you are taking the time to create digital video content, you also want the ability to save and distribute Facebook Live video on other platforms natively. Doing this also gives you the ability to edit the original Facebook Live video to add intros, outros and other graphics, contact information etc, that make it a valuable piece of video content that can be repurposed and used anywhere you want. Facebook has not made the ability to edit Facebook Live video possible, or provided a way to download your Facebook video.
I do believe there are apps, software and tools out there that might enable you to either save your Facebook Live videos as you create them, or create workarounds so you can somehow download your Facebook Live videos using software applications. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want yet another app on my laptop or another piece of software from some unknown guy in Russia that is going to use it to get my personal information. Are you with me?
I wanted to find an easy way to download Facebook Live video Free and with no apps or software, so I set out to find a way to do it. Guess what? I can now download and save my Facebook Live video and it’s easier than you might think!
How to Download Your Facebook Live Videos Free
Here are the steps to download your Facebook Live videos without needing an app or additional software.
1- From your computer (not your mobile device) navigate to the Facebook Live Video to download.
2- Right click on the center of the Facebook Live video and select the Get Video URL option.
3- Copy the URL for your Facebook Live video to your clipboard.
4- Open a new **Firefox browser window and paste the Facebook Live video URL in the address line.
**Important – From all of my testing I discovered that neither Chrome nor Microsoft Edge browsers will enable you to do this process, so you will need to use Firefox as your browser for saving Facebook Live videos off of Facebook.
5- Replace the www of the URL to just the letter m. This will open the URL for your Facebook live video as if you are viewing it from your mobile device or smartphone, rather than from your desktop computer, which is what you want. Then press enter.
It will look like this before:
And will look like this after:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10208236544244544&id=1030795218&_rdr
6- Once the mobile Facebook page is opened in your desktop browser, you will want to right-click on the video and select the “Save Link As” option.
7- Navigate to where you want to save your download Facebook Live video, name it whatever you want, then click Save button in the dialog Window.
You’re done!
Here’s my Facebook Live video discussing this article.
This process downloads your Facebook Live video in MP4 HD video format and can now be uploaded to other platforms, opened in your video editing software or saved and used for anything you want in the future. You can now upload your saved Facebook Live video to your YouTube channel, use it on Twitter, or edit it to create an entirely new piece of digital video content.
Note that though this process is specifically for downloading your Facebook Live Videos, it can be used for other videos found on Facebook. I am not promoting the use of other people’s content without attributing it to them, but just be aware you can download and save other videos from Facebook this way, not just your own Facebook Live videos.
Facebook Live video is becoming an extremely effective way to communicate with your friends, customers and prospects. The proliferation of digital video through the Facebook platform and especially through Facebook Live is changing marketing, journalism and communications between marketers and customers in incredible ways. But the fact that Facebook has taken the approach to corner you into their platform and create live video that can only reside there is not something many of us marketers find funny. If you are going to create Facebook Live video content you don’t want it locked into one platform. You need to have access to the content you create and distribute it anywhere you want.
Facebook, you don’t own MY content, I do! I will always find a way to save and repurpose my content for my advantage. I refuse to be required to push people to Facebook exclusively to view it. If you feel the same, I hope this simple little workaround to download your Facebook Live video Free and without needing an app was helpful to you.